The political economy of collective skill formation

The book examines skill systems and vocational training in a number of coordinated market economies, analysing historical origins and contemporary developments. As well as case studies on Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Denmark, it also contains comparative chapters exploring reactions to common challenges. Education, skill formation, and training continue to be important areas of consideration for both public policy and research. This book examines the particular types of vocational training known as collective skill formation systems, whereby the training (often firm-based apprenticeships) is collectively organized by businesses and unions with state support and cooperation in execution, finance, and monitoring.With contributions from leading academics, this book is the first to provide a comprehensive analysis of the varying historical origins of, and recent developments in, vocational training systems, offering in-depth studies on coordinated market economies, namely Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Denmark. It also contains comparative chapters that analyse how these countries react to common challenges such as deindustrialization, labour market stratification, academic drift,gender inequalities, and Europeanization.Whereas previous research has focused on the differences between various kinds of skill regimes, this book focuses on explaining institutional variety within the group of collective skill formation systems. The development of skill formation systems is regarded as a dynamic political process, dependent on the outcome of various political struggles regarding such matters as institutionaldesign and transformations during critical junctures in historical development. This volume is the major publication in the vocational training literature since Thelen's seminal How Institutions Evolve. Studies of the main 'collective actor' systems - Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, and the Netherlands- bring the reader right up-to-date while also showing the historical evolution of the systems. In a most impressive introductory chapter, Busemeyer and Trampusch build an analytic political economic model to account for the different patterns ofskill formation systems in the advanced world. And in sparkling country and comparative chapters (including by Iversen, Martin, Streeck, and Thelen) the book integrates a depth of empirical knowledge with sophisticated modern political economy. This book is a formidable achievement. The contributions to this volume cover the waterfront on contemporary issues of skill formation and the politics to which it gives rise in the coordinated economies of Europe. They range from history to current challenges to debates on the concepts we use to understand skills and skill systems. Germany continues to cast a long shadow in these discussions, but this volume enriches the debate by widening it beyond the canonical German case. The editors have pulled together thecontributors without losing sight of their divergent analytical contributions. A genuinely comparative volume likely to be of great use to both establishedscholars and new students of the political economy of skills. In an era of revived political and societal interest for vocational education and similar systems of formation around the globe, the understanding of the history, the foundations, and the institutional subtleties and differences has become the key to understand the functions and dysfunctions of systems of collective skill formation. In this respect this book fills important gaps in the current knowledge and provides an excellent overview of the existing literature. Therefore I canonly praise it as the indispensable source and base for more scholarly work on the political economy of collective skills formation in the future! INDICE: Foreword Foreword Introduction Introduction: The Comparative Political Economy of Collective Skill Formation Section I: Country Studies Vocational Training and the Origins of Coordination: Specific Skills and the Politics of Collective Action Institutional Change in German Vocational Training: From Collectivism towards Segmentalism The Development of the Vocational Training System in the Netherlands Educational Policy Actors as Stakeholders in the Development of the Collective Skills System: The Case of Switzerland Austrian Corporatism and Institutional Change in the Relationship between Apprenticeship Training and School-Based VET The Social Partners and the Social Democratic Party in the Continuation of a Collective Skill System in Denmark Section II: Crosscutting Topics and Contemporary Challenges Collective Skill Systems, Wage Bargaining, and Labor Market Stratification The Links between Vocational Trainingand Higher Education in Switzerland, Austria, and Germany Gendered Consequences of Vocational Training Europeanization and the Varying Responses in Collective Skill Systems Conclusion Skills and Politics: General and Specific

• ISBN: 978-0-19-959943-1
• Editorial: Oxford University
• Encuadernacion: Cartoné
• Páginas: 392
• Fecha Publicación: 24/11/2011
• Nº Volúmenes: 1
• Idioma: Inglés