Interest in collective skill formation systems has been high for a long time, but recent structural economic and societal developments have led commentators to question their viability. In particular, the shift towards a knowledge economy creates a number of challenges for these highly praised systems of vocational training. These challenges relate to the growing importance of knowledge intensive production in advanced economies and with the accelerated pace of change due to innovation and globalization. What is more, these issues are compounded by coinciding developments in growing inequality and the emergence of multicultural societies. Can collective skill formation systems adapt fast enough to the needs of the knowledge economy? Can they continue to be as successful as they have been in the past in integrating youth in the labour market? Will employers be willing to participate in the delivery of vocational training in this new context? In this book, a world class team of leading experts on collective skill formation systems provide a thorough discussion of these and other questions raised by the shift to a knowledge economy. The book argues that collective skill formation systems remain attractive for firms and governments. However, continuous and profound adjustments will be needed if they are to fulfil their objectives in terms of equity and efficiency.

This dissertation asks how collective skill formation systems, typically found in the German-speaking countries, Denmark, and the Netherlands, adapt to changing skill demands in the face of the knowledge economy. Strategic employer coordination and private interest governance are distinctive characteristics of collective skill formation systems, which is why these systems are prime examples of coordinated capitalism. While previous research has described dualisation as a common feature of processes of institutional change in coordinated capitalism, it remains open how collective skill formation systems deal with the pressures that global socio-economic trends, such as globalisation, technological change, and deindustrialisation, put on them. This dissertation provides a fine-grained picture of the preferences of public and private actors in collective skill formation in light of the knowledge economy and describes how these preferences are enforced. In four individual articles, it adopts a meso-level approach, analysing processes of institutional change in two prototypical collective skill formation systems, Austria and Switzerland, and in two training occupations that are particularly affected by the knowledge economy. Its findings support the assumption that “varieties of liberalisation” characterise institutional change in coordinated capitalist economies since dualisation as well as increasing statism in the provision of skills characterise the analysed reforms. It also shows that even in cases where it is possible to preserve high levels of cooperation, collective action is hard to achieve in the long run because of the cooperation dilemmas entailed in these systems. Lastly, this dissertation finds that vocational education and training can be sustained in the knowledge economy, and not only as a venue for the weakest students to access the labour market, but also as a point of entrance to a career for students with higher aspirations.

Interest in collective skill formation systems has been high for a long time, but recent structural economic and societal developments have led commentators to question their viability. In particular, the shift towards a knowledge economy creates a number of challenges for these highly praised systems of vocational training. These challenges relate to the growing importance of knowledge intensive production in advanced economies and with the accelerated pace of change due to innovation and globalization. What is more, these issues are compounded by coinciding developments in growing inequality and the emergence of multicultural societies. Can collective skill formation systems adapt fast enough to the needs of the knowledge economy? Can they continue to be as successful as they have been in the past in integrating youth in the labour market? Will employers be willing to participate in the delivery of vocational training in this new context? In this book, a world class team of leading experts on collective skill formation systems provide a thorough discussion of these and other questions raised by the shift to a knowledge economy. The book argues that collective skill formation systems remain attractive for firms and governments. However, continuous and profound adjustments will be needed if they are to fulfil their objectives in terms of equity and efficiency.

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.

Leading scholars from the US, the UK, Australia and New Zealand question whether current policies relating to knowledge, learning and assessment are consistent with the kinds of workers and skills required for the knowledge economy?

Bringing together contributions from leading labour market policy scholars from across the globe, this state-of-the-art Handbook offers extensive and compelling analyses of labour market policy in advanced democracies. This title contains one or more Open Access chapters.