Collective Skill Formation in the Knowledge Economy

Giuliano Bonoli · Patrick Emmenegger

sept 2022 · Oxford University Press

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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.

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Giuliano Bonoli is Professor of social policy at the Swiss graduate school for public administration at the University of Lausanne. He received his PhD at the University of Kent at Canterbury for a study on pension reform in Europe. He has been involved in several national and international research projects on various aspects of social policy. His work has focused on pension reform, labour markets and family polices. He has published some thirty articles in journals such as Politics & Society, Journal of European Public Policy, European Sociological Review, Comparative Politics, Comparative political studies. With Oxford University Press, he has published The Politics of the New Welfare State (2012, with David Natali) and The Origins of Active Social Policy: Active Labour Market Policy and Childcare in a Comparative Perspective (2013). Patrick Emmenegger is Professor of comparative political economy and public policy at the University of St Gallen's School of Economics and Political Science. He is interested in the reform of coordinated models of capitalism, business-government relations, processes of state-building and democratization as well as theories of institutional stability and change. He has published some sixty articles in academic journals such as Comparative Political Studies, European Journal of Political Research, Journal of European Public Policy, Journal of Politics, New Political Economy, Regulation & Governance, and Socio-Economic Review. With Oxford University Press, he has published The Age of Dualization: The Changing Face of Inequality in Deindustrializing Societies (2012, with Silja Häusermann, Bruno Palier and Martin Seeleib-Kaiser) and The Power to Dismiss: Trade Unions and the Regulation of Job Security in Western Europe (2014).