Are Skills the Answer?: The Political Economy of Skill Creation in Advanced Industrial Countries
Colin Crouch, David Finegold, and Mari Sako
Abstract
This study of the problems confronting institutions for the creation of occupational skills in seven advanced industrialised countries contributes to two different areas of debate. The first is the study of the diversity of institutional forms taken by modern capitalism, and the difficulties currently surrounding the survival of that diversity. Most discussions of this theme analyse economic institutions and governance in general. This book is more specific, focusing on the key area of skill creation. The second theme is that of vocational education and training in its own right. While sharing ... More
This study of the problems confronting institutions for the creation of occupational skills in seven advanced industrialised countries contributes to two different areas of debate. The first is the study of the diversity of institutional forms taken by modern capitalism, and the difficulties currently surrounding the survival of that diversity. Most discussions of this theme analyse economic institutions and governance in general. This book is more specific, focusing on the key area of skill creation. The second theme is that of vocational education and training in its own right. While sharing the consensus that the advanced countries must secure competitive advantage in a global economy by developing highly skilled work-forces, the book draws attention to certain awkward aspects of this approach that are often glossed over in general debate: the employment-generating power of improvements in skill levels is limited; employment policy cannot depend fully on education policies. While the acquisition of skills has become a major public need, there is increasing dependence for their provision on individual firms, which can have no responsibility for general needs, with government action being restricted to residual care for the unemployed rather than contributing at the leading edge of advanced skills policy.
Keywords:
occupational skills,
industrialised countries,
diversity,
institutional forms,
modern capitalism,
economic institutions,
skill creation,
vocational education and training,
competitive advantage,
global economy
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 1999 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780198294382 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: October 2011 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198294382.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Colin Crouch, author
Trinity College, Oxford
Author Webpage
David Finegold, author
University of Southern California, Los Angeles
Mari Sako, author
Said Business School, University of Oxford
Author Webpage
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