Political Institutions and the Origins of Collective Skill Formation Systems

Abstract

This chapter investigates the emergence of divergent collective vocational training systems in the early twentieth century and identifies how political structures mediated changing demands for skills training. Variations within vocational training systems reflect two features of the state—the structure of party systems and degree of federalism—as these had a crucial impact on employers’ organizational capacities for collective action. Divergent patterns of association had implications for the alliances between diverse economic actors in policy battles and for the ways that internal splits between employers were resolved. The structure of association informed the political expression of these cleavages and had bearing on the struggles over vocational training systems by influencing the capacity of employers to overcome their sectoral divisions, to engage in associational oversight of the content of skills training in both apprenticeships and school-based instruction, and to produce industry-specific portable skills.