Vocational education and the revitalisation of manufacturing in the United States

Abstract

Manufacturing in advanced open economies has experienced significant disruption. Rapid technological change, outsourcing and off shoring have beset manufacturing resulting in a general and steady decline in manufacturing employment. Despite this turbulence, there remains a strong nostalgia for manufacturing resulting in frequent public policy discussion about how best to revitalise the industry. A popular view is that a strong manufacturing industry relies upon an equally strong vocational, education and training (VET) system to provide requisite skill needs. Given the dramatic pace of change in the manufacturing industry do such arguments still hold true? This paper considers this question through an examination of what the revitalisation of US manufacturing means for employment and skills needs and the extent to which US’s decentralised and largely eroded VET system serves as a barrier to the industry’s revitalisation. Drawing upon a mixed method approach that includes primary and secondary data collected in three US cities, the paper argues that the focus on needing to have a strong VET system overlooks the emergence of flexible micro-skill ecosystems that evolve to address local skill needs. These micro skill eco-systems open the prospects for skills and training innovations to meet changing workforce needs in a changing industry.