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This chapter uses the authors historical model to explain why it is that some societies' education and training systems produce a low level of skill formation, using two case studies focusing on the United States of America (USA) and the United Kingdom (UK). It aims to trace the interaction between the processes of state formation and industrialisation as they were structured through inter-state relations, and the interplay of group and class interests and pre-existing institutional forms within the societies. The authors examine each national system of skill formation from the beginning of industrialisation. They describe the main elements within each society that led to a low level of skill formation, such as the lack of effective pressure of the political elite to provide for the transmission of technical skills for economic development. They then outline the development of the productive system, class formation and skill formation in the period of industrial maturity in the UK and the USA.