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The international research and policy discussion on learning and training has been heavily focused on the formal educational systems. The analysis of the so-called drop-out problem and the discussion on how to handle it has had a similar focus. Looking behind the scenes of formal education may be important to understand how the problem of young people dropping out of school early should be tackled in a world which demands lifelong learning. The People's Colleges (PC) of the Nordic countries may illustrate these exceptions from the mainstream in the institutionalisation of educational systems in Europe. The aim of this article is to analyse the achievements of these PCs concerning 'drop-outs' and how they achieve their results. It concentrates on the Swedish development of this complementary schooling system, its problems and its present and potential capacity to deal with the 'drop-out' problem.

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Based on a thorough case study of a chain factory in Sweden, Ramnas Anchor Chains, this paper analyses in detail the fact that this 'low tech' plant, with no reported research and development and a formally lowly educated staff reveals a high international competitiveness in mooring chains for the offshore industry, the toughest market segment in chain manufacturing.

The case study reveals continuous incremental innovations, many of which can be characterised as user-producer orientated. Ramnas is thus a strong demand receiver showing an ability to transform demands from strong buyers into high quality products. Ramnas is also a technology pusher, i.e. itself introducing new qualities and standards on the markets. The company obviously also has a capacity to absorb external research and development and transform it into industrially relevant knowledge.

This knowledge formation cannot be understood as a diffusion process starting with science, but as a transformation of knowledge between different thought worlds. Such transformation is in itself a cognitive process often neglected in analyses of industrial competence and of the complexity of industrial systems.

Comparing the Ramnas case with parallel case studies it is argued that it is not necessary to sacrifice these traditions of industrial creativity, innovative spirit, practical skills, industrial craftsmanship and organizational knowledge often revealed in mature industries on the altar of science in the present restructuring of vocational training and other industrial education systems. Show less

The aim of this article is to explore the role of creativity for high-performance innovative activity. It is our conjecture that this approach enables us to go beyond the dominant science-focus of the present discourse on the transformation to a knowledge-based society. In line with the first part of the Schumperterian definition of innovation: creative combination, the ability to be creative draws on dispersed - new and old, external and internal, scientific and non-scientific - knowledge sources. The article is primarily a theoretical and conceptual exercise: however, we relate our discussions to empirical findings from mature manufacturing industries. The discussions are also related to the current industrial transformation in the Iron Ore Belt in Sweden, and the possible challenges this entails for a region characterized by a strong tradition of large-firm domination and natural resource-based industry. In the current transformation, this region must find new ways to both encourage and support economic and technological development - something which may find its base not only in scientific skills in a narrow sense, but also in new attitudes to industrial creativity.

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