Search Results

In both Germany and the United States, employers search for new strategies to recruit and train people in times of a dynamically evolving economy and rising educational expectations on the part of individuals. In this context, we observe the proliferation of work-based higher education programmes in both countries. This development challenges the common classification found in the political economy and educational policy literature that distinguishes between collectively governed dual apprenticeships in Germany and market-driven on-the-job training in the US. The paper proposes an alternative conceptualization that identifies significant similarities in the governance mode of work-based higher education across the two countries. Based on expert interviews and document analysis, the institutional analysis focuses on complex multi-actor governance constellations at the nexus of vocational training and higher education and explores consequences for contemporary policy-making in advanced skill formation.

Published abstract. Show less

This book analyses institutional changes in the relationship between vocational education and training (VET) and higher education (HE) in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. The study relies on secondary literature, document analysis, and, most importantly, several dozen expert interviews carried out with key stakeholders in all three countries between 2010 and 2011. The empirical analysis focuses on permeability in terms of the rules, standards, and ideas that define the relationship between VET and HE, that is, institutional permeability, rather than the measurement of actually realised individual social mobility. The book seeks answers to a number of specific research puzzles: Why did it come to hybridization at the nexus of VET and HE in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland and how have the respective hybrid organisational forms developed since their genesis? To what extent do the hybrid organisational forms differ in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland? What are the implications of hybridization for institutional permeability between VET and HE? And, finally, what is the impact of current European educational policies on such hybrid organisational solutions?

The key finding is that all three countries rely in part on hybridization - a specific combination of organisational and institutional elements from the two organisational fields of VET and HE - to introduce gradual institutional reforms within their long-established skill formation systems. However, due to specific factors in the respective national institutional contexts, hybridization is realised in distinct organizational forms: the dual study programs in Germany, the berufsbildende hohere Schule (BHS, higher vocational school with higher education entrance qualification) in Austria, and the Swiss organisational configuration of universities of applied sciences that directly build on dual apprenticeship training and a vocational baccalaureate (FHIVET).

Excerpts from publication. Show less

In recent years the global market for higher education has expanded rapidly while internationalisation strategies have been developed at university, national, as well as European levels, all with the aim to increase the competitiveness of higher education institutions. This paper asks how different institutional settings explain distinct national patterns found in the internationalisation of universities, observed to be based largely on either market coordination or strategic interaction of the involved actors. Existing concepts from the Varieties of Capitalism literature, such as institutional complementarity and comparative institutional advantage, are introduced to the comparative study of higher education systems and applied to develop a theoretical framework for an institutional analysis of university strategies in the global market for higher education. In a case study, the analytical framework is then deployed to contrast the internationalisation of universities in Germany and the United Kingdom. The internationalisation processes reflect the mode of coordination in the respective higher education systems and national models of capitalism. Further insights are that the conceptual toolbox of the Varieties of Capitalism approach can be fruitfully applied to higher education, and that it is possible to enhance the framework by adding the state as a significant factor in differentiation.

Published abstract. Show less

In recent years, the global market for higher education has expanded rapidly, while internationalisation strategies have been developed at university, national and European levels to increase the competitiveness of higher education institutions. This article asks how institutional settings prevailing in national models of capitalism motivate distinct national approaches with regard to the internationalisation, globalisation, and Europeanisation of higher education systems. While the university is defined as an organisational actor embedded in the higher education system, the higher education system itself represents an institutional subsystem within the national model of capitalism. An analytical framework is then developed on the basis of the varieties of capitalism approach to compare the internationalisation of German and British universities. Findings indicate that the relations between the various actors involved in the internationalisation of universities are based largely on market coordination in the British case. In contrast, this process in Germany relies more on strategic interactions between the various organisational actors in higher education. The development paths in the internationalisation of universities are found to be influenced by and reflect the specific mode of coordination in the respective higher education system and the national model of capitalism more generally. This comparative case study shows that recent conceptions of path dependence as well as conceptual tools developed in the varieties of capitalism literature, such as institutional complementarity and comparative institutional advantage, may be fruitfully applied to research on institutional change in higher education systems.

Excerpt from published introduction reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

Austria, Germany and Switzerland are renowned for their extensive systems of collective vocational skill formation, which, however, have developed largely in separation from higher education. This divide has become increasingly contested as a result of a variety of socioeconomic factors that have led to an increasing demand for higher level skills. Do the three countries deal with these challenges in similar ways? The comparative analysis is based on process tracing from the 1960s to 2013 and builds on historical institutionalism as well as several dozen expert interviews with key stakeholders. A key finding is that all three countries have developed hybrid forms of work-based academic education that combine elements of vocational training and higher education. However, in Austria and Switzerland, these hybrids have been integrated into the traditional model of collective governance, whereas the German case signifies a departure from this model.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

Luxembourg exhibits strong transnational traits within its skills regime, defying any neat fit with existing educational typologies. It is characterised by its high-skill economy, cross-cultural characteristics, and central location within the European Union. As such, Luxembourg has developed a hybrid strategy of responding to labour market challenges, and by that, to skills development. Our institutionalist analysis finds that Luxembourg is involved in transnational skills development in three complementary ways: (a) employers in Luxembourg extensively recruit skilled workers at the European and global levels, but also (b) heavily rely on the distinct skills sets of cross-border commuters from the neighbouring regions of Belgium, France, and Germany (the Greater Region). Furthermore, (c) Luxembourg combines institutional elements of these neighbouring countries - representing distinct models of capitalism and welfare - within its own education system. In combining the specific strengths of different national skills regimes, institutional bricolage represents a core feature of Luxembourg's highly stratified system of skill formation. Our analytical framework refers to two major comparative political economy perspectives, namely the welfare state and varieties of capitalism approaches, to analyse how Luxembourg has responded to deindustrialisation by creating a domestic transnational labour market.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

Cross-border regions display significant economic, political, and cultural cooperation and represent a central feature of Europe - not least as innovation labs for the European integration project. A key example is the trinational French-German-Swiss Upper Rhine region. Each of the respective bordering countries displays a specific mode of regulation in VET. How do actors govern vocational education and training (VET) in this dynamic industry cluster in which distinct national political-administrative units do not overlap with the functional needs of employers and (future) employees?

Relying on expert interviews and document analysis, this chapter offers a novel comparison of the respective subnational units within each cross-border region. The institutional study finds a key pattern through which skill formation is institutionalised within the cross-border context: the leveraging of complementarities between distinct educational institutions. In combining the specific strengths of different national skills regimes, VET stakeholders in cross-border regions are in a position to enlarge the scope and capacities of their skill regime far beyond national borders.

Published abstract. Show less

Collective training systems are based on the cooperation of multiple public and private stakeholders in order to work. However, such cooperation is not self-sustaining and depends, for instance, on public policies, capable intermediary organisations and shared logics of action. In this conceptual paper, we first review the political economy literature on cooperation in collective skill formation and find that it has given insufficient attention to the systematic comparative analysis of cooperation at the decentralised level as well as the actual social practices of cooperation. The paper then develops a multidisciplinary analytical framework that allows future research to examine decentralised cooperation at the regional, sectoral and occupational levels more systematically. This framework is grounded in a synthesis of three strands of empirical research on vocational education and training, namely the comparative political economy literature on governance, corporatism and coordination, institutional labour and societal economics as well as the educational science literature.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

Liberalization pressures challenge countries to adapt their training systems. This is particularly relevant for coordinated market economies with firm-driven but collectively governed apprenticeship systems. Recent literature has identified different liberalization trajectories for these countries. For instance, segmentalism describes the increasing influence of large employers in Germany. In Denmark, state agencies manage increased flexibility in training through embedded flexibilization. In this paper, we identify a new form of embedded flexibilization, characterized by polite employer domination. We find this trajectory of liberalization in Switzerland, which represents another training system heavily based on firm involvement. We illustrate our argument with the example of short-track apprenticeship training, which has been expanded in all three mentioned countries in response to ongoing liberalization and deindustrialization pressures.

In Switzerland, the relevant reform was initiated by the state while business adopted a rather passive role initially. Yet, state actors eventually stepped back and delegated key competences to employers, which implies that the employers' camp asserted their interests in the end while tolerating some concessions for the benefit of disadvantaged groups. Our process tracing reveals that policy makers used layering to implement short-tracks that enhance social inclusion, while simultaneously increasing the scope of employer cooperation.

Published abstract. Show less

In recent years, higher education systems worldwide have been marked by a considerable expansion of work-based higher education (WBHE), with the institutional spheres of academia, industry and state increasingly coming together. We take the case of WBHE to analyse institutional arrangements in the different skill formation systems of France, Germany and the United States. We ask: Which factors drive the development of WBHE programmes and how does their governance compare across the three distinct country settings?

The study finds that the growth of WBHE in all three countries indicates a reconfiguration of education and training governance of high skills. Nonetheless, actor constellations, organizational interests and especially the degree of state intervention surrounding WBHE remain anchored in long-standing national skill formation patterns.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less