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Context: Vocational education and training (VET) is expected to be designed for creating learning outcomes which meet the needs for skills and competences in the labour market. Hence, identifying current and upcoming skill requirements and ensuring that these requirements are incorporated into education has long been the subject of academic and policy discussion. Governance processes keeping VET systems up-to-date have been more recently addressed as 'feedback mechanisms'. The term broadly summarizes the interplay of institutions, actors and processes which allows the continuous renewal of VET provision (i.e. by creating new qualifications or updating curricula). The aim of the paper is to enhance the understanding of cross-national variations in formally institutionalised 'feedback mechanisms' between VET and the labour market. Method: The research builds on a comparative analysis of case studies in 15 European countries. The paper presents examples for four different 'formal feedback mechanisms' in Germany, France, England, and Austria. Results: Four main types of formal mechanism have been identified: 1) The liberal model explained by VET in England and Higher VET in Austria; 2) The statist model explained by school-based VET in Austria; 3) the participatory model explained by VET in France and 4) the coordinated model explained by apprenticeship training in Germany and Austria. Conclusions: Existing approaches in the economic sociology of labour markets, the varieties of capitalism approach as well as comparative research on welfare states are useful

Context: Existing studies have explored the association between workplace training and wages suggesting that training participation may have a positive association with wages. However, we still know very little about whether this association varies between men and women. Through its potential positive association with wages, training may balance wage differences between men and women. In addition, the gender wage gap varies across the wage distribution. Differences in the association between training participation and wages for men and women across the earnings spectrum may offer an explanation as to why the discrepancy in female/male earnings is larger at some point of the wage distribution compared to others. Approach: Using data from the Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) and unconditional quantile regression, this paper examines whether the association between workplace training and wages differs between men and women at different points of the wage distribution across 14 European countries. To partly control for endogeneity in training participation, detailed measures of cognitive skills have been included in the models. Findings: Findings show gender differences in the association between training and wages across the wage distribution. In most countries, results indicate larger training coefficients for women than men at the lower end of the wage spectrum whereas they are larger for men at the top. This pattern holds across most countries with the only exception of Liberal ones, where women benefit less than men across the entire wage spectrum. Conclusions: The findings of this work reveal that distributional variations in returns to workplace training follow a similar pattern across industrialized countries, despite their different institutional settings. Moreover, differences in training coefficients of men and women at different parts of the wage distribution suggest that training could reduce gender wage differences among low earners and potentially widen the gap in wages among individuals at the top of the wage distribution.

The aim of this article is to show the increased relevance of soft skills in a continuously changing environment. A research was carried out to examine and compare students' and employers' perceptions regarding the importance of soft skills in different European countries. Results show that 86% of respondents indicate an increased emphasis on soft skills over the last 5-10 years and that companies consider soft skills more important than students/graduates. Furthermore, major differences have also been identified in the ranking of the 20 soft skills listed in this paper, indicating different levels of priorities. This paper suggests that companies and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) need to work together not only to increase students' awareness of the importance of soft skills but also to guide them in taking individual responsibility to acquire and develop these essential skills in order to continuously adapt to the changing labour market and improve their employability.

This paper presents one of the first cross-nationally comparative studies on the economic and social returns to grit (perseverance and passion for long-term goals). Specifically, we investigated whether grit incrementally predicted objective (income) and subjective (job satisfaction) career success over and above cognitive skills and educational attainment; whether grit's association with career success was moderated by individual characteristics; whether grit's associations with career success varied across countries; and whether this variation could be explained by labour market conditions (unemployment rates). Multi-group structural equation models with data from 6,738 respondents from 19 countries revealed that grit was incrementally associated with income and job satisfaction in some but not all countries. Grit's effect sizes were mostly modest, yet there were some indications for variations by education and labour market conditions. Overall, these findings suggest that the associations between grit and career success are not uniform but vary across individuals and contexts.

Academic careers are social processes which involve many members of large populations over long periods of time. This paper outlines a discursive perspective which looks into how academics are categorized in academic systems. From a discursive view, academic careers are organized by categories which can define who academics are (subjectivation) and what they are worth (valuation). The question of this paper is what institutional categorizations such as status and salaries can tell us about academic subject positions and their valuation. By comparing formal status systems and salary scales in France with those in the U.S., Great Britain and Germany, this paper reveals the constraints of institutional categorization systems on academic careers. Special attention is given to the French system of status categories which is relatively homogeneous and restricts the competitive valuation of academics between institutions. The comparison shows that academic systems such as the U.S. which are characterized by a high level of heterogeneity typically present more negotiation opportunities for the valuation of academics. From a discursive perspective, institutional categories, therefore, can reflect the ways in which academics are valuated in the inter-institutional job market, by national bureaucracies or in professional oligarchies.

Purpose: This paper aims to explore structural and systemic influences in the development of competence models and qualifications systems at sectoral and national levels across Europe, considering the influences of different socio-economic models of skill formation on the processes of design and provision of qualifications. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on a meta analysis of three European projects that used literature review, documentary analysis and interviews with practitioners and policy makers. Findings: The main methodological and practical challenges posed by varieties of competence and qualifications to inter-country comparability of qualifications are shown to be related to different socio-economic models of skill formation. Research limitations/implications: The research is limited to 13 countries and four sectors but these were carefully selected to maximise coverage of European diversity with respect to competence models, training regimes and approaches to qualifications. There is clearly a need for further research involving more countries and sectors. Practical implications: The paper offers recommendations for improving the potential of the European Qualifications Framework to promote comparability of qualifications and hence mobility of labour. These recommendations will be of interest to policy makers and practitioners involved in using the EQF and similar instruments. Originality/value: This is the first systematic attempt to explore the methodological and practical difficulties of establishing comparability between qualifications. (Contains 4 tables.)

Ample evidence indicates that a person's human capital is important for success on the labor market in terms of both wages and employment prospects. However, unlike the efforts to identify the impact of school attainment on labor-market outcomes, the literature on returns to cognitive skills has not yet provided convincing evidence that the estimated returns can be causally interpreted. Using the PIAAC Survey of Adult Skills, this paper explores several approaches that aim to address potential threats to causal identification of returns to skills, in terms of both higher wages and better employment chances. We address measurement error by exploiting the fact that PIAAC measures skills in several domains. Furthermore, we estimate instrumental-variable models that use skill variation stemming from school attainment and parental education to circumvent reverse causation. Results show a strikingly similar pattern across the diverse set of countries in our sample. In fact, the instrumental-variable estimates are consistently larger than those found in standard least-squares estimations. The same is true in two "natural experiments," one of which exploits variation in skills from changes in compulsory-schooling laws across U.S. states. The other one identifies technologically induced variation in broadband Internet availability that gives rise to variation in ICT skills across German municipalities. Together, the results suggest that least-squares estimates may provide a lower bound of the true returns to skills in the labor market.

In this paper, the authors first discuss the Neumark and Troske piece, and then compare the U.S. context to that in Europe and Korea, as described by the Caspar, Hartwig, and Moench and the Cho and Shin contributions. Although they are in basic agreement with Neumark and Troske on the extent and depth of the current employment situation, they differ to some extent in terms of remedies. While Neumark and Troske argue that the stimulus packages had a very small impact on the economy, the authors feel that this may be too negative an assessment, especially given the larger global financial forces that seem to overwhelm domestic job creation efforts. The European and Korean papers contribute an important comparative perspective on the recession. As Cho and Shin argue, Korea fared very well due to rising demand for domestic consumption and a very small welfare state. However, Korean institutions are hard to convert or directly compare to those in the United States. It is hard to tell a "European story" because of the large difference in institutions and the differing impacts of the recession. Germany and Scandinavia have clearly done much better than Spain, Greece, or Ireland. Caspar, Hartwig, and Moench emphasize that if the gains are to be longer term, there needs to be "structural reform" of the labor market--to "strengthen labor market policies that reduce structural unemployment rates, increase labor market participation, strengthen the reallocation of labor toward a smart, sustainable, and inclusive economy, and promote social cohesion by targeting specific groups of workers." All of this sounds great, but how does the United States move toward these goals? It is harder than one might expect to extract some clear lessons about how deeper economic pain could have been avoided or how one might be able to make more significant or rapid progress in pulling the U.S. labor market out of its malaise. If anything, the authors find that, of the nations examined in this set of articles, each has a different story to tell about the great recession, and the reality is that in every case, the stories are not yet fully told. (Contains 1 table.)

Purpose: Though the notion of competence is common terminology in European VET policy at national and supra-national level, understandings vary widely, both across countries and within. The particular conceptions of competence adopted in the EQF are themselves problematic and the framework allows for a variety of interpretations. The purpose of this paper is to clarify those applied in the EQF and the vocational education and qualifications systems of particular European countries and to contribute to the development of a transnational understanding of the term, one which is compatible with a rapidly changing labour market. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on evidence from work funded by the Nuffield Foundation entitled "Cross-national Equivalence of Vocational Skills and Qualifications", the paper explores the various conceptions of competence in the EQF and the national systems: in particular in the sectors of construction, ICT and health: of England, Germany, France and The Netherlands. Findings: Interpretations are located on a continuum from the comprehensive occupational model traditionally found in many European countries to the task-focused model of the English NVQ system. Research limitations/implications: Much developmental work involving all stakeholders is necessary to arrive at a commonly agreed conception. A broad understanding of competence would relate to the potential of labour, itself determined through the occupational capacity embodied in the qualification. Practical implications: Zones of Mutual Trust need to be based on transnational categories of VET. Originality/value: The value of the paper is in seeking to go beyond identifying differences by developing transnational categories and suggesting the nature of Zones of Mutual Trust for implementing the EQF. (Contains 2 tables and 2 notes.)

The aim of this paper is to provide a comparative analysis of higher education and the graduate labour markets in selected European countries (France, Germany, Spain and United Kingdom) in the context of the expectations of graduates and prospective employers, and respective recruitment and selection practices. Expectations of graduating students from a number of European collaborating universities are sought and analysed in order to find out about a match between the knowledge and skills of graduates and the needs of European employers. The study examines the process of graduate recruitment, employee and employer expectations, and the role of higher education institutions in meeting such expectations. Primary data was gathered from 252 employers and 485 final year (graduating) students through the use of questionnaires. The analysis of the data collected has revealed different approaches to but similar methods of graduate recruitment between the four countries. Despite the current differences in higher education systems and labour market trends, the expectations of employers and graduating students are more similar than different. It is concluded that EU graduates will have good employment prospects in an integrated labour market.

Even if convergences are to be observed among the orientations adopted by higher education policies in European countries, they still are characterized by strong national features. One of the most striking national patterns of each system is its academic labor market, salaries, status, recruitment procedures, workloads, career patterns, promotion rules, being very different from one country to another. Nevertheless, specific national academic labor markets are experiencing a common evolution that can be summed up by the emergence of more regulated internal labor markets. At the same time, the qualification of the academic production (knowledge) as a public good is questioned and academic activities rely less on individual autonomy than before. Two main transformations can be mentioned: the development of individual assessment and incentive devices in universities and the increasing role of higher education institutions in the issues previously in the domain of the academic profession. The paper relies on a limited number of cases and on empirical studies recently carried out in France and Germany. The evolution engaged in the two countries will be reviewed in order to show that they lead, in different ways, to more regulated "internal labor markets". It will also be argued that this is a general trend. In the last section, the implications linked to this evolution and the questions raised, the role of the academic profession, and the transformation of the status of scientific and pedagogical activities will be discussed.

Examines the advantages and disadvantages of partial retirement--the transitional period between full-time employment and complete retirement--including easing the transition, labor market effects, and financial implications for social security systems and employers. Reviews partial retirement policies in eight countries and concludes that there is a need to keep people in the labor market longer. (JOW)

This group of articles discusses a variety of studies related to social security and retirement benefits. These studies are related to both developing and developed nations and are also concerned with studying work conditions and government role in administering a democratic social security system. (SSH)

This paper seeks to reveal whether fixed-term contracts are the new European inequality and does so in a comparative analysis of two countries typically regarded as eurosclerotic: West Germany and France. We compare the wages, wage growth and labour market outcomes of fixed-term contract workers relative to a matched sample of permanent workers with similar characteristics. Using seven waves of the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) we find evidence of wage penalties, increased exposure to unemployment and repeat spells of fixed-term employment. However, these tendencies vary significantly by country and by gender. The main finding of this paper is the extent to which fixed-term contract employment is of considerable disadvantage for French women. This is important, as previous research on female employment in the UK and in West Germany (Booth et al., 2002; Giesecke and Gross, 2003), two countries with intermittent female employment, did not find evidence of fixed-term worker disadvantage. Our findings, however, suggest that in countries where female employment tends to be full-time and continuous, the introduction of fixed-term contracts challenges the existing gender contract. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Germany's apprenticeship system is and has always been considered to be the major sub-system of VET. In this context, the debate circling around the European and German Qualifications Framework (EQF and DQR) has become one of the central issues of VET research and policy. Tasks take on a concrete shape if (a) a serious approach is adopted towards the ideas underlying the European Qualifications Framework; and (b) if consideration is given to the 'construction sites' typical for the German VET system as a whole. This paper intends to sharpen VET policy awareness for the problem of dealing with those unresolved German VET issues within the context of the development of the DQR. A comparative view includes Austria and France as two countries with diverging learning cultures in VET from the German case, but obviously with more 'European' imprints within their respective VET systems. It can be shown that there is an interrelation between the attention apprenticeships as such receive against the background of European ideas such as 'progression', 'permeability' and 'lifelong learning' (LLL), including the implementation and use of 'hybrid qualifications'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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