ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that one needs to look beyond national-level structures of industrial coordination to grasp how political pacts for vocational education and institutions for business-labor cooperation are being reinvented. Many believe that a revamping of vocational education for the post-industrial economy is necessary both to invest skills in services and to provide education for non-academic youth. The chapter discusses the relationship between industrial relations and vocational training, as well as challenges to the traditional governance mode in the policy spheres. It presents case studies of Denmark, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, which are based on secondary literature, document analysis, and expert interviews. The chapter explores how institutions for industrial coordination help or hinder efforts to renew vocational education for the post-industrial economy. In contrast, successive British prime ministers from both parties routinely avow commitment to vocational training with very little effect, although apprenticeship programs exist in some sectors.
