The Oxford Handbook of Skills and Training

Skills and workforce development are at the heart of much research on work, employment, and management. But are they so important? To what extent can they make a difference for individuals, organizations, and nations? How are the supply and, more importantly, the utilization of skill, currently evolving? What are the key factors shaping skills trajectories of the future? This Handbook provides an authoritative consideration of issues such as these. It does so by drawing on experts in a wide range of disciplines including sociology, economics, labour/industrial relations, human resource management, education, and geography. The Handbook is relevant for all with an interest in the changing nature - and future - of work, employment, and management. It draws on the latest scholarly insights to shed new light on all the major issues concerning skills and training today. While written primarily by leading scholars in the field, it is equally relevant to policy makers and practitioners responsible for shaping the development of human capability today and into the future.

Chris Warhurst is Professor and Director of the Institute for Employment Research at the University of Warwick, a Trustee of the Tavistock Institute in London, and a Research Associate of the Centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance (SKOPE) at Oxford University. He has published a number of books and articles on skills, including, with colleagues, The Skills that Matter (Palgrave, 2004) and Are Bad Jobs Inevitable? (Palgrave, 2012). He has been expert advisor on skills policy to the UK, Scottish, and Australian governments and an International Expert Adviser to the OECD's LEED programme. Ken Mayhew is Emeritus Professor of Education and Economic Performance, at Oxford University, Emeritus Fellow in Economics at Pembroke College Oxford, Extraordinary Professor at Maastricht University, and a member of the Armed Forces Pay Review Body. He was founding director of SKOPE, an ESRC Research Centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance. He has published widely in labour economics and policy analysis. David Finegold is President of Chatham University in Pittsburgh, PA, USA. He developed the concepts of "the low-skill equilibrium" and "high-skill ecosystems". He is a leading international expert on skill development systems and their relationship to the changing world of work and economic performance. John Buchanan is Professor in the Research Development Unit at the University of Sydney Business School. Until recently his major research interest has been the demise of the classical wage-earner model of employment and the role of the state in nurturing new forms of multi-employer coordination in the labour market. Building on this he is devoting special attention to the evolution of the labour contract, the dynamics of workforce development, and the relationship between work and health. He is especially interested in building cross disciplinary research teams to examine these issues. His most recent co-edited book is Inclusive Growth in Australia: Social Policy as Economic Investment (2013).

- Introduction - Skills and Training: Multiple Targets, Shifting Terrain - Section I: Concepts, Definitions, and Measurements of Skill - 1: Jane Bryson: Disciplinary Perspectives on Skill - 2: Cathie Jo Martin: Skill Builders and the Evolution of National Vocational Training Systems - 3: Jonathan Payne: The Changing Meaning of Skill: Still Contested, Still Important - 4: Chris Warhurst, Chris Tilly, and Mary Gatta: A New Social Construction of Skill - 5: Michael J. Handel: Measuring Job Content: Skills, Technology, and Management Practices - 6: Gordon Stanley: Accreditation and Assessment in Vocational Education and Training - Section II: Education, Training, and the Development of Workforce Skills - 7: Paul Dalziel: Education and Qualifications as Skills - 8: John Polesel: Pre-Employment Skill Formation in Australia and Germany - 9: Robert I. Lerman: Skill Development in Middle-Level Occupations: The Role of Apprenticeship Training - 10: Martin Humburg and Rolf Van der Velden: What is Expected of Higher Education Graduates in the Twenty-First Century? - 11: Lorna Unwin: Employer-Led In-Work Training and Skill Formation: The Challenges of Multi-Varied and Contingent Phenomena - 12: Mark Stuart and Tony Huzzard: Unions, the Skills Agenda, and Workforce Development - 13: Gunter Schmid: A Working Lifetime of Skill and Training Needs - Section III: Skills Demand and Deployment - 14: David W. Livingston: Skill Under-utilization - 15: David Ashton, Caroline Lloyd, and Chris Warhurst: Business Strategies and Skills - 16: Alan Felstead, Duncan Gallie, and Francis Green: Measuring Skills Stock, Job Skills, and Skills Mismatch - Section IV: Skill Outcomes - 17: Craig Holmes: The Individual Benefits of Investing in Skills - 18: Irena Grugulis, Craig Holmes, and Ken Mayhew: The Economic and Social Benefits of Skills - Section V: Differing Skill Systems: The Levels of Determination - 19: Hugh Lauder, Phillip Brown, and David Ashton: Theorizing Skill Formation in the Global Economy - 20: Gerhard Bosch: Different National Skill Systems - 21: John Buchanan, Pauline Anderson, and Gail Power: Skill Ecosystems - 22: Alice Lam and David Marsden: Employment Systems, Skills, and Knowledge - Section VI: Differing Skill Systems: The Dynamics of Development in a Global Economy - 23: Caroline Smith: Skill Demands and Developments in the Advanced Economies - 24: Johnny Sung and Arwen Raddon: Approaches to Skills in the Asian Developmental States - 25: Mingwei Liu and David Finegold: Emerging Economic Powers: The Transformation of the Skills Systems in China and India - Section VII: Current Challenges - 26: Stuart W. Elliott: Projecting the Impact of Information Technology on Work and Skills in the 2030s - 27: James Wickham: International Skill Flows and Migration - 28: Mari Sako: Professional Skills: Impact of Comparative Political Economy - 29: Wendy Loretto, Chris Phillipson, and Sarah Vickerstaff: Skills and Training for the Older Population: Training the New Work Generation - 30: Leesa Wheelahan: Rethinking Skills Development: Moving Beyond Competency-Based Training - 31: Lynn Gambin and Terence Hogarth: Who Pays for Skills? Differing Perspectives on Who Should Pay and Why - 32: Ewart Keep: Current Challenges: Policy Lessons and Implications