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, organisations and nations? How are the supply and - more importantly - the utilisation of skill - current evolving? What are the key factors shaping skills trajectories of the future?
This Handbook provides an authoritative consideration of issues such 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 PhD is Professor and Director of the Institute for Employment Research at the University of Warwick in the UK, 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 organizational performance. He has published widely in labour economics and policy analysis, and advised many private and public sector organisations at home and abroad.
David Finegold is a Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University and is the founding Chief Academic Officer for American Honors. 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: 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 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 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 21st 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: Theorising 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 IT 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, 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: Terence Hogarth and Lynn Gambin: Who Pays for Skills? Differing perspectives on who should pay and why
32: Ewart Keep: Financial Constraints and Policy Implications