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