The purpose of this study is to present a framework for the comparative analysis of training and skill formation systems. The recent literature on industrial organization provides a theoretical and methodological foundation for the study.
Skills upgrading thesis and deskilling theory which assume that different countries tend to converge as nations industrialize dominated the literature. They have been challenged by various forms of cultural and institutional relativism. The "societal effect approach", which is based on cross-national comparison of organizational units, has identified quite a large cross-national variety of organizational forms and practices. Although it draws comparisons between different countries it is less systematic in the variables used to describe these differences.
Based on previous approaches, this study identifies the main underlying relationships which influence national systems of skill formation. Four models of the skill formation process are identified: the market model, the corporatist model, the developmental state model, and the neo-market model.
These models show how such a framework enables us to explain why different nations have different approaches to skill formation. On that basis, we can further understand the relationships between vocational education and training, and economic growth.