Governance Geographies of VET and Employability in the EU

1. CEEDR Governance Geographies of VET and Employability in the EU David Etherington Centre for Enterprise and Economic Development Research (CEEDR) Martin Jones Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences University of Wales Aberystwyth Paper presented at Aspen/ETUI Conference Masaryk University Brno March 20-21 2009

2. Background and Context “If in the old days lack of jobs demanded priority action, in the new world it is lack of skills. And that means our whole approach to welfare must move on “ (Gordon Brown quoted in The Guardian 2nd January, 2008 • Life Long Learning (LLL) could drive the agenda from full employment to full employability • UK Leitch Review of Skills has identified areas where UK underperforming in relation to comparator EU countries – one area is the system of governance. • Leitch argues that the nature of provision delivery and institutional arrangements is fragmented, unco-ordinated and lacks transparency (supported by recent JRF Research North, Syrett and Etherington 2007).

3. Context of Research (2) • Paradox is that devolved governance and ‘localisation’ has not achieved aims of greater efficiency, or more accountability • Critical then to future of skills provision is governance and how institutions and policy ‘actors’ operate at a range of spatial scales (i.e local,city-region,region,national,supra national)

4. Context of Research (3) • Despite the Leitch recommendations the changing institutional landscape has not been simplified • At the heart of the skills ‘crisis’ in the UK and emerging in the EU is the nature of labour market geographies and how interventions actually exacerbate and reinforce inequality and uneven development • UK therefore cannot be studied in isolation because of the Lisbon Strategy on Employment and the key LLL plays in the EU discourse • The economic crisis has accentuated and reinforced these tendencies

5. Primary Focus of Paper • Project concerned with the governance of skills and seeks to put this in a broader European policy context through comparative national and sub national research on governance geographies • Discourse around skill acquisition crucial to economic growth but also employability within EU policy agendas

6. Governance failure of VET Theories and Tendencies in State Intervention • Jessop argues that the post keynesian shift has involved an orientation towards supply side policies ‘workfare’ and employability • State restructuring from government to governance • Spatial selectivity and the ‘revitalisation of scale’ and ‘multi level governance • A long term response to managing contradictions between private control and socialisation of the forces of production

7. Governance failure • Neoliberal politics underpins governance failure as market dominated policy interventions generate social and geographical inequalities. • “ Metropolitan institutions likewise tend to intensify intra-national social spatial inequality, uneven development and interspatial competition....metropolitan institutions cannot in themselves, resolve the pervasive governance failures, regulatory deficits and legitimation problems that ensue as public funds are spread out even more thinly among a wide number of subnational entrepreneurial initiatives.”

8. An EU Perspective • Flexibility and security- there seems nevertheless a strong push to shape some post Keynesian strategy for labour market inclusion and skill development. • EU Commission reports acknowledges market failures in VET – certain groups of workers benefit others do not • Do activation policies guide unemployed groups to genuine ‘up skilling’ opportunities? • Persistent regional uneven development across the EU leads to the Commission stating that “the sheer size of the task ahead, especially for the lower income regions.... suggests that decisive action needs to be taken in the area of life-long learning.”

9. Case Study Countries Choice of case studies – Netherlands, Finland, and Denmark as examples of ‘ideal flexicurity’ regimes and coordinated economies compared with the UK • They are characterised by social partner involvement with labour market institutions • High rate of coverage in terms of collective bargaining • Decentralised corporatist labour market institutions • All the countries at the ‘cutting edge’ of skills and life long learning.

10. Case Study Countries • UK – liberal market, complexity in governance, employer led partnerships, reliance on market and highly polarised in terms of geography and social relations • DK – CME – state led VET system and social partnership and dual system but threatened by competitive governance and regional ‘entrepreneurial’ industrial policy and reluctant employer engagement • FL – CME but greater regional inequalities and deindustrialisation and deskilling – new forms of urban policy and devolved labour market and VET interventions • NL – CME with strong liberal influences in terms of VET - City and City Region inequalities challenges VET objectives

11. Key points • ‘Up skilling’ local and regional economies often ignores the way in which work is organised • Motivation of employers is crucial • Activation policies can reinforce contingent/low paid labour markets –VET about workforce adaption • Gap between rhetoric of knowledge economy and reality

12. Key points • High rates of inactivity, under employment and low skills are barriers to VET – link between social and labour market policies becomes more important • Devolution involves increased centralisation –what role for the social partners? • VET performance does not necessarily guarantee quality outcomes – affected by nature of local regional labour markets

13. Conclusions • Flexicurity discourse pitched purely at the national scale • Multi level governance debates ignore social production of space within the capitalist economy • Regional and urban governance of inequality and uneven development implicated in VET outcomes • Geographical uneven development is an element of governance falure within each ‘variety of capitalism’ • Governance failure endemic before the ‘crisis’ was announced by political elites

14. Conclusions • Nature of collective agreements and inclusion of VET in negotiation and bargaining important • Forms and modes of representation are also important within regional governance structures New networks, union and community mobilisations and engagements and role around labour market more critical in the face of crisis