In the wake of the recent world-wide recession, the provision and financing of training and education is attracting increasing attention once again. From a cross-national and historical perspective, this panel scrutinizes the involvement of firms, cooperation between them and the state and how the inclusion of disadvantaged labour market participants in training can be achieved and maintained – both at the initial and continuous levels of skill formation. It also discusses to what extent skill requirements affect political decision making in training and social policies. One core issue here is the changing relationship of public and private actors as well as their intermediary organizations in defining educational standards that balance out the different demands on skill formation. The contributions focus on central socio-economic conflicts around education and training at the national, regional, and sectoral levels in times of substantial challenges to established national models of skill formation. The panel follows a multi-method design and combines quantitative with qualitative methods.