The Political Economy of Work-Based Higher Education and University-Business Cooperation: France, Germany, and the US Compared

Traditionally, a distinction is made between corporatist dual apprenticeship training in Germany, state-dominated full-time vocational schooling in France, and more market-led on-the-job training in the US. This corresponds to the classification of types of capitalist models in Germany (coordinated market economy), France (state-dominated market economy), and the US (liberal-market economy). However, this conventional classification of work-based training cannot adequately capture the proliferation of hybrid work-based higher education programs found, to various extents, in all three countries. Employers increasingly rely on higher education organizations to secure their future workforce – not least due to rising skill demands in the knowledge economy, but also rising educational aspirations by individuals. In this context, this paper analyzes the novel ways in which employers and higher education organizations cooperate in the provision of work-based higher education programs, which combine higher education studies with training in the workplace. To what extent does the increased cooperation of universities and employers imply a convergence of work-based skill formation patterns in France, Germany, and the US? Whose organizational interests prevail in the provision of work-based higher education (universities or employers)? Are universities in a position to place beneficial constrains on employers to enhance collective action and the provision of collective goods (e.g. skills that are transferable across firms)? The analytical framework is based on a combination of comparative historical institutionalism and organizational institutionalism as well as document analysis and expert interviews, bringing together the literatures on vocational training and higher education, which are still rarely combined.