Eric Verdier

Higher Education Systems and Industrial Innovation

This paper discusses the approach adopted in a European research project concerning the relationships between science and industry. The analysis uses the notion of actors as vectors for the creation and diffusion of competences and knowledge throughout the innovation process. From this perspective, the article presents some results on the strategic behaviour of firms at the micro level in five countries. An analytical framework in terms of ‘conventions’ addresses the interplay between micro and macro levels.

Lifelong Learning Regimes versus Vocational Education and Training Systems in Europe: The Growing Hybridisation of National Models

Any attempt to compare national vocational education and training (VET) systems comes up against the constraint of complexity, for such schemes are embedded in other social sub-systems (e.g. labour relations, basic education, higher education, labour market, company management). In addition, focusing on the national frame of reference alone may be problematic because of the multiplicity of levels stemming, on the one hand, from increased decentralisation and, on the other, from a supra-nationalisation which introduces a new level of regulation. In rhetorical terms, the expression ‘lifelong learning’ both reflects this complexity and accentuates it still further, since it endows this resource with a new purpose, namely that of helping to safeguard career paths and job transitions, to the point of making it a ‘pillar’ of social protection systems.

Training and Enterprise in France

Describes the unique institutional mechanism in France whereby firms are required by law to devote a fraction of their wage bills to continuous training. Indicates that since the Act of 16 July 1971 was passed there has been a marked increase in expenditure on training and that the greatest benefits have gone to the most highly skilled employees. Concludes that the intervention has not allowed sufficiently for the heterogeneity of firms but notes that recent years have seen a number of adaptations and innovations which have improved this situation.

Europe: Comparing Lifelong Learning Systems

Verdier reviews the various comparative approaches to vocational training and lifelong learning, notably in terms of ‘Varieties of Capitalism’. The typologies that they provide confirm that there is no convergence of national lifelong learning systems, despite the growing influence of the recommendations of transnational agencies. But these typologies struggle to account for the transformations the national systems undergo in the course of time. For this reason, the chapter puts forward an approach in terms of public policy regimes that is able to account for the societal dynamics of European lifelong learning systems.

Multi-level Perspectives: A Comparative Analysis of National R&D Policies

This ground-breaking new volume evaluates the capacity of the triple helix model to represent the recent evolution of local and national systems of innovation. It analyses both the success of the triple helix as a descriptive and empirical model within internationally competitive technology regions as well as its potential as a prescriptive hypothesis for regional or national systems that wish to expand their innovation processes and industrial development. In addition, it examines the legal, economic, administrative, political and cognitive dimensions employed to configure and study, in practical terms, the series of phenomena contained in the triple helix category.