Careful governance strategies are needed in the case of collectively organized training systems. However, the strategies used to maintain decentralized cooperation are not very well understood, not least because most research so far has focused on so-called cooperation dilemmas, i.e. situations in which cooperation fails because private interests are at odds with collective interests. However, in case of VPET systems, decentralized cooperation is working surprisingly well in the collectively organized VPET systems of Austria, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Hence, the analysis of these VPET systems provides the unique opportunity to (1) understand why and how private actors maintain cooperation, (2) how a dual-track system of vocational education and training can be adapted in response to new challenges and how interests of different actor groups can be furthered through VET system Reform, and (3) how states can get these private actors to consider societal interests in their decentralized cooperation.

This Leading House Governance in Vocational and Professional Education and Training (GOVPET) focuses on the governance of VPET systems. More concretely, it focuses on two central research questions that are, however, strongly connected. First, we analyze how decentralized cooperation in skill formation is made possible given the ever-present threat of cooperation breakdown, and ask what stakeholders can do to get private actors to cooperate. Second, we examine how public policies can get private actors to consider societal goals in decentralized cooperation that are not necessarily in the interest of these private actors using the case of the inclusion of disadvantaged labor market participants in the systems of (initial and continuous) vocational and professional training.
 
These three research themes are examined at length in several specific subprojects. The first theme, ‘cooperation and conflict in skill formation’ is addressed in three subprojects. The first two subprojects analyse decentralised cooperation in various economic sectors in Switzerland with a special focus on the role of professional organisations. The activities carried out in these two subprojects will include the creation of a database of all organisations of the world of work (Organisationen der Arbeitswelt) responsible for VET programmes in Switzerland. The third subproject analyses decentralised cooperation in various Swiss regions, with particular emphasis on the role of state and collective institutions in border zones.

With the second research theme, ‘private sector commitment’, the Leading House GOVPET examines how governments can get private sector stakeholders to consider societal objectives in decentralised cooperation. Here, the inclusion of disadvantaged labour market participants in the system of skill formation is used as a case study. This theme is addressed in four subprojects. The first subproject analyses existing tools to promote an inclusive VPET system in Switzerland and other countries that have a collectively organised skill formation system. The second subproject  examines employers’ recruiting practices and attitudes towards accessibility of the VPET system. The third subproject explores targeted programmes (‘second chance’ training programmes) intended to provide vocational education and training to young people who have not managed to obtain a qualification through formal education and training pathways. The fourth subproject focuses on the governance of two-year VET programmes in Demark, Germany and Switzerland.

The third research theme, ‘adaptability of dual-track VET systems’ is also broken down into three subprojects, which explore mechanisms used to adapt dual-track VET programmes to new challenges in international comparison. These challenges include fundamental socio-economic processes such as demographic change, digitalisation and globalisation. Each of these three subprojects focuses on different stakeholders and aspects of the skill formation system. These subprojects examine reform processes within Switzerland’s upper-secondary level VET sector – comprised of three and four-year VET programmes and shorter two-year VET programmes – as well as within its tertiary-level professional education sector.

Overall, the Leading House promises to broaden and deepen our understanding of the strengths, weaknesses and conditions for successful decentralised cooperation. It will also analyse how the overarching objective of social inclusion is considered in the governance of collectively organised VPET systems.