The local low skills equilibrium: Moving from concept to policy utility

Abstract

It is more than three decades since the publication of Finegold and Soskice’s (1988) influential article ‘The failure of training in Britain: Analysis and prescription’. This widely cited publication popularised the notion of the low skills equilibrium (LSEq). The LSEq described how at the national level, weakness in the education and training system, aligned with the nature of political-economic institutions, acted as both a cause, but was also a consequence, of weak economic performance. In the period since, the LSEq thesis has been developed and deployed in a range of ways, including with an increasing emphasis on localised low skills equilibria and their relationship to spatially uneven development. However, there are a number of unresolved concerns with the use of the LSEq to describe regional, urban and local outcomes. These include the limits to aggregate analysis, which obscures detailed assessment of causal mechanisms; weaknesses in approaches to measurement to test the LSEq; and insufficient attention to change over time. This article makes three central contributions. First, it assesses the important conceptual issues associated with the development of the LSEq, its application to regional and local economies and the related measurement issues. Secondly, the article outlines a set of research gaps and an agenda to help identify the ways these issues might be resolved. Thirdly, the article addresses the question of policy, and the extent to which a better understanding of the problem might facilitate interventions aimed at unlocking the local LSEq.

New spatialities of work in the city

“…The concept of job quality has attracted increasing attention in work and employment studies (Adamson and Roper, 2019). Urban studies have focused on job skills and the increase in low-skilled work, and the implications for cities (Sissons, 2021). However, connections between job quality and urban studies have remained under-researched.…”

Public policy for addressing the low-skills low-wage trap: insights from business case studies in the Birmingham city-region, UK

“…The low-skills equilibrium trap describes a circular relationship between comparatively low supply and low demand for skills ( Figure 1). The underpinning idea has become influential in describing regional and local outcomes, and has been applied across a range of sectoral and local contexts and a diverse group of countries in the developed and developing world; although to date limited attention has been paid to analysing the processes which generate these (Sissons, 2020). It has been highlighted by the OECD Local Economic and Employment Development programme as one element of comparatively weak economic development prospects for some local and regional economies (Froy et al, 2009;Green, 2012;OECD, 2014).…”

Developing English VET through social partnership in further education

“…However, the reality is often that many employers have little or no interest in promoting training either in or beyond their own companies. Not only does upskilling not fit well with their business strategies (Keep, 2020;Sissons, 2021), but the general lack of qualified staff within a labour market segment leads to individual training initiatives being vulnerable to poaching by other firms. An examination of FE colleges as part of a VET system should review the benefits of establishing a coordinated skills system providing coherent local, regional and national pathways for vocational, technical and skilled work.…”