Skill Formation and the Enterprise

Abstract

One major factor inhibiting skill formation in Australia is the low level of enterprise-level training provision. This paper attempts to explain this low level of provision in the context of an analysis of the skill formation process.

The considerable limitations of the orthodox economic analysis of skill formation in the enterprise necessitate the use of an alternative explanatory framework. This is provided by the concept of structured labour markets and their enterprise and occupationally-based forms. The structured labour market framework provides a useful means of comparing the differences in operation of labour markets and their impact on the processes of skill formation in a number of industrialized countries.

The Australian skill formation process is discussed in the light of this comparative evidence. Particular attention is paid to the system of regulating industrial relations and the impact this has on the structure of jobs, systems of payment and the role of trade unions and professional associations in maintaining occupational labour markets.

The conclusion to the paper discusses the relative role in Australian enterprises of an internal and external labour market strategy and the effect each strategy has on adaption to changing production and marketing requirements.