Employment and sustainable development: education, training and R&D in the regulation of the labour market

“Employment and sustainable development: education, training and R&D in the regulation of the labour market” Ilona Kovács & Margarida Chagas Lopes Abstract Sustainable development has been considered in various discourses as the answer to the economic, social and ecological crisis. However, its principles are far from being implemented. The dominant model of society giving priority to financial capital and short term profitability in the context of globalization and market deregulation involves social disinvestment, increasing inequalities and exclusion, that is to say non sustainable development. We argue that sustainable development requires an orientation towards human needs, social and ecological sustainability and consequently a break with the prevailing model of society and learning and knowledge sharing within modern societies. In the first section we confront the “market driven work society”, which is embedded in the neo-liberal paradigm with the alternative model of the “humanized work society”, which aims to dignify work, enhance quality of working life and skills development. The next sections focus on long trend and new forms of labour market regulation and the role successively played by Education, Vocational Training and – desirably – Innovation in that regulation process . We stress that sustainable development imply an effective upgrading of work and skills, requiring adequate structural education, training and R&D policies.