We investigate the impact of external differentiation and vocational orientation of (lower and upper) secondary education on country variation in the mean numeracy skills of, and skills gaps between, adults with low and intermediate formal qualifications. We use data on 30- to 44-year-olds in 18...

Skills are the scarcest resource in the 21st century. But there is surprisingly little consensus on how they are best acquired. This is the first book to provide an up-to-date analysis of the concept of skill formation within the social sciences and includes contributions of original research...

Die Einführung einer aktivierenden Sozialpolitik ist das zentrale Merkmal der Reform moderner Wohlfahrtsstaaten seit den 1990er Jahren. Ein wesentliches Element dieser Politik ist die Implementierung von Aktivierungsmaßnahmen für erwerbsfähige Hilfeempfänger, die heute in den meisten...

Germany is widely known for its high-quality vocational education and training (VET) system. The two key features of that system are (a) firm-based training programs accompanied by a schoolbased component (of one to two days per week), in which apprentices acquire upper secondary general...