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How Institutions Evolve

The Political Economy of Skills in Germany, Britain,
the United States, and Japan

The institutional arrangements governing skill formation are widely seen as

constituting a key element in the institutional constellations that define dis-
tinctive “varieties of capitalism” across the developed democracies. This book
explores the origins and evolution of such institutions in four countries –
Germany, Britain, the United States, and Japan. It traces cross-national dif-
ferences in contemporary training regimes back to the nineteenth century and,
specifically, to the character of the political settlement achieved among em-
ployers in skill-intensive industries, artisans, and early trade unions. The book
also tracks evolution and change in training institutions over a century of devel-
opment. It uncovers important continuities through putative “breakpoints” in
history, but also – more important perhaps – it provides insights into modes of
institutional change that are incremental but cumulatively transformative. The
study underscores the limits of the most prominent approaches to institutional
change, and it identifies the political processes through which the form and
functions of institutions can be radically reconfigured over time.

Kathleen Thelen is Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University.

She is the author of Union of Parts: Labor Politics in Postwar Germany and co-
editor of Structuring Politics: Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Analysis.
Her work on labor politics and on historical institutionalism has appeared in
World Politics, Comparative Political Studies, The Annual Review of Political Sci-
ence, Politics & Society, and Comparative Politics. She is chair of the Council for
European Studies, and she serves on the executive boards of the Comparative
Politics, European Politics and Society, and Qualitative Methods sections of
the American Political Science Association. She has received awards and fel-
lowships from the Max Planck Society, the Institute for Advanced Study in
Berlin, the National Science Foundation, the Alexander von Humboldt Foun-
dation, the American Scandinavian Foundation, and the German Academic
Exchange Program.

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Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics

General Editor
Margaret Levi University of Washington, Seattle

Assistant General Editor

Stephen Hanson University of Washington, Seattle

Associate Editors
Robert H. Bates Harvard University
Peter Hall Harvard University
Peter Lange Duke University
Helen Milner Columbia University
Frances Rosenbluth Yale University
Susan Stokes University of Chicago
Sidney Tarrow Cornell University

Other Books in the Series

Lisa Baldez, Why Women Protest: Women’s Movements in Chile
Stefano Bartolini, The Political Mobilization of the European Left,
1860–1980: The Class Cleavage
Mark Beissinger, Nationalist Mobilization and the Collapse of the Soviet State
Nancy Bermeo, ed., Unemployment in the New Europe
Carles Boix, Democracy and Redistribution
Carles Boix, Political Parties, Growth, and Equality: Conservative and Social
Democratic Economic Strategies in the World Economy
Catherine Boone, Merchant Capital and the Roots of State Power
in Senegal, 1930–1985
Catherine Boone, Political Topographies of the African State: Territorial Authority
and Institutional Choice
Michael Bratton and Nicolas van de Walle, Democratic Experiments in Africa:
Regime Transitions in Comparative Perspective
Valerie Bunce, Leaving Socialism and Leaving the State: The End of Yugoslavia, the
Soviet Union, and Czechoslovakia
Daniele Caramani, The Nationalization of Politics: The Formation of National
Electorates and Party Systems in Western Europe

Continued after the Index

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How Institutions Evolve

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY

OF SKILLS IN GERMANY,
BRITAIN, THE UNITED
STATES, AND JAPAN

KATHLEEN THELEN
Northwestern University

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  
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo

Cambridge University Press

The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge  , UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521837682

© Kathleen Thelen 2004

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of

relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place
without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published in print format 2004

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To Ben

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Contents

Preface page xi

1 THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF SKILLS IN

COMPARATIVE-HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE 1
Skills and Skill Formation 8
The Argument in Brief 20
Theories of Institutional Genesis and Change 23
The Origins and Evolution of Institutions: Lessons
from the Present Study 31
Outline for the Book 37
2 THE EVOLUTION OF SKILL FORMATION
IN GERMANY 39
The Importance of the Artisanal Economy in the
Evolution of Skill Formation in Germany 42
Strategies of the Large Machine and Metalworking
Companies 55
Political Coalitions and the Evolution of the System 63
The Political Coalition against Reform 79
3 THE EVOLUTION OF SKILL FORMATION
IN BRITAIN 92
State Policy and the Fate of the British Artisanate 93
Union and Employer Strategies in the
Metalworking/Engineering Industry 104
Reform Efforts before World War I 118
The Impact of War and Its Aftermath 133
Comparisons and Conclusions 145

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Contents

4 THE EVOLUTION OF SKILL FORMATION IN

JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES 148
The Evolution of Skill Formation in Japan 149
The Role of the State and the Fate of the Japanese
Artisanate 151
Strategies of the Large Metalworking Companies 163
The Evolution of the Japanese Management System 166
Germany and Japan Compared 174
The Evolution of Skill Formation in the United States 177
Skill Formation in Early Industrial America 178
Union and Employer Strategies in the Metalworking
Industry before World War I 186
The Politics of Training during and after World War I 202
Comparisons and Conclusions 212
5 EVOLUTION AND CHANGE IN THE GERMAN
SYSTEM OF VOCATIONAL TRAINING 215
The Evolution of the System under National Socialism 219
Vocational Training in Postwar Germany 240
Contemporary Developments in the German Training
System: Erosion through Drift? 269
6 CONCLUSIONS, EMPIRICAL AND THEORETICAL 278
Cross-National Comparisons: The Origins of Divergent
Skill Regimes 278
Institutional Complementarities 285
Institutional Evolution and Change 292

Bibliography 297
Index 323

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Preface

I am well aware that vocational training is not going to strike some readers
as the most scintillating of topics, but I hope they persevere long enough
for me to make the case that this subject holds many valuable insights
for political economy and comparative politics generally. I myself became
interested in skill regimes as an offshoot of my interest in what defines
and sustains different models of capitalism. Wolfgang Streeck’s pioneering
work first drew my attention to the importance of training in Germany’s
successful manufacturing economy in the 1980s. In the meantime, a broad
consensus has emerged that skill formation is a crucial component in the
institutional constellations that define distinctive “varieties of capitalism”
in the developed democracies and very possibly beyond. This literature has
made it very clear that different skill formation regimes have important
consequences for a variety of contemporary political economic outcomes,
but it had nothing to say about where these institutions had come from in
the first place. This is what I wanted to find out.
The cross-national component of this book, therefore, explores the
genesis of some striking institutional differences across four countries –
Germany, Britain, the United States, and Japan – asking the question:
“Why did these countries pursue such different trajectories with respect to
skill formation and plant-based training?” My research led me back to the
nineteenth century and pointed specifically to differences in the coalitional
alignments among three key groups – employers in skill-intensive indus-
tries (especially metalworking), traditional artisans, and early trade unions.
Along the way, I discovered how the development of skill formation in the
early industrial period interacted with the development of collective bar-
gaining institutions and nascent labor unions and employer organizations
in ways that set countries on different political-economic paths. My analysis
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Preface

identifies important similarities between Germany and Japan (both seen as

prime examples of “coordinated” market economies in the contemporary
literature) and between Britain and the United States (as “liberal” market
economies). However, I also underscore and explain important differences
between these pairs of cases in how training came to be organized, with
enormous implications for the type of skill formation that each country
institutionalized and for organized labor’s role within it.
As I worked out the historical origins of these divergent national tra-
jectories, I became increasingly intrigued with the related but somewhat
different question of how institutional arrangements such as these, which
are forged in the rather distant past, actually make it to the present. This is
not an idle question, it seems to me, especially given the massive transfor-
mation of the political and economic landscapes in all four countries over
the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This observation prompted me
to undertake, alongside the cross-national dimension, a parallel longitudi-
nal analysis in which I set out to track the evolution of German training
institutions over a somewhat longer time frame than the other cases, from
the 1870s to the present.
This aspect of the research was organized around a somewhat different,
but, I thought and think, even more compelling theoretical puzzle. In the
literature on contemporary labor politics, Germany’s vocational training
system has conventionally (and quite correctly) been seen as a crucial insti-
tutional support for the country’s high-skill, high-wage, high-value-added
manufacturing economy. As such, the vocational training system has been
viewed as a key element in a larger institutional complex that actively sup-
ports a production regime organized around a kind of “diversified quality
production” that reconciles Germany’s strong unions with strong perfor-
mance in world manufacturing markets. As the historical analysis of the
genesis of the system had shown, however, the core institutional innovation
around which the German system came to be built (in 1897) was inspired
by deeply reactionary political motives and was mostly designed to weaken
(definitely not strengthen and incorporate) the then-surging organized la-
bor movement.
The longitudinal part of the study traces the evolution of the German
system from a core framework aimed mostly at defeating unions one hun-
dred years ago, to a pillar of social partnership between labor and capital
today – essentially asking the question, “how did we get from there to here?”
I argue against prominent theoretical perspectives based on a strong punc-
tuated equilibrium model that draws a sharp analytical distinction between
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Preface

long periods of institutional “stasis” periodically interrupted by some sort

of exogenous shock that opens things up, allowing for more or less radical
innovation or reorganization. In the case of the German training regime,
I found that institutional arrangements often turn out to be incredibly re-
silient in the face of huge exogenous shocks of the sort we might well
expect to disrupt previous patterns and prompt dramatic institutional in-
novation. One of the most striking features of this case is the durability of
core elements of the original training system through some rather large
disruptions over the twentieth century, which in Germany include several
regime changes (including into and out of fascism), defeat in two world
wars, and foreign occupation.
Conversely, though, and as the German case also shows, more sub-
tle and incremental changes occurring in relatively “settled” rather than
“unsettled” times can in fact cumulate into significant institutional trans-
formation. The analytic task, therefore, was to make sense of the incredible
stability of some elements of the system through a series of major his-
toric breaks, while also capturing the subtle incremental changes that,
over time, had turned the system, in political and especially power-
distributional terms, completely on its head. What the German case shows
is that institutions do not survive through “stasis” or by standing still but
rather precisely through their ongoing adaptation and renegotiation in re-
sponse to shifts in the political, market, and social environments. By track-
ing changes in the political coalitions on which institutions are founded,
this study illuminates the ways in which the form and functions of these
institutions could be radically reconfigured over time.

It is a pleasure now to thank the colleagues and friends on whom I have relied
in many different ways over the years in which this book was in the making.
Institutional support was provided by the American Institute for Contem-
porary German Studies, the Kellogg Institute, the Max-Planck-Institut für
Gesellschaftsforschung, Northwestern’s Institute for Policy Research, and
the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung. Separate and special
thanks go to the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, which provided a most con-
genial setting for the final stages of writing and whose fabulous librarians
and staff made the last steps in the process especially easy.
A number of colleagues and friends took time out from their own sched-
ules to comment on various chapters. My thanks go out to Lucio Baccaro,
Martin Behrens, Hartmut Berghoff, David Collier, Pepper Culpepper,
Gerald Feldman, Jacob Hacker, Hal Hansen, Jeff Haydu, Peter Hayes,
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Preface

Gary Herrigel, Chris Howell, Peter Katzenstein, Ira Katznelson, Desmond

King, Jürgen Kocka, James Mahoney, Philip Manow, Jim Mosher, Jonas
Pontusson, Sigrid Quack, Bo Rothstein, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, Theda
Skocpol, Steven Vogel, Kozo Yamamura, and John Zysman. The first half of
Chapter 4 is a reworked and augmented version of an article I co-authored
with my colleague and friend Ikuo Kume, originally published as “The Rise
of Nonliberal Training Regimes: Germany and Japan Compared,” Journal
of Japanese Studies 25: 1 ( January 1999). I thank the Journal for permission
to use this material, and I am deeply indebted to Ikuo for opening up to me
the world of Japanese labor and political economy.
I had the good fortune to be writing this book at a time when Paul
Pierson was puzzling through some of the same theoretical issues explored
here, and it would be hard to overestimate the influence our ongoing con-
versations have had on my own work and thinking about these matters.
David Soskice, likewise, has provided ongoing intellectual sustenance and
stimulation over the years, and he has always been receptive to my efforts to
build on aspects of his work from the slightly different angle from which I
approach these things. Jonathan Zeitlin has accompanied this book almost
since its inception, and I have benefited tremendously from the expertise
and intellectual generosity he brought to bear in reading papers and chap-
ters along the way. I am grateful to my former Northwestern University
colleagues Peter Swenson and Michael Wallerstein, with whom I have been
discussing these issues for years and whose work has had a deep impact on
my own, as anyone reading these pages will surely see.
There are two scholars and friends to whom I owe a special debt of
gratitude. Peter Hall sets the standard for collegiality, critical engagement,
and support. This particular work was much improved as a result of Peter’s
extraordinary commentary on the manuscript in the final stages of writing,
but his contribution to how I think about politics and political economy goes
far beyond this and is hard to capture in a single turn of a phrase. Wolfgang
Streeck has provided many different kinds of support for my work over the
past several years. He continues to be a source of intellectual inspiration and
generally keeps me thinking and learning. Wolfgang is also the one who,
in response to an early paper, urged me to delve deeper into the politics of
skill formation, which proved to be a very rich vein to mine.
I benefited from exceptionally good research assistance in writing
this book. Helen Callaghan and Margitta Mätzke did a superb job with
research assignments relating to specific chapters or arguments. Christa
van Wijnbergen deserves a separate acknowledgment, as her work on this
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Preface

project and her contributions to improving it went well beyond the usual
bounds of research assistance. Sarah Stucky furnished expert help in prepar-
ing the index.
I extend special thanks as well to Margaret Levi for her unending and
inexhaustible enthusiasm for this project and to Lewis Bateman and Cam-
bridge University Press for all they have done to promote and improve this
work. I am grateful to the SK Stiftung in Cologne, Germany, for permission
to use the August Sander photograph on the cover and to Steve Krasner
and Caroline Jones for pointing me in Sander’s direction in the first place.
I have a few personal debts to acknowledge. I begin with three women
who immeasurably enrich my life and lives on both sides of the Atlantic –
Gisela Kühne, Jessica Ticus, and Sandra Waxman. I doubt they know how
incredibly centrally they have figured in sustaining me, not just through
this project but generally and every single day – which is why I am writing
it down. My family has also accompanied me through this process and each
member has contributed in his or her own distinctive way. My wise and
wisecracking teenager Andy knew when and how to inject a little levity into
the mix, and Amelia’s enthusiasm for foreign adventure buoyed me up when
things were difficult. My husband Ben Schneider knows exactly and very
well all the ways he has contributed to my completing this work. In the
unlikely event that he thinks this may have been lost on me, I dedicate the
book to him.

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Other Books in the Series (continued from page iii)

Kanchan Chandra, Why Ethnic Parties Succeed: Patronage and Ethnic Head Counts in
India
Ruth Berins Collier, Paths toward Democracy: The Working Class and Elites in
Western Europe and South America
Donatella della Porta, Social Movements, Political Violence, and the State
Gerald Easter, Reconstructing the State: Personal Networks and Elite Identity
Robert J. Franzese, Jr., Macroeconomic Policies of Developed Democracies
Roberto Franzosi, The Puzzle of Strikes: Class and State Strategies in Postwar Italy
Geoffrey Garrett, Partisan Politics in the Global Economy
Miriam Golden, Heroic Defeats: The Politics of Job Loss
Jeff Goodwin, No Other Way Out: States and Revolutionary Movements, 1945–1991
Merilee Serrill Grindle, Changing the State
Anna Gryzymala-Busse, Redeeming the Communist Past: The Regeneration
of Communist Parties in East Central Europe
Frances Hagopian, Traditional Politics and Regime Change in Brazil
J. Rogers Hollingsworth and Robert Boyer, eds., Contemporary Capitalism:
The Embeddedness of Institutions
John D. Huber and Charles R. Shipan, Deliberate Discretion?: The Institutional
Foundations of Bureaucratic Autonomy
Ellen Immergut, Health Politics: Interests and Institutions in Western Europe
Torben Iversen, Contested Economic Institutions
Torben Iversen, Jonas Pontusson, and David Soskice, eds., Unions, Employers,
and Central Banks: Macroeconomic Coordination and Institutional Change
in Social Market Economics
Thomas Janoski and Alexander M. Hicks, eds., The Comparative Political Economy
of the Welfare State
David C. Kang, Crony Capitalism: Corruption and Capitalism in South Korea
and the Philippines
Robert O. Keohane and Helen B. Milner, eds., Internationalization
and Domestic Politics
Herbert Kitschelt, The Transformation of European Social Democracy
Herbert Kitschelt, Peter Lange, Gary Marks, and John D. Stephens, eds.,
Continuity and Change in Contemporary Capitalism
Herbert Kitschelt, Zdenka Mansfeldova, Radek Markowski, and Gabor Toka,
Post-Communist Party Systems
David Knoke, Franz Urban Pappi, Jeffrey Broadbent, and Yutaka Tsujinaka, eds.,
Comparing Policy Networks
Allan Kornberg and Harold D. Clarke, Citizens and Community: Political Support
in a Representative Democracy
Amie Kreppel, The European Parliament and the Supranational Party System
David D. Laitin, Language Repertories and State Construction in Africa
Fabrice E. Lehoucq and Ivan Molina, Stuffing the Ballot Box: Electoral Fraud,
Electoral Reform, and Democratization in Costa Rica
Mark Irving Lichbach and Alan S. Zuckerman, eds., Comparative Politics:
Rationality, Culture, and Structure
Evan S. Lieberman, Race and Regionalism in the Politics of Taxation in Brazil and
South Africa

1
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0521837685pre Thelen 0521837685 June 19, 2004 10:36

Pauline Jones Luong, Institutional Change and Political Continuity in Post-Soviet

Central Asia: Power, Perception, and Pacts
Doug McAdam, John McCarthy, and Mayer Zald, eds., Comparative Perspectives on
Social Movements
James Mahoney and Dietrich Rueschemeyer, eds., Historical Analysis in the Social
Sciences
Scott Mainwaring and Matthew Soberg Shugart, eds., Presidentialism and
Democracy in Latin America
Isabela Mares, The Politics of Social Risk: Business and Welfare State Development
Anthony W. Marx, Making Race, Making Nations: A Comparison of South Africa, the
United States, and Brazil
Joel S. Migdal, State and Society: Studying How States and Societies Constitute One
Another
Joel S. Migdal, Atul Kohli, and Vivienne Shue, eds., State Power and Social Forces:
Domination and Transformation in the Third World
Scott Morgenstern and Benito Nacif, eds., Legislative Politics in Latin America
Layna Mosley, Global Capital and National Governments
Wolfgang C. Muller and Kaare Strom, Policy, Office, or Votes?
Maria Victoria Murillo, Labor Unions, Partisan Coalitions, and Market Reforms in
Latin America
Ton Notermans, Money, Markets, and the State: Social Democratic Economic Policies
since 1918
Roger D. Petersen, Understanding Ethnic Violence: Fear, Hatred, and Resentment in
Eastern Europe
Simona Piattoni, ed., Clientelism, Interests, and Democratic Representation
Paul Pierson, Dismantling the Welfare State?: Reagan, Thatcher, and the Politics of
Retrenchment
Marino Regini, Uncertain Boundaries: The Social and Political Construction of
European Economies
Jefferey M. Sellers, Governing from Below: Urban Regions and the Global Economy
Yossi Shain and Juan Linz, eds., Interim Governments and Democratic Transitions
Beverly J. Silver, Forces of Labor: Workers’ Movement and Globalization since 1870
Theda Skocpol, Social Revolutions in the Modern World
Richard Snyder, Politics after Neoliberalism: Reregulation in Mexico
David Stark and László Bruszt, Postsocialist Pathways: Transforming Politics and
Property in East Central Europe
Sven Steinmo, Kathleen Thelen, and Frank Longstreth, eds., Structuring Politics:
Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Analysis
Susan C. Stokes, Mandates and Democracy: Neoliberalsm by Surprise in Latin America
Susan C. Stokes, ed., Public Support for Market Reform in New Democracies
Duane Swank, Global Capital, Political Institutions, and Policy Change in Developed
Welfare States
Sidney Tarrow, Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics
Ashutosh Varshney, Democracy, Development, and the Countryside
Elisabeth Jean Wood, Forging Democracy from Below: Insurgent Transients in South
Africa and El Salvador
Elisabeth Jean Wood, Insurgent Collective Action in El Salvador

2
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The Political Economy of Skills in

Comparative-Historical Perspective

The past two decades have witnessed an enormous outpouring of litera-

ture on the putative effects of “globalization” on the political economies
of the advanced industrial countries. A good deal of this literature was in-
spired by early, sometimes rather breathless predictions of a trend toward
convergence in the institutional arrangements governing these political
economies. Such convergence, it was argued by some, would result from
the pressures imposed by footloose firms engaged in “regime shopping”
which would in turn drive competitive deregulation among the advanced
countries (see, for example, Kapstein 1996; Kurzer 1993).1 These prospects
were especially worrisome to students of Europe’s “corporatist” political
economies, which had long been admired as models of economic efficiency
and social equality.
In the meantime, however, a good deal of evidence has accumulated that
calls into question arguments about a convergence among the institutional
arrangements that characterize different political economies (Berger and
Dore 1996; Brown, Green, and Lauder 2001; Ferner and Hyman 1998;
Garrett 1998; Iversen, Pontusson, and Soskice 2000; Kitschelt et al. 1999;
Streeck and Yamamura 2002; Vogel 2001; Wallerstein and Golden 1997).
Although there are certainly changes afoot in all countries, a number of
scholars have pointed to systematic and apparently enduring differences in
the organization of capitalism across the advanced industrial countries. Dif-
ferent authors characterize these differences each in his or her own way, but
the consensus that has emerged is truly striking. Boyer and Hollingsworth
write of distinctive national “production regimes” which are defined by a

1 Harry Katz and Owen Darbishire make a more nuanced argument about the pace and scope
of common trends (Katz and Darbishire 1999; see also Martin and Ross 1999).

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The Political Economy of Skills in Comparative-Historical Perspective

set a mutually reinforcing institutional arrangements that together support

different types of firm strategies in international markets – situating the
United States and the United Kingdom at one end of a continuum and
Germany and Japan at the other (Boyer and Hollingsworth 1997; see also
King and Wood 1999).2 This work resonates with Streeck’s analysis, which
distinguishes between “liberal” market economies such as the United States
and Britain and “socially embedded” political economies such as Japan and
Germany (Streeck 2001). Michel Albert’s popular book draws a distinc-
tion between what he calls the “Anglo Saxon” and the “Rhineland” ver-
sions of capitalism, which, as Streeck has pointed out, also situates “not
just Stockholm but also Tokyo” on the banks of the Rhine (Albert 1993).
All this, in turn, maps well onto the analysis of David Soskice, who has
characterized cross-national differences in advanced capitalism in terms of
a broad distinction between “coordinated” and “non-coordinated” market
economies, and more recently, in collaboration with Peter Hall, of “coordi-
nated” versus “liberal” market economies (Hall and Soskice 2001; Soskice
1991).
What all these works share in common is a perspective on national mod-
els of capitalism that are characterized by distinctive institutional arrange-
ments which in turn support specific kinds of strategies on the part of firms
in international markets. These authors all point to more or less the same
set of institutional arrangements that have traditionally been defined as cen-
tral to the functioning of these political economies – financial institutions,
industrial relations institutions, vocational training systems, bank–industry
links, and more recently, welfare state institutions and policies (Ebbinghaus
and Manow 2001; Estevez-Abe, Iversen, and Soskice 2001). For all their dif-
ferences, these authors make very similar distinctions across countries, and
draw an especially sharp line between “organized” (or “embedded”) capi-
talist economies such as Germany and Japan on the one hand, and “liberal”
market economies such as the United States and the United Kingdom on
the other.3 The former are characterized by “patient capital,” coordinated

2 The literature on the political economy of advanced capitalism from the 1970s and 1980s
similarly focused on distinctive national models (for example, Hall 1986, Zysman 1983, and
corporatism theorists of the 1970s). The newer literature on “varieties of capitalism” is an
outgrowth of that earlier work, though with some important theoretical innovations. For
an extended discussion, see Thelen (2002b).
3 In fact, all these various categorization schemes also have trouble sorting the same set of
“intermediate” or hard to classify countries, including France and Italy.

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employers, and various forms of labor-management cooperation. The lat-

ter, by contrast, are defined by short-term financing arrangements, frag-
mented employers, and more adversarial industrial relations systems.
What these characterizations also share is a view of these systems as
more or less integrated wholes, in which the various parts work together
in ways that are mutually reinforcing. But what brought these systems into
being? And what holds them together today? And, since no one would argue
that these systems are not changing in fundamental ways, how should we
characterize the dynamics of change and weigh these against the forces of
institutional reproduction? These questions are at the top of the agenda in
the context of current globalization pressures, and yet on these issues the
consensus begins to break down.
Hall and Soskice’s characterization of the ideal-typical “organized” and
“liberal” market economies emphasizes tight coupling and multiple func-
tional interconnections among the various institutional arrangements that
make up a national economic “system” (Hall and Soskice 2001). For these
authors, the existence of institutional complementarities across various are-
nas contributes to the robustness of the system as a whole, for two rea-
sons. One is that institutional frameworks provide the foundation on which
(nationally distinctive) competitive advantage rests, so that key actors (espe-
cially employers) who have organized their strategies around these institu-
tions will be loath to part with them. The other is that, even if they wanted
to change some aspects of the system, shifting rules in one arena would
require adjustments in other, neighboring realms, which both increases the
costs of change for them and also multiplies the political obstacles to such
change. That said, however, and despite the fact that Hall and Soskice over-
all see the systems as very robust, tight coupling and strong institutional
complementarities also seem to suggest that a major disruption in one realm
(for example, financial institutions) would immediately “radiate” and trans-
late into significant strains and change in neighboring realms (for example,
collective bargaining).
Streeck’s historical–sociological account also stresses institutional com-
plementarities but it downplays the functional and economic logic in favor
of a more singularly political view. Streeck views national “systems” as the
product of past and ongoing political intervention and tinkering, of active
maintenance and re-setting. Whatever structural or functional coherence
we may now observe in these systems, he argues, “had to be continuously es-
tablished, restored, redefined and defended against all sorts of disorganizing

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The Political Economy of Skills in Comparative-Historical Perspective

forces” (Streeck 2001: 31). He emphasizes how national models are not the
product of a grand design, and “Ex post accommodation . . . seems to have
been at least as important . . . as a priori calculations of the advantages of
compatibility and complementarity under conditions of interdependence”
(Streeck 2001: 31). Unlike Hall and Soskice’s equilibrium-based view of
institutions, Streeck sees these arrangements as inherently less coherent
and therefore also not at all self-equilibrating, which leads to a picture that
is overall less sanguine about the robustness of such systems. At the same
time, however, and for many of the same reasons, this alternative view would
not necessarily see such systems as vulnerable to the kind of “unraveling”
mentioned above in the event of strong perturbations in one realm.
The premise of this book is that in order to understand the likely fu-
ture of the institutions that make up the different “varieties of capitalism”
we need a better sense of where these institutions came from, what has
sustained them, and what are the ways in which they have changed over
time. This is not the first time these systems have experienced strain, and
understanding how they evolved in the past can yield new insights into the
modes and mechanisms of change through which they continue to develop
today. My analysis focuses on the institutions of skill formation because
they constitute a key element in the institutional constellations identified
by all the authors cited above. In fact, one recent strand of scholarship sees
skills and skill formation systems as causally central to the development and
articulation of social policy preferences generally, and thus foundational for
the development and maintenance of different systems of social protection
across the developed democracies (see, especially, Iversen and Soskice 2001;
also Iversen 2003).
I approach the politics of skill formation from two angles, pursuing both
a cross-national and a longitudinal dimension. First, the cross-national com-
ponent of the study traces the origins of different skill formation regimes,
focusing especially on Britain and Germany, and with only slightly less de-
tailed treatments as well of Japan and the United States. This part of the
book asks the questions: Why did different countries pursue such different
trajectories in terms of plant-based training? And: how did the evolution of
training institutions interact with the development of “collateral” organiza-
tions and institutions – especially labor unions and employer associations,
and industrial relations institutions?
One of the most widely cited differences between “coordinated” market
economies (such as Germany and Japan) and “liberal” market economies
(such as the United States and United Kingdom) is that the former
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The Political Economy of Skills in Comparative-Historical Perspective

support more and better plant-based training.4 My comparative historical-

institutional analysis traces the origins of these contemporary differences
back to the nineteenth century. Contemporary differences in skill forma-
tion go back to important differences in the character of the settlement be-
tween employers in skill-based industries, artisans, and early trade unions. I
show how the development of skill formation in the early industrial period
interacted with the development of collective bargaining institutions and
nascent labor unions and employer organizations in ways that set coun-
tries on different national trajectories. The present analysis identifies some
similarities between Germany and Japan (both as “coordinated” market
economies), and between Britain and the United States (as “liberal” mar-
ket economies). However, it also underscores the substantial differences
between these cases in how training is organized – with enormous implica-
tions for the type of skill formation that each country institutionalized and
for labor’s role within it.5
The cross-national component of the analysis draws on an excellent
secondary literature on the histories of unions, employer organizations,
and skill formation, as well as on primary documents where these were
needed to address the specific questions around which this research was
organized. The main goal is to situate a number of country experiences

4 Mine is not the first study to draw attention to these particular cases. As mentioned above,
the different literatures on varieties of capitalism tend to focus on the same basic clusters
of countries. Likewise, in the literature on skills in particular, it is not uncommon to draw
a broad distinction between Germany and Japan on one hand (as “high-skill” economies)
and the United States and United Kingdom on the other (as “low-skill” or strongly skill
bifurcated economies) (for example, Ashton and Green 1996; Brown, Green, and Lauder
2001). This convention follows pioneering work by Finegold and Soskice (1988), who draw
a sharp line between “high-skill” and “low-skill” equilibrium countries, though in the mean-
time this somewhat simplified distinction has been superseded by a more differentiated view
that emphasizes the different types and mixes of skills produced within any one country.
This is also why I adopt the somewhat less normatively inflected language of “coordinated”
versus “liberal” training regimes, which are characterized by different mixes of strengths
and weaknesses in skill formation. See the discussion below.
5 Ashton and Green (1996) propose an explanation of these outcomes that is broadly com-
patible with mine. However their historical analysis is very fleeting (five to ten pages per
country, and in each case covering both plant-based and school-based training). Their ex-
planation of these outcomes hinges on the behavior of highly aggregated actors (“the ruling
class,” the “bourgeoisie,” the “aristocracy”), and the conclusions – although not wrong –
are highly simplified. Many of their assertions (for example, the idea that the Handwerk
sector was “undermined” by industrialization or the implication that unions pushed for
skill standardization against employer opposition) are not consistent with the results of the
historical–empirical research presented here (Ashton and Green 1996: 142–3).

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within a theoretical framework that can illuminate causal mechanisms at

work across a number of cases. Each of the countries included in the broader
study can be – has been – characterized as unique in the literature on politi-
cal economy and labor development – Britain as the first industrializer; the
German “Sonderweg”; American and Japanese “exceptionalism.” Without
taking away from the fundamental uniqueness of each case, this project
attempts to put their experiences with skill formation and labor incorpora-
tion side by side to shed light on systematic parallels and differences among
them.
Second, the longitudinal dimension of the research tracks the development
of the German vocational training system over a longer time frame than
the other cases – indeed, up to the present. This aspect of the study tackles
the question of how institutions evolve and is organized around a somewhat
different puzzle. Germany’s vocational training system has been held up as
an exemplary solution to a number of knotty coordination problems that
plague most private sector training regimes. The German system encour-
ages firms to invest in worker skills, and it provides mechanisms to assure
that apprentices will receive high quality training. More generally, voca-
tional training institutions in Germany are typically seen as part of a larger
institutional package which, along with centralized collective bargaining,
strong bank–industry links, and encompassing employer associations and
labor unions, are seen as underpinning the country’s high skill, high wage,
high value-added (“high everything”) economy. The vocational training
system is viewed as a key element in a larger institutional complex that ac-
tively supports a production regime organized around a kind of “diversified
quality production” that reconciles Germany’s comparatively strong unions
with strong performance in world manufacturing markets (Streeck 1991).
Scholars coming out of different theoretical perspectives have offered
different views of the German system. From a functional–utilitarian per-
spective, German vocational training institutions have been seen as part of a
complex institutional configuration that, among other things, supports em-
ployer coordination around a “high skill equilibrium” (Soskice 1991). From
a power–resource perspective, the German vocational training system has
been assumed to be a reflection of working class strength (for example,
Gillingham 1985). From a sociological–cultural perspective, these institu-
tions have been seen as a prime example of a more general, and distinctively
German, mode of self-governance, which operates through the country’s
social partners and without much direct intervention from the state (see,
for example, Lehmbruch 2001).
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There is a way in which, looking at these institutions today, all these

characterizations contain an element of truth. After an examination of the
historical evolution of this system, however, they all seem rather puzzling.
The core institutional innovation around which the German system came
to be built was legislation passed in 1897 by an authoritarian government
motivated politically by a desire to shore up and support a conservative
class of independent artisanal or handicraft producers that could serve as
a bulwark against the surging and radical working class movement. The
1897 legislation proved to be very important to stabilizing a certain type
of plant-based apprenticeship that in other countries was rapidly deteri-
orating into cheap child labor. Against prominent utilitarian-functionalist
characterizations focusing on current effects, however, these institutions
were not originally designed with the economic interests of the industrial
sector in mind (industry was excluded in fact) and they were certainly not
meant to reconcile strong unions with anything. Against perspectives that
assume that these institutions must have been the creation of unions, we
find that organized labor played no role in promoting the original legisla-
tion, and in fact, the Social Democratic party opposed it. Finally, against
the cultural–sociological perspective mentioned above, it becomes clear
that the particular type of social partnership of which these institutions are
(now) seen to be a part was really nowhere on the horizon.
How did we get from there to here? Not through a wholesale breakdown
of the old institutions and their replacement with new ones. One of the
striking features of the system is the resiliency of core elements even in the
face of enormous disruptions over the twentieth century, which of course in
Germany include several regime changes, the incorporation of the working
class, defeat in not one but two world wars, occupation, and transitions
both into and out of fascism. Although changes certainly occurred at these
junctures, what is remarkable and in need of explanation are some striking
continuities in key features of this system despite these disjunctures. This
case, in short, calls for an analysis both of the mechanisms of reproduction
that sustained these institutions and the mechanisms behind their functional
and distributional transformation over time.
An examination of the evolution of German vocational training institu-
tions can provide a window on larger questions of institutional evolution
and change. I argue that this case illustrates the way in which institutional
reproduction is often inextricably linked to elements of institutional trans-
formation of the sort that brings institutions inherited from the past into
synch with changes in the political and economic context. In the case of
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German vocational training institutions, I analyze how the emergence and

incorporation of new groups whose participation was not anticipated at
the time the system was created drove the development of these institu-
tions forward in ways that, over time, produced a system whose political–
distributional effects are completely different from those envisioned by the
original designers.
While emphasizing and explaining the disjuncture between original in-
tent and ultimate effects, the analysis of the evolution of German vocational
training institutions also speaks to the issue of institutional reproduction –
a more problematic concept than typically recognized (for a discussion,
see Thelen 1999). A point of departure for my analysis is that we need to
pay more attention to how institutions created at critical junctures in the
sometimes quite distant past actually make it to the present, given the mag-
nitude of some of the intervening events and developments. I argue that it
is not sufficient to view institutions as frozen residue of critical junctures,
or even as “locked in” in the straightforward sense that path dependence
arguments adapted from the economics literature often suggest. In politics,
institutional reproduction can be partly understood in terms of the increas-
ing returns effects to which this literature has drawn our attention – but
only partly. Only partly because as one observes the development of the
German system over a long stretch of time, it becomes clear that institu-
tional survival often involves active political renegotiation and heavy doses
of institutional adaptation, in order to bring institutions inherited from the
past into line with changes in the social and political context. The question
of the mechanisms of institutional reproduction and institutional change is
thus the second major theme explored in the pages below.

Skills and Skill Formation

Vocational training institutions occupy a central role in most characteriza-
tions of the various political–economic systems cited above – and for good
reason. Skills are associated with a variety of outcomes of interest to polit-
ical economists. The acquisition of skills and investment in human capital
are seen by many economists as “an engine of growth” (Acemoglu and
Pischke 1999a: F112), and deemed to be “absolutely central to countries’
growth performance” (Booth and Snower 1996: 1). Several studies point
to a strong link between skills and productivity (Acemoglu 1996; Black
and Lynch 1996; Bishop 1994; Lynch 1994: 21–2). In addition, growth
and human capital development also figure prominently in “endogenous
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growth theory,” which argues that a country’s knowledge base is an impor-

tant resource for innovation and which has linked cross-national differences
in education to persistent disparities in per capita income across national
economies (Romer 1990).
Political scientists and sociologists are as interested in the social conse-
quences of various skill development systems as they are in the economic im-
pact (for example, Brown, Green, and Lauder 2001). As mentioned above,
analysts have begun pointing to the consequences of different skill forma-
tion regimes for broad social and institutional outcomes, including gender
inequality and divergent social policy regimes (Estevez-Abe, Iversen, and
Soskice 2001; Mares 2000; Iversen and Soskice 2001; Lauder 2001). Differ-
ent training systems have also been linked to a range of more specific politi-
cal and social effects. For example, training regimes in what Hall and Soskice
call “liberal market economies” tend to be associated with rather wide gaps
in the opportunities available to different types of workers, with implica-
tions for, among other things, income inequality (also Crouch, Finegold,
and Sako 1999: 3). In general, less skilled workers have more opportu-
nities for advancement in what Hall and Soskice call “organized market
economies” which are, in turn, also characterized by greater income and
wage equality.6 Wage inequalities based on skill have been rising as a result
of changing technology, which increases the skill premium as well as the
overall skill intensity of production (Levy and Murnane 1992; Katz and
Murphy 1992; Gottschalk and Smeeding 1997).
Sustained attention to vocational training institutions in the literature
on the political economy of the advanced industrial countries can be traced
back largely to Streeck’s pioneering work in this area (Streeck 1992b). Based
on an analysis of the German case, Streeck showed how strong private
sector training within the context of a standardized and uniform national
system for vocational education supported firm strategies based on what
he called diversified quality production (Streeck 1991). For Streeck, voca-
tional skills (broad-based and widely available) constitute a crucial compet-
itive advantage for firms operating in “technologically and economically
volatile markets” (1992b: 166). But despite the benefits of training, Streeck
noted, firms operating according to strict economic rationality will system-
atically under-invest in the kind of broad and transferable skills necessary

6 For example, Acemoglu and Pischke note that low education entry-level workers are more
likely to get training in Germany than in the United States (Acemoglu and Pischke 1999a:
F129).

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to compete in these markets. As he puts it: “firms that create only those
skills that they need may well end up with less than they need. Cost- and
profit-consciousness are more part of the problem than of the solution”
(Streeck 1992b: 17). In Streeck’s view, cultural or political constraints that
bend the logic of individual market incentives – in this case encouraging
firms to “over invest” in skills – may turn out “to be more conducive to
economic performance under given technological and market conditions
than others” (Streeck 1992b: vii).
Given this posing of the problem, Germany was long considered a
model of successful vocational training and skill formation for the ad-
vanced industrial countries generally. The comparisons to other countries
were mostly invidious (see, for example, Berg 1994; Oulton and Steedman
1994; Finegold 1993). In one important contribution, for example, David
Finegold and David Soskice examined the institutional bases of Germany’s
“high skill” and the United Kingdom’s “low skill” equilibria (Finegold and
Soskice 1988). In particular, they argued that Britain’s chronic undersupply
of training went back to public good or free rider problems, and the re-
sulting dearth of skills in the economy encouraged firms to pursue product
strategies premised on low skills, which in turn discouraged investment in
skills, and so on. This dynamic provided the backdrop to their analysis of
the inability and/or unwillingness of the British government to take action
to break the cycle (Finegold and Soskice 1988: 25ff).
In the meantime, the literature has begun to paint a somewhat more dif-
ferentiated pattern of strengths and weaknesses (see, for example, Crouch,
Finegold, and Sako 1999; Culpepper 2003; Culpepper and Finegold 1999;
Hall and Soskice 2001; Green and Sakamoto 2001). Thus, for example,
Finegold’s more recent work highlights Germany’s continued high invest-
ment in initial manufacturing skills (apprenticeship) but notes deficits in
the commitment of firms to further training – now arguably more impor-
tant than ever in the context of rapidly changing production technology –
(see Pichler 1993), as well as the overall scarcity of certain high-end
(information technology and engineering) skills (Crouch, Finegold, and
Sako 1999; Atkins 2000). Conversely, the United States, long viewed as a
skills “laggard,” is now getting more credit for producing an abundance
of high-end skills – having become a net exporter of skills in informa-
tion technologies, for example – despite continued worries about the coun-
try’s under-investment in traditional manufacturing skills (Hall and Soskice
2001; Smith 2000). In a way, the emphasis in the political economy litera-
ture has shifted from an effort to identify overall differences in the quantity
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of training cross-nationally,7 toward a more fine-grained analysis of cross-

national differences in the particular mix of jobs and qualifications that char-
acterize different political economies (Estevez-Abe, Iversen, and Soskice
2001; Crouch, Finegold, and Sako 1999).

Economists on Skills
As a first step in situating this literature and in mapping the empirical cases, it
is useful to summarize briefly the way in which economists have approached
the issue of skill formation. A point of departure for the political economy
literature cited above is training market failures going back to poaching
externalities, a view which for most of the first half of the twentieth cen-
tury was widely accepted among economists (see, for example, Pigou 1912;
Stevens 1996). The crux of the problem was seen to consist of a collective
action dilemma. Specifically, firms that need skills face a choice: whether to
provide their own training (at some cost to themselves), or attempt to secure
skilled labor on the labor market (in effect, to attract workers from other
firms that have invested in training). Since firms are themselves competitors
in labor and product markets, each individual company will be tempted to
poach workers from other firms, thus avoiding the costs associated with skill
formation and in fact making off with the investment of its competitors.
The more firms that choose this strategy, the greater will be the costs to
those firms that do train; they incur both the costs of training itself and the
costs of competing with non-training firms which – free of these costs –
can offer these workers a wage premium. If all firms pursue non-training
strategies, then of course all are worse off since this would diminish the
overall stock of skills on which all rely.
In a widely cited contribution, Gary Becker called into question this pos-
ing of the problem (1964). Becker distinguished between general skills and
specific skills and argued that poaching externalities would not be a prob-
lem in either case. For general skills – defined as those skills that are fully
transportable and hold value to many employers – it is quite true that firms
have no incentive to invest in training. But even if firms do not invest, work-
ers will, or in Becker’s words, “it is the trainees, not the firms who would
bear the cost of general training and profit from the return” (1993: 34).8

7 The available, mostly OECD, data are anyway notorious for their lack of comparability (for
example, OECD 1998: 10–11). For a discussion see also Lynch (1994).
8 Note that this formulation does not address the question of the supply of training, however.

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Assuming perfectly competitive labor markets, skilled workers who possess

general skills will be paid a wage equal to their marginal product, which
means that even though the firm has no incentive to pay for training (be-
ing unable to capture returns on that investment), the workers themselves
would do so (in the interest of their future higher wages). Becker’s argument
thus turns the poaching issue on its head: In a completely competitive labor
market, poaching is not a cause of under-investment in general skills, but
rather a mechanism assuring that a worker’s skill is valued at full marginal
product, thus providing an incentive for the workers themselves to acquire
training.
Specific skills, according to Becker, are completely non-transportable and
have value only to the particular firm in which the worker is employed
(Becker 1993: 40). Poaching again is not a problem, in this case because
firm-specific skills by definition are valuable only to the present employer.
Here the equilibrium outcome is for the firm and the worker to share the
costs of training. Facing no external competitors for the skills they are
imparting, firms can pay workers a wage below marginal product in order
to realize a return on the training investment. Workers will be willing to
share the costs since the resulting wage will lie above the external market
wage but below marginal productivity wage after training (Becker 1993: 42).
The problems that Becker identifies as sources of possible market fail-
ure resulting in under investment in skills go back not, as in the previous
literature, to poaching externalities, but rather mostly to capital market con-
straints and especially credit constraints on the trainees. Although willing to
invest in their own general training, trainees may find it hard to secure credit
to do so because of the high risk of default on a loan and/or the uncertainty
of the return on training (Becker 1993: 39–40 fn12). As Stevens (1999: 20)
points out, the expected returns on training are the highest for workers at
the beginning of their careers, precisely the time at which their accumulated
resources are lowest (also Acemoglu 1996; Acemoglu and Pischke 1999a).
Public policies that ease trainees’ credit constraints – for example, loans
or subsidies for training – could alleviate the sources of market failure iden-
tified by Becker. The logic of the argument suggests, however, that any
mechanism that effectively helps the worker defer or pay the costs of train-
ing will do. In traditional apprenticeship in many countries, for example,
fees paid by an apprentice’s family to the training firm and/or long periods
of apprentice indenture (in which firms continued to pay apprentices very
low wages even after they had acquired substantial skills) serve such a func-
tion. The logic of the argument points additionally to the benefits of some
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regulatory framework or system of accreditation that would ensure quality

training and therefore reduce the uncertainty of return on the trainee’s side.
As we will see, the decline of the British system of apprenticeship training
(for example) can be traced back to the failure to solve problems of uncertain
returns for either employers or trainees.

Beyond Becker
In the meantime a number of studies have emerged which take us “be-
yond Becker” (Acemoglu and Pischke 1999a) but also, paradoxically, back
to some of the training–market problems identified by the earlier literature.
This work responds in part to empirical anomalies that point to sources
of under investment in skills that appear not to be captured by the logic
of Becker’s model (Acemoglu and Pischke 1999a; Finegold and Soskice
1988). Most of this more recent scholarship does not take issue directly
with Becker’s analysis of the two ideal-typical models of training markets
characterized by perfect competition (general skills) and non-competitive
labor markets (specific skills), but research has focused on the provision of
training in the intermediate case of imperfectly competitive labor markets
for certain kinds of skills. Specifically, analysts have reacted to two aspects
of Becker’s argument: (1) the sharp distinction he draws between general
and specific skills (Estevez-Abe, Iversen, and Soskice 2001; Stevens 1996;
Stevens 1999),9 and (2) his implicit assumption that the market for general
skills will always be perfectly competitive (Acemoglu and Pischke 1998;
Acemoglu and Pischke 1999a; Acemoglu and Pischke 1999b).
First, Margaret Stevens attacks the problem by questioning Becker’s stark
categorization of skills as either general or specific. She focuses on an inter-
mediate category of skills, what she calls transferable skills.10 Such skills “are
of value to more than one firm, and there is competition between firms to
employ the worker, but competition is not sufficiently fierce that the wage
is driven up to the marginal product” (Stevens 1999: 19). Stevens and others
imply that very many skills fall into some kind of intermediate category.
In a similar vein, Finegold and Soskice note that a given firm may need
a particular mix of skills, and that while each one may be general the mix

9 Although Becker does recognize that most training is neither purely general nor purely
specific (Becker 1993: 40).
10 This seems similar to the category “industry skills” identified by Estevez-Abe, Iversen, and
Soskice (2001).

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itself is specific (Finegold and Soskice 1988; Acemoglu and Pischke 1999a:
F124). Moreover, Franz and Soskice (1995) argue that the acquisition of
general and specific skills is complementary, that is, teaching firm-specific
skills reduces the costs of teaching general skills and vice versa.
The introduction of this intermediate category of transferable skills
(portable but not really “general” in Becker’s sense) re-introduces the prob-
lem of poaching externalities since in an imperfectly competitive labor mar-
ket the value of the skill (= wage) will not necessarily be driven up fully to
marginal product, and some of the training accrues to the firm that employs
the skilled worker (Stevens 1999: 20). This situation reduces the employee’s
incentive to acquire skills (since he will not be able to capture the full re-
turn on his training investment in the form of wages), but for the very same
reason, it also increases the employer’s incentive to assume a part of the
costs of training. But this, in turn, raises again the possibility that one firm’s
investment in training might accrue to some other firm – that is, a poach-
ing externality – leading to under investment in skills of this type (Stevens
1999: 27).
Acemoglu and Pischke argue similarly for the possibility of imper-
fect labor market competition and associated implications for training
(Acemoglu and Pischke 1999a: F127). Whereas Stevens and others (for
example, Estevez-Abe, Iversen, and Soskice 2001) attack the Becker the-
sis by drawing out more fine-grained distinctions among types of skills,
however, Acemoglu and Pischke focus instead on the structure of the labor
market. Against Becker’s thesis that firms will never pay for general training,
they note empirical examples (German apprenticeship is one) where firms
do bear a significant fraction of the cost of general training (Acemoglu and
Pischke 1999a: F113–4). By way of explanation they cite labor market im-
perfections that prevent skilled workers from claiming wages equal to their
full marginal productivity and that thus allow employers to earn rents on
their training (Acemoglu and Pischke 1999a: F120; Acemoglu and Pischke
1998: 80).
Acemoglu and Pischke consider various sources of labor market imper-
fections. Institutions or situations that result in low labor turnover, for
example, distort the competitiveness of labor markets, making it possible
for employers to retain a worker after training at a wage lower than marginal
product. One source of low labor turnover is monopsony power exercised
by large firms that may dominate a local economy. Firms in such a situation
could pay a wage above the local rate but still below the marginal produc-
tivity of its trained workers (Acemoglu and Pischke 1998: 80–1). Japanese
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training is frequently coded as involving “specific” skills in Becker’s sense,

but as the historical analysis below shows, it may be more properly un-
derstood as a case in which imperfectly competitive labor markets stem-
ming from monopsony power (and coordination among monopsonists) al-
low firms to invest in transferable skills.11
Another source of labor market imperfections that figures prominently
in Acemoglu’s and Pischke’s analysis involves labor market institutions that
compress wages, thus holding back skilled workers’ wages. Wage compres-
sion encourages firms to invest in general training, because, by holding
wages below marginal productivity, it again allows the firm to capture some
of the returns from the investment. This is at odds with a core assump-
tion in Becker’s theory, that wages for workers possessing general skills will
grow at the same rate as their marginal productivity. Acemoglu and Pischke
point out, however, that labor market institutions may prevent this, with
implications for firm investment in training: “With competitive labor mar-
kets, firms never pay for investments in general training, whereas when
labor markets are imperfect, firm-sponsored training arises as an equilib-
rium phenomenon” (Acemoglu and Pischke 1999a: F112).12 As we will
see below, union policies in Germany that encouraged wage compression
in the Weimar years were indeed associated with substantial advances in
firm-based training.13

Back to Politics
The analytic move made by Acemoglu and Pischke – from the assumption
of perfectly competitive labor markets to the observation that the degree

11 Blinder and Krueger (1996) show that labor turnover in Japan is less than half the U.S.
level. Japanese management policies, including seniority-based wages, company-level so-
cial policy, and reluctance to recruit experienced workers from other firms, contribute to
this outcome.
12 Acemoglu and Pischke also note other sources of labor market imperfections that have
similar effects to low labor turnover and wage compression. These include matching and
search frictions, which make it difficult for workers to quit their jobs and find new ones, and
asymmetric information about how much training workers have (that is, a firm which trains
its workers has an advantage over competitors because it has better information about the
workers’ skill levels) (Acemoglu and Pischke 1999a).
13 Additionally, the typical argument about compression is that this creates incentives for em-
ployers to replace relatively expensive unskilled workers with machines. Together with the
skills argument I am making, this points toward a high-skill, higher technology trajectory
(supporting what Streeck has called “diversified quality production”) (see also Moene and
Wallerstein 1995; Streeck 1991).

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of competitiveness in the labor market can vary (with implications for the
incentives facing both firms and trainees) – is crucial to the present anal-
ysis because, as the case studies elaborated below show, training regimes
developed historically in tandem and in interaction with the development
of other labor-market institutions and organizations. In Britain, as we will
see, union structures and collective bargaining institutions developed in
ways that intensified and in some ways distorted competition among em-
ployers in both skilled labor and product markets. By contrast, in Germany
and Japan, developments with respect to union structures and collective
bargaining introduced labor-market imperfections that provided some in-
centives for firms to train while at the same time (re-)introducing collective
action problems associated with poaching.14
The point is that the structure and operation of skilled labor markets
can be significantly influenced by politics, and historically, the interaction
of the development of training regimes and of labor-market institutions
had a profound effect on what kind of skilled labor market employers (and
trainees) faced, as well as the kinds of solutions available for redressing
the particular (different) market failures that emerged in different contexts.
The problems (and solutions) that emerged historically are what lie behind
some of the striking contemporary national differences in training regimes
(Acemoglu and Pischke 1999a: F132).
In terms of outcomes, Peter Hall and David Soskice note that in lib-
eral market economies, the incentives are for young people to acquire skills
that are generally marketable rather than firm- or even industry-specific.
Companies may upgrade this education with some company training but
typically attempt to add only non-transferable (firm-specific) skills whose
full benefit they and only they can recoup (Hall and Soskice 2001). The
U.S. training regime thus does not favor strong firm-based investment in
private sector vocational training. It appears, however, to support very well
the production of a plentiful supply of “high-end” skills – for example, en-
gineering and programming – that thrive in a context that rewards strong
general (especially university) education and where demand for training on
the part of young people is driven by intense competition among firms.

14 Acemoglu and Pischke do not do the historical analysis, but they do stress the complemen-
tarities between training systems and labor market regulations (1999a: F136) and suggest
that “the more frictional and regulated labor markets [in Europe and Japan] may encourage
more firm-sponsored training” (Acemoglu and Pischke 1999b: 567). See also Peter Hall
and David Soskice who discuss institutional complementarities between training systems
and other political–economic institutions (Hall and Soskice 2001).

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In the organized market economies, by contrast, firms are more likely to

invest in general training of workers either because labor turnover is low
or because other institutions exist which reduce poaching and free rid-
ing (see also Acemoglu and Pischke 1998).15 But labor market imperfec-
tions also dampen the demand for training among youth, especially train-
ing that involves high investments of their own time and money, since
these workers will not be able to capture the full rents on their training
investment. This would be consistent with the observation of skill short-
ages at the high end (for example, information technology [IT] industries)
in some such economies (Smith 2000).16 This book focuses primarily on
blue collar training, but I return to these more general observations in the
conclusion.

Issues of Credible Commitment in Training:

Some Problems and Their Solutions
In a completely competitive labor market, that is, one in which the wages
of skilled workers are driven up to their full marginal productivity, firms
will not invest in general skills but workers will have incentives to do so. In
some cases workers can acquire these skills in public or private vocational
schools, or for higher level technical skills, in universities. In terms of firm-
based training for blue collar workers, the emphasis of the present study,
we have seen that although firms will not be inclined to share the costs of
training with workers, they may nonetheless provide training if the costs
can be effectively shifted onto the trainee. As mentioned above, traditional
apprenticeship in many countries was organized in such a way as to force
trainees to pay the costs of training. Long indentures, in which trainees
continued to be paid low wages for an extended period, are one example,
since near the end of an apprenticeship the training is virtually complete
but the trainee wage will be substantially lower than that of a skilled worker.
Such provisions serve the dual function of (1) reducing the credit constraints

15 The present analysis would also stress wage compression, which provides an incentive for
firms to invest in training even as it intensifies the poaching problem, the latter being in
effect “solved” at least in part by some of the same institutional arrangements that gave
rise to it. These institutions are cited by Hall and Soskice, and they include coordinated
bargaining (which compresses wages but also dampens poaching), strong employers as-
sociations (which punishes free riders), and plant level codetermination (which provides
relatively long job tenure).
16 As Christa van Wijnbergen has emphasized to me.

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The Political Economy of Skills in Comparative-Historical Perspective

facing trainees (since they “pay” for their training with low wages over a
long period), and (2) at the same time provide incentives for firms to train
by allowing them to share in the returns.
As this formulation already suggests, however, a key problem in insti-
tutionalizing a stable skill formation regime along these lines lies in the
difficulty in establishing a credible commitment between the trainee and
the training firm (see especially Hansen 1997: 280). Apprenticeship involves
an over-time contract between the trainee and the firm: The firm provides
high quality training, but in exchange needs some assurance that the ap-
prentice will in fact stay with the firm through the initial, high-cost period
and into the period in which the trainee’s contribution to production out-
paces the wages he or she is earning. In the absence of such assurances,
firms will be tempted to cut corners on training and exploit apprentices as
a source of cheap labor. For their part, apprentices will be willing to accept
below-market wages so long as they can be guaranteed employment that
allows them to reap the benefits of investment in this high-quality train-
ing (for example, by putting them at some future date in the market for
high-wage skilled labor, or alternatively, by guaranteeing them long-term
employment which protects against the skills thus acquired becoming obso-
lete). However, those apprentices who have reached the final stages of that
training (virtually fully trained but still earning below-market wages) will
be tempted to break off their apprenticeship in order to enter the regular
labor market where the skills they have already acquired can bring much
higher wages (Hansen 1997: 13, 280).
The problem is a classic dilemma that revolves around the difficulty of
securing mutually credible commitments from both parties to a training
contract. Without strong external monitoring and mechanisms for punish-
ing breaches of contract, neither party – neither firms nor trainees – can be
sure that the other party will keep up its end of the bargain. Unless some
mechanism is found to force firms to train well and to prevent them from
exploiting apprentices, at the same time forcing apprentices to stay long
enough for the company to recoup its investment, apprenticeship training
is likely to deteriorate into cheap unskilled labor.
One solution to these problems is a system of skill certification, in which
the state, employers, unions, or some combination of these, can devise
and enforce procedures for evaluating and certifying skills (Hansen 1997:
380–94). Such procedures hinder firms from exploiting apprentices because
firms whose trainees regularly fail standardized certification exams are likely
to lose their license to train (and with it, the contribution of low-wage
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Skills and Skill Formation

apprentices to production).17 A system of skill certification also reduces the

incentives for apprentices to leave early because trainees have to stay long
enough to receive their certificate, which then becomes a widely recog-
nized ticket to better jobs. Nothing guarantees that the relevant actors –
employers, trainees, or their collective associations – will actually be able
to implement such a system. As we will see, the failure to arrive at a stable
solution to these problems contributed to the deterioration of firm-based
apprenticeship in Britain, whereas such a skill certification program became
a central pillar of the German apprenticeship system.

Issues of Collective Action in Training: Some Problems and Their Solutions

In competitive labor markets the main problems leading to under invest-
ment in training are seen to be capital constraints on trainees, and such
problems also exist in imperfectly competitive labor markets because firms
only share and never bear fully the costs of training. But in addition, and for
the reasons sketched out above, poaching externalities will also play a role,
since firms can never be sure that they, rather than their competitors, will
reap the benefits of their training investment. As Hal Hansen points out,
“poaching firms [can] afford to pay a skilled apprentice a premium since
they [incur] no training costs to amortize” (Hansen 1997: 282–3).
In ideal typical terms, there are two different types of solutions to these
problems. One is a system for the collective provision of a plentiful sup-
ply of workers with highly portable skills (to which all firms contribute
and then on which all firms can also draw); the other involves the institu-
tionalization of firm-based training in the context of strong internal labor
markets.18 The first, collectivist, solution consists of measures to support
the provision of a pool of skills on which all employers can draw. Such a sys-
tem would have to include provisions that would ensure high portability of
skills (for example, through standardized skill certification). But such certi-
fication would render skilled labor markets more competitive and intensify
poaching problems (since they alleviate information asymmetries that give
current employers privileged information about the level and content of
a trainee’s skills). Thus, such a system would have to incorporate as well

17 There are also reputational effects. The firms whose trainees do especially poorly on cer-
tification exams are unlikely to be able to recruit the best apprentices.
18 These correspond to Gary Herrigel’s distinction between “decentralized” (and collectively
coordinated) and “autarkic” production regimes (Herrigel 1996b), and to Peter Swenson’s
categories of “solidaristic” versus “segmentalist” labor market strategies (Swenson 2002).

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The Political Economy of Skills in Comparative-Historical Perspective

strong institutional mechanisms to counteract poaching and avoid costly

competition among firms for skilled labor. This could be accomplished
through wage coordination – to reduce incentives for workers to engage
in “job hopping” – and/or other mechanisms such as strong industry or
employers’ associations to monitor firm behavior and punish poaching. In
addition, since wage coordination is strongly associated with wage compres-
sion (Wallerstein 1999), the same institutional mechanisms that create the
labor market imperfections that encourage firms to train in the first place
can also “solve” some of the resulting poaching problems. As we will see
below, Germany’s system of vocational training (with its strong corporatist
oversight by broad-based employers’ associations and unions) approaches
the ideal typical collectivist solution to private sector training.
The second solution is in many ways the mirror image of the first. Here
employers combine firm-based training with measures to shield themselves
from competition over labor in the external market. In such cases, a firm
might make a long-term commitment to the apprentice and/or provide a
generous package of company-specific benefits that reduces the trainee’s
interest in leaving the firm. This makes it “safe” for the firm to invest in
the worker’s skills, knowing that its investment can be amortized over the
worker’s career in the firm. In such cases training is also associated with
complementary personnel policies such as seniority wages and an internal
career ladder that reduce workers’ incentives to leave. The large firm sector
in Japan comes close to the autarkic (Herrigel) or segmentalist (Swenson)
ideal type.

The Argument in Brief

To preview the historical argument developed in the pages below: cross-
national differences in vocational training regimes can be traced back to
differences in the political settlement achieved between independent arti-
sans, skilled industrial workers, and employers in skill-intensive industries
in the early industrial period. The kinds of settlements that were possible
in individual countries were heavily mediated by state action (or inaction),
which frequently tipped the balance in ways that either facilitated coordina-
tion, both among firms and between unions and employers, and supported
non-liberal (or coordinated) training regimes, or aggravated the conflicts
of interest among them in ways that proved fatal to the institutionalization
of a stable system of firm-based training.
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The Argument in Brief

One broad and consequential divergence among these countries goes

back to the fate of the traditional artisanate in the early industrial period.
In the United States and Britain, industrialization occurred in a context
in which traditional artisanal organizations (the guilds) had either been
destroyed (Britain) or never developed (United States) and where early
labor organizations faced a less overtly repressive political regime.19 In both
countries, status distinctions between masters and journeymen were more
attenuated than in Germany and Japan, and political and market conditions
encouraged skilled workers to band together to defend their interests by
attempting to control the market in their skills. But union-administered
craft labor markets could be stabilized only with substantial support from
employers, a rare though not impossible occurrence.20 More often, the
emergence of craft unions in the early industrial period led to a situation in
which skill formation was contested across the class divide, as unions sought to
use apprenticeship to maintain the value of their scarce skills and employers
sought to defeat union attempts to control training to get the upper hand
in labor conflicts.
Where unions of skilled workers sought to manipulate the supply of
skills by imposing restrictions on apprenticeship training, especially on the
numbers of workers being trained, employers fought tenaciously (also gen-
erally successfully) against these measures. Conflicts between unions and
employers over skills and apprenticeship intensified rather than mitigated
the credible commitment problems cited above, resulting in an overall de-
cline in apprenticeship and firm-based training. Recurring skill shortages,
generated in part by the failure of firms to sponsor training, redounded to
the advantage of skilled unions in the short run. However, this dynamic in-
tensified competition for (and poaching of ) skilled labor among firms which
(à la Becker) further reduced firm incentives to train and pushed them in-
stead toward strategies that minimized their dependence on skill (Finegold
and Soskice 1988). Skilled unions responded to these developments by

19 For a very insightful discussion of Germany with reference to the contrasting British ex-
perience, see Kocka (1984) and Kocka (1986b). For other useful comparisons between
the two, see Mommsen and Husung (1985) and Crossick and Haupt (1984). Colin Crouch
makes a compelling (and much broader) argument about divergent national trajectories that
points specifically to the significance of the survival or destruction of traditional corporatist
institutions (including guilds) in the course of industrialization (Crouch 1993: especially
316–17).
20 The construction industry in many countries is an example. Another example, discussed in
Chapter 4, can be found in the stove industry in the United States at the turn of the last
century. In terms of national patterns, Denmark comes closest to this outcome.

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The Political Economy of Skills in Comparative-Historical Perspective

attempting to claim the right to perform particular jobs as their exclusive

domain ( job control unionism), such that, ironically, craft unions frequently
evolved over time into hodge-podge organizations whose membership was
increasingly defined more by the jobs they did rather than the skills they
commanded (Piore and Sabel 1984).
In Germany and Japan, by contrast, industrialization occurred under
authoritarian auspices, and the traditional artisanal sector survived as an
important corporate actor in apprenticeship training. In these cases, unions
of industrial workers developed in a context in which strategies based on
controlling craft-labor markets were not an option, among other reasons
because master artisans (self-employed or small employers) monopolized
these functions. Here, skill formation was not contested between labor and
capital in industry, but rather, between the artisanal sector and the modern
industrial sector. For reasons that are elaborated in more detail below, this
competition proved constructive rather than destructive to the preservation
of firm-sponsored training. Unions were not the constitutive or driving
force in the creation of these systems in either case, but union strategies
and alliances during and after the 1920s shaped the trajectory of training in
both countries nonetheless.
The German and Japanese systems are similar to the extent that both
support high levels of investment in private sector training, but the two
systems are based on very different principles and sustained by quite differ-
ent institutional arrangements. I trace these outcomes back to differences
in the treatment by the state of the artisanal sector in the early industrial
period, which in turn affected the strategies of firms that depended heavily
on skills and also powerfully shaped their relations with emerging unions.
In Germany, government policy in the late nineteenth century actively or-
ganized and modernized the artisanal sector, in the process also endowing it
with “parapublic”21 authority in the area of skill formation. Industries that
relied heavily on skills were pushed toward a more coordinated approach to
skill formation through their competition with the artisanal sector whose
power to certify skills they coveted. And, after their incorporation in the
early Weimar years, German unions, which organized significant numbers
of workers in these skill-intensive sectors, emerged as potential allies for
industry against the Handwerk monopoly and in support of a solidaristic
skill formation regime for industry.

21 The term comes from Katzenstein (1987).

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Theories of Institutional Genesis and Change

By contrast, government policy in Japan in the late nineteenth century

contributed to the destruction and political disorganization of the corpo-
rate (organized) artisanal sector, which was viewed as an impediment to
modernization and industrialization. Facing severe skilled labor shortages,
the state took a more direct hand in promoting skill formation through the
importation of foreign workers and the establishment of training programs
in state-owned enterprises – in both cases, however, bringing indigenous
independent artisans in as important intermediaries in training. Private
firms followed the lead of public sector companies in embarking on a more
“segmentalist” path, dealing with the problem of skill formation by incor-
porating traditional craftsmen (oyakata) into a system of direct employment
and company based training. Early labor unions reinforced such autarkic
tendencies in the 1920s to the extent that they defined their goals and
strategies within the context of these internal labor markets.

Theories of Institutional Genesis and Change

This analysis of the historical origins of cross-national diversity in training
regimes speaks to a broad set of theoretical issues that have become increas-
ingly central in comparative politics. Whereas a first generation of “new” in-
stitutionalists focused on comparative statics and mostly asked what impact
institutions had on political outcomes, the current literature on institutions
has delved more deeply into the questions of institutional evolution and
path dependence. The comparisons between Germany, Britain, the United
States, and Japan allow us to explore the origins of different institutions, but
the analysis below also tracks the development of the German system over
a relatively long stretch of time, from the late nineteenth century through
the post-World War II period to the present.
As pointed out above, this is a case characterized by some significant
ironies and one that therefore poses a number of interesting empirical puz-
zles. Germany’s vocational training system has been aptly characterized as
a central pillar of the country’s model of “social partnership” between la-
bor and capital, and a critical support for manufacturing strategies that are
compatible with high wages and in some ways actually depend on strong
unions (Streeck 1991). As we will see below, however, this was by no means
the obvious end point of a trajectory that the authors and proponents of the
original 1897 legislation foresaw let alone intended. Second, the German
case exhibits an historical trajectory that is characterized (on one hand) by
sometimes very surprising continuities through huge historic breakpoints,
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but that has also (on the other hand) clearly undergone a massive if quieter
transformation over the course of the last century. For both these reasons,
an examination of the evolution of the German system can provide impor-
tant insights into the question of how institutions persist and change over
time.
Although these are central issues in comparative politics, questions of
institutional evolution and change have attracted very little systematic at-
tention. As Pierson has pointed out, one result of this has been a tendency
to “fall back” on explanations that attribute the existence and form of in-
stitutions to the functions they perform, either for the “system” (or some
“collective”) or for the (powerful) actors that benefit from the operation
of these institutions (Pierson 2000b: 475). Functionalism has a long pedi-
gree in political science, and in the past came in both right-leaning and
left-leaning variants (for a discussion see Hall 1986: 5–7). In the structural-
functionalism of Easton (Easton 1957) and others, for example, the key
functions performed by “the state” were interest articulation and aggrega-
tion, whereas Marxist scholarship emphasized accumulation and legitima-
tion. In both versions, however, the existence of specific phenomena was
explained with reference to the effects of those phenomena (Hall 1986: 6).
This type of “societal functionalism” has been mostly abandoned, but a
somewhat different, more “actor centered” version of the argument is very
much alive and current (Pierson 2004: Chapter 4).22 One relevant litera-
ture has its roots in “new institutional economics” (NIE), which has been
devoted to explaining how self-interested actors could overcome collective
action problems in the market and realize mutual benefits through coop-
eration, and which in the meantime has been widely applied to politics
as well. In international relations, for example, some scholars see insti-
tutions as mechanisms through which states can reduce transaction costs
and achieve joint gains in an anarchic world (Keohane 1984; Koremenos,
Lipson, and Snidal 2001); in American politics, scholars writing on the U.S.
Congress see institutional rules as important in eliminating “cycling” and
facilitating credible commitments among legislators (Shepsle and Weingast
1981; Weingast and Marshall 1988; Shepsle 1986); in comparative politics,
some analysts see electoral rules and other arrangements as providing a
stable structure of cooperation for rival elites (Przeworski 2001). That this

22 This distinction between societal and actor-centered functionalism comes from Pierson,
who elaborates the different arguments about institutional choice and institutional devel-
opment associated with each of these two lines of argument (Pierson 2004: Chapter 4).

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Theories of Institutional Genesis and Change

viewpoint is pervasive and influential is confirmed in Barry Weingast’s re-

cent wide-ranging survey of the rational choice literature on institutions.
Summarizing the results of a body of work devoted to explaining “why insti-
tutions exist and why they take the specific form they do,” Weingast argues,
“in brief, the answer is parties often need institutions to help capture gains
from cooperation” (Weingast 2002: 670).
Jack Knight (Knight 1992) and Terry Moe (Moe 2003) have criticized
this perspective as too sanguine and neglectful of the coercive elements
that underlie political institutions. As Moe puts it, in this whole literature
“institutions emerge as good things, and it is their goodness that ultimately
explains them: they exist and take the forms they do because they make
people better off. This is why people choose them and stick with them”
(Moe 2003:3). I return to the power aspect below; my point here is to em-
phasize that analyses resting on a conception of institutions as structures of
voluntary cooperation often regularly refer to the functions an institution
performs to explain the origins of the institution. Implicitly or explicitly
the argument is that institutions are either designed or selected for the (good,
beneficial) effects they generate. The problem, as noted by Pierson, is the
strong tendency in this scholarship to “work backwards from extant in-
stitutional arrangements to develop an account of how these institutions
were (or might have been) rationally chosen” (Pierson 2004: 104).23 Clearly,
the benefits of Germany’s vocational training system, both for firms that are
heavily dependent on skills and for unions whose core constituencies are
skilled workers, contribute mightily to the persistence of these institutions.
As Robert Bates has cautioned, however, it is crucial not to “confound the
analysis of the role of institutions with a theory of their causes” (Bates 1988:
387).24 Or, as Pierson insists, we cannot assume a connection between cur-
rent effects and original intentions; instead, “we have to go back and look”
(Pierson 2000a: 264, italics in original).
The main alternative to functionalist explanations of the form and char-
acter of institutions are various approaches traveling under the rubric
of “path dependence.” Although there are (too) many versions of this

23 Jon Elster (Elster 2003) makes a much more radical critique of the literature on “rational
institutional design,” arguing that for a variety of reasons the actors who design institutions
will not get institutions that match their objective interests, even in the short run.
24 Knight puts it even more pointedly: “one of the most significant mistakes made by pro-
ponents of rational choice explanations of institutional change is the practice of working
back from identifiable institutional effects to determine the initial preferences of the actors
involved in the institutionalization process” (Knight 1999: 33–34).

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argument, most scholars embracing this idea seriously entertain the possi-
bility of what Stinchcombe has termed an “historicist explanation” of the
origins of institutions, which is to say that the “processes responsible for
the genesis of an institution are different from the processes responsible
for the reproduction of the institution” (Mahoney 2000: 4; Stinchcombe
1968:101–29). This alternative perspective stands in sharp contrast to the
theories just described, for the answer it offers to the question of “why
institutions take the form they do” is historical not functional. So far this
second perspective has been overall more prominent among scholars asso-
ciated with “historical institutionalism,” who tend to emphasize institutions
as the product of concrete temporal processes and political struggles (for
an extended discussion see Thelen 1999: especially 381–99).
The most influential treatments of path dependence within political sci-
ence draw significant inspiration and insight from the work of economic
historians (especially historians of technology), in particular Paul David
and Brian Arthur (see, especially, Pierson 2000a). The whole point of this
literature in economics was to refute those perspectives that maintain that
“real time and history [can] be safely ignored,” since the market will sort out
inefficient technologies such that a technological system will gravitate to
the same (efficient) equilibrium, no matter where it started (Hodgson 1993:
204). In the alternative historicist versions of technological development, by
contrast, timing and sequencing loom large in determining which of several
possible equilibria is reached – and whether the most efficient solution is
selected. Timing (for example, being “first out of the gate”) matters because
once a technology is chosen, it is subject to significant increasing returns
processes (Pierson 2000c; David 1985; Arthur 1989). Increasing returns
effects can translate an early and perhaps idiosyncratically induced advan-
tage into a stable trajectory of development, as firms adapt to the prevailing
standard, investing in it in ways that reinforce the initial choice (for exam-
ple, people invest in mastering the technology, firms make products that fit
with the industry standard, and so on). Through these developments, the
initial choice can get “locked in,” making it hard to shift the standard even
if a competing technology is revealed to have been the more efficient one
(Arthur 1989; David 1985).25

25 The usual example is the QWERTY keyboard, although I should mention that Liebowitz
and Margolis (Liebowitz and Margolis 1990) strongly contest David’s famous version of the
story. They provide evidence that the QWERTY model is efficient, but they also make some
broader arguments about the role of institutions, some of which are broadly compatible
with what I argue about politics below.

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Theories of Institutional Genesis and Change

What political scientists have taken from this is the intuitively attrac-
tive idea that politics, like technology, involves some elements of chance
(agency, choice), but once a path is taken, previously viable alternatives
become increasingly remote, as the relevant actors adjust their strategies
to accommodate the prevailing pattern (among others, see North 1990;
Zysman 1994). In political science, the concept of path dependence has thus
become closely linked to the idea that countries undergo “critical junctures”
that set them moving along particular (cross-nationally different) trajecto-
ries that are then difficult if not impossible to reverse (Collier and Collier
1991; North 1990; Mahoney 2002). Two large and fruitful literatures have
emerged from this, one on “crucial junctures” (mostly about the origins
of cross-national variation in important institutional arrangements) and
one on “feedback effects” through which institutions, once selected, repro-
duce themselves and also shape the trajectory of institutional development
by constraining subsequent choices (for a more complete discussion, see
Thelen 1999). Such analyses provide a powerful refutation of functionalist
theories of institutional origins and they do so precisely by showing how
the current shape of institutions is deeply conditioned by the historical
circumstances surrounding their genesis.
Arguments about increasing returns and positive feedback have also pro-
vided powerful alternatives to previous vague formulations that attribute in-
stitutional survival to “stickiness” or “inertia.” In a widely cited (one might
even say path-breaking) contribution, Pierson examined how many of the
mechanisms that generate increasing returns in economic systems may, if
anything, be more prevalent and intense in political institutions (Pierson
2000a). He argues that many formal political institutions are subject to the
same types of large set-up costs, strong learning and coordination effects,
and adaptive expectations that Arthur found to be important in economics.
Mahoney (Mahoney 2000) moves a step beyond the economics literature,
identifying and distinguishing reproduction mechanisms going beyond the
utilitarian to include political and normative processes that also operate in a
self-reinforcing way to entrench existing political arrangements. The point
in this work has been to underscore the role of increasing returns effects
on institutional developments to show why, in North’s words, although
“specific short-run paths are unforeseeable, the overall direction . . . is both
more predictable and more difficult to reverse” (North 1990: 104).
As this characterization suggests, however, increasing returns and pos-
itive feedback arguments of this variety have been more helpful in under-
standing the sources of institutional resiliency than in yielding insights into
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The Political Economy of Skills in Comparative-Historical Perspective

institutional change. When it comes to the latter, the notion of path de-
pendence seems to encourage scholars to think of institutional change in
one of two ways: as either very minor and more or less continuous (most
of the time) or major but then abrupt and discontinuous (rarely) (Streeck
and Thelen, forthcoming). This has yielded a strangely bifurcated litera-
ture that links path dependence as a concept to two completely different (in
some ways diametrically opposed) conceptions of change. Some scholars
invoke the term rather loosely to support the broad assertion that legacies
of the past always weigh on choices and changes in the present (for example,
Sewell 1996). Many studies of transitions to democracy and market econ-
omy in contemporary Eastern Europe, for example, use “path dependence”
in this way, as in: “Path-dependency suggests that the institutional legacies
of the past limit the range of current possibilities and/or options in insti-
tutional innovation” (Nielson, Jessop, and Hausner 1995: 6). In such cases,
the concept of “path dependence” is invoked to emphasize the constraints
institutional innovators face, and often presented as a more realistic alter-
native to accounts that view institution building in a highly voluntaristic
way, a matter of “designing” institutions that embody the right incentive
structures (for example, Stark 1995).
Others, however, and often those who want to insist on a more pre-
cise definition of path dependence, tend toward a very different view of
change, one closer to an especially strong version of a punctuated equi-
librium model (Krasner 1988). Mahoney, for instance, is critical of loose
definitions of path dependence and argues that “path dependence charac-
terizes specifically those historical sequences in which contingent events
set in motion institutional patterns or event chains that have deterministic
properties” (Mahoney 2000: 1). By emphasizing the very different logic
of institutional choice (as contingent) and of institutional reproduction (as
deterministic) this definition implies and encourages the analyst to draw a
sharp line between the “critical juncture” moments in which institutions are
originally formed (or perhaps re-founded) and long periods of stasis charac-
terized by institutional continuity. Any number of examples could be given
here but the idea is generally captured in what T. J. Pempel calls “long con-
tinuities” periodically interrupted by “radical shifts” (Pempel 1998: 1). In
his words: “Path-dependent equilibrium is periodically ruptured by radical
change, making for sudden bends in the path of history” (Pempel 1998: 3).
Claims about relative contingency at historic choice points and relative
determinism in trajectories once “chosen” are pervasive in the social sci-
ence literature (also beyond political science) and they are by no means
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Theories of Institutional Genesis and Change

exclusively associated with scholars invoking the concept of path depen-

dence.26 An example from economic history is the line of argumentation
developed by Mancur Olson concerning the way in which war and oc-
cupation in Germany and Japan paved the way for subsequent economic
miracles in both countries. As Olson put the argument: “In Japan and West
Germany, totalitarian governments were followed by Allied occupiers de-
termined to promote institutional change and to ensure that institutional life
would start almost anew” (Olson 1982: 76, my emphasis). In sociology, Ann
Swidler has drawn a distinction between “settled” and “unsettled” times, in
which the latter are seen as “periods of social transformation” or “historical
junctures where new cultural complexes make possible new or reorganized
strategies of action” (Swidler 1986: 278, 283, respectively).
Some scholars have linked such ideas to the age-old debate concerning
the balance between agency and structure in political development, argu-
ing that structure figures heavily in the “settled” times, and agency reigns
triumphant in the “critical junctures.” Ira Katznelson, for example, writes
of “multiple possibilities inside unsettled moments of uncommon choice,”
such moments being defined as times when the “constraints on agency are
broken or relaxed and opportunities expand so that purposive action may be
especially consequential” (Katznelson 2003: 277, 283). Such views also find
expression in Jowitt’s work on Eastern Europe, which sees post-Leninist
societies as “genesis environments” characterized by new openness and in
which “leaders will matter more than institutions, and charisma more than
political economy” (quoted in Stark 1995: 68).
Rational choice scholarship also has gravitated mostly to a model of
discontinuous institutional change (Weingast 2002: 692), though from a
different starting point. In this case, some of the core premises underlying
much rational choice theorizing – above all, the view of institutions as self-
enforcing equilibria in which behavior is generated endogenously – leads
scholars to draw a sharp line between the logic and analysis of institutional
reproduction and of institutional change (Greif and Laitin 2003: 2). Similar
to the literature just discussed, there is a tendency in this perspective, too,
to see change mostly in terms of dynamics unleashed by some exogenous
shift or shock, and to elide or ignore the possibility of endogenously gen-
erated institutional change (Greif and Laitin 2003: 2). Moreover, beyond
the impetus to change, the direction of change (that is, the reason why a

26 Nor, conversely, do all path dependence theorists subscribe to a strong punctuated equi-
librium model of change, as indicated above.

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The Political Economy of Skills in Comparative-Historical Perspective

particular (new) institutional equilibrium prevails over other possible ones)

seems also to be a function of factors exogenous to the (old) institutions.
As Pierson points out, this perspective has little to say “about what is likely
to happen if a particular institutional equilibrium does give way,” and in
fact the implication often is that “any new equilibrium may be as likely as
any other” (Pierson 2004: 143–44). In other words, where the problem of
change is posed in terms of breakdown and replacement, there is often no
sense of a “path” at all.
Weingast flags the issues of “endogenous emergence, choice and survival
of institutions” as an important research frontier (Weingast 2002: 692), and
Greif and Laitin are among the first to attempt to tackle the question of
endogenously generated change from a rational choice perspective. In a re-
cent contribution (Greif and Laitin 2003), they draw attention to the impact
of behaviors within a given institutional framework on the broader (social,
political, cultural) parameters within which the institution is embedded,
and show how such behaviors can either expand or contract the set of situ-
ations within which the institutions are self-enforcing. Although this is an
improvement over formulations that see all change as exogenously gener-
ated, even Grief and Laitin’s version is not really a model of institutional
change. At the end of the day the outcomes are institutional reproduction
or institutional breakdown, although the latter is not of an abrupt nature,
generated by an exogenous shock, but rather the product of endogenously
generated behaviors that render the institutions less rather than more sta-
ble, and thus “cultivate the seeds of their own demise” (Greif and Laitin
2003: 4).
The present study shares with such work a critique of exclusive reliance
on models of change that draw a sharp line between the analysis of in-
stitutional stability and institutional innovation, and that sees all change
as exogenous. Sometimes institutional change is abrupt and sharp (for an
example, see Beissinger 2002). It is not at all clear, however, that this ex-
hausts the possibilities, or even that it captures the most typical ways in
which institutions evolve over time. The cases examined below mostly do
not conform to a model characterized by periods of extreme openness and
radical innovation followed by stable, faithful institutional reproduction
or “stasis”; rather, they exhibit a pattern of incremental change through
periodic political realignment and renegotiation.
The rest of this book, therefore, is devoted to an analysis of the political
processes through which institutions emerge, survive, and evolve over time.
My analysis is motivated by a sense of the limits to functionalist theories of
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The Origins and Evolution of Institutions

institutional origins, on the one hand, and to strong punctuated equilibrium

theories of institutional change, on the other. Along with some path de-
pendence theorists, I draw attention to positive feedback effects that help
explain important institutional continuities over time. I question, however,
the determinism of some formulations and the “automaticity” of institu-
tional reproduction that is sometimes implied in the logic of increasing
returns, where all the adjustments are one-way (emphasis on how actors
adapt to the prevailing institutions). The cases examined in the pages below
show how elements of stability and change are in fact often inextricably in-
tertwined. Once in place, institutions do exert a powerful influence on the
strategies and calculations of – and interactions among – the actors that in-
habit them. As power-distributional theories suggest, however, institutions
are the object of ongoing political contestation, and changes in the political
coalitions on which institutions rest are what drive changes in the form
institutions take and the functions they perform in politics and society. The
present study thus rejects those versions of a path-dependent argument that
paint a deterministic picture of institutional “lock in,” and elaborates an al-
ternative perspective that underscores the contested nature of institutional
development and, in so doing, recovers the political dynamics that drive
institutional genesis, reproduction and change.

The Origins and Evolution of Institutions:

Lessons from the Present Study
I trace important cross-national differences in vocational training systems
back to the turn of the previous (nineteenth) century, and specifically to
the strategic interactions among independent artisans, industrial work-
ers, and employers in skill-intensive industries, whose reciprocal depen-
dence was strongly conditioned by state policy and by the political and
economic landscape within which they operated. In all cases, institution
building involved forging coalitions and thus mobilizing various social and
political actors in support of particular institutional configurations. Dif-
ferences in the alliances that were formed across these four countries ac-
count for important early differences in the systems of skill formation that
emerged.
Moreover, in all four cases the state played a crucial role in establishing
the power of key actors, in influencing the kinds of coalitions that were
likely to come together, and thus in shaping the landscape in which institu-
tions were being constructed (see, generally, Skocpol 1985). Among other
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The Political Economy of Skills in Comparative-Historical Perspective

things, state policy in Germany and Japan directly inhibited the formation
of craft-based unions, whereas state policy in Britain and the United States
in various ways promoted the emergence of unions organized along skill
lines. State policy entrenched and stabilized the artisanate as a corporate
actor in Germany, while it actively disorganized traditional craftsmen in
Britain, Japan, and the United States. In all cases, the state established broad
“regulatory regimes” (liberal in the United States and United Kingdom,
state-centered in Japan, corporate-centered in Germany) that became focal
points and that influenced how interests were articulated and how debates
were framed (Crouch 1993).
When institutions are founded they are not universally embraced or
straightforwardly “adapted to,” but rather continue to be the object of on-
going conflict, as actors struggle over the form that these institutions should
take and the functions they should perform. Rationalist (including function-
alist) accounts are quite right to draw attention to what institutions do, be-
cause the effects of institutional arrangements is precisely why actors fight
about them. My analysis thus shares with Knight the idea that institutional
development is “a contest among actors to establish rules which structure
outcomes to those equilibria most favorable for them” (Knight 1999: 20).
As such it argues against the kind of unspoken consensus that some sociol-
ogists associate with institutions (for example, Meyer and Rowan 1991),27
but it also shares with Knight and Moe a somewhat dim view of the more
voluntarist perspective that informs some work in the NIE vein. As Moe has
pointed out, the cooperative aspects of institutions need not be neglected,
but they must be explicitly linked to the power–political dimension, “for it
is cooperation that makes the exercise of power possible, and the prospect
of exercising power that motivates cooperation” (Moe 2003: 12).
My characterization of institutional genesis thus emphasizes a strong
power-distributional component. It focuses heavily on political coalitions
and political conflicts – some fought directly over issues relating to skill
formation, others related only obliquely to skills but with implications
nonetheless for outcomes in that realm. This analysis differs from some
other power-based perspectives in two respects, however. First, and most
important, I largely eschew presenting the argument in the language of
“power” in favor of identifying the interests and coalitions on which in-
stitutions are founded. My reasons are in part purely pragmatic; unlike

27 I am grateful to Peter Hall for this formulation.

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The Origins and Evolution of Institutions

“power,” actors and their interests are more tractable empirically. Beyond
this, however, an examination of the shifting coalitional basis on which in-
stitutions rest is critical to understanding how institutions both survive and
change through time. Institutions frequently outlive their founding coali-
tions, and their endurance and robustness often involves a reconfiguration
of their coalitional base in light of shifting social, political, and market con-
ditions. There is nothing automatic or self-enforcing about this, and indeed
the political renegotiations that accompany such realignments are crucial
to understanding changes over time in how institutions are configured and
in what they do.
Second, and related to this, emphasizing interests and alliances allows
us to examine intriguing power reversals that sometimes flow from changes
in the coalitional foundations on which institutions rest. Against power-
distributional perspectives that view institutions as straightforward reflec-
tions of the interests of the powerful – and thus responding automatically
to changes in the balance of power or in the preferences of the powerful –
this study suggests a more historicist view of institutional evolution and
change. As the cases below demonstrate, institutions are created in a con-
text marked by multiple and simultaneous functional and political demands.
As a consequence, institutions designed to serve one set of interests often
become “carriers” of others as well. As Schickler (Schickler 2001) notes, the
diverse coalitions who can cobble together political support for some in-
stitutional innovation are often motivated by disparate, even contradictory,
concerns (see also Palier forthcoming; Pierson 2004: Chapter 5). An ex-
ample from the present analysis is the 1897 legislation that became the
cornerstone of Germany’s apprenticeship training system, which reflected
a remarkable combination of economically progressive and politically re-
actionary interests and motives.
This and the related fact that institution builders can “never do just one
thing” in the sense of creating institutions that have the intended effects
and only the intended effects (Pierson 2004: 115) helps explain some of
the striking reversals in the power-distributional origins and development
of institutions in the country cases examined in this book. The power of
German unions, for example, has been very much shored up by a strong
system for plant-based training, but the original framing legislation was
mostly aimed at weakening unions. Conversely, skilled unions in Britain
had a strong interest in a viable apprenticeship system; they were the
actors most interested (and most involved) in regulating apprenticeship

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The Political Economy of Skills in Comparative-Historical Perspective

at the turn of the century. As we will see, however, their strategies in this
area inadvertently hastened the demise of firm-sponsored training, which
in turn undermined the skill base on which labor power had originally been
constructed.
These observations have important implications for how we understand
institutional origins and institutional evolution over time. In the cases laid
out below, the mechanisms behind path dependence arguments – increasing
returns and feedback effects – are certainly part of the story. In Germany,
the existence of a system for skill formation dominated by organizations of
master artisans in the early industrial period shaped the kind of labor move-
ment that would emerge, among other things by hastening the demise of
skill-based unions by denying them any hope of controlling the market in
skills. But the operation of the handicraft system generated further feed-
back effects among industrial workers themselves (many of whom had ac-
quired their own credentials within that system). As a consequence of such
connections, Germany’s industrial unions developed a strong interest in
democratizing and co-managing the system of in-plant training rather than
dismantling it, though this goal would elude them until after World War II.
Positive feedback, therefore, can tell us a great deal about how key actors
got constituted in the first place and also about the strategies they would
develop in this area.
If one told this purely as a tale of critical juncture and positive feedback,
however, one would miss much of what is in fact interesting and important
about the way in which these institutions were transformed through po-
litical re-alignments and specifically through the incorporation of groups
whose role in the system was unanticipated at the time of their creation.
As indicated above, institutional reproduction is far from automatic and in
some cases “adaptation” on the part of social actors to preceding waves of
institutional innovation is as likely to inspire further revision as to entrench
existing arrangements. In the case of vocational training, the political in-
corporation of workers in the early years of the Weimar Republic, and,
more directly, the later incorporation of unions into a variety of parapub-
lic “corporatist” institutions after World War II, recast the functions these
institutions served in important ways – even as they contributed to institu-
tional reproduction by bringing the system in line with new economic and
political conditions. In other words, at critical junctures, old institutions
are not necessarily dismantled and replaced, but often either recalibrated
or “functionally reconverted” in part or in whole. In the German case, as we
will see, institutional survival depended not just on positive feedback, but on
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The Origins and Evolution of Institutions

a process of institutional adjustment, to accommodate powerful new actors

and to adapt the institutions to address new imperatives, both economic
and political.
The present analysis thus sheds considerable doubt on what has emerged
in the literature as the most common way of thinking about institutional
change, through the lens of punctuated equilibrium models that draw a
sharp line between the analysis of institutional stability and that of change.
For almost any institution that survives major socioeconomic transforma-
tion (industrialization, democratization) or political disjuncture (revolution,
conquest), the story of institutional reproduction is likely to be strongly
laced with elements of institutional transformation. For this reason, orga-
nizational forms will often neither accurately reflect the “congealed tastes”
of their creators (Riker 1980) nor necessarily mirror the power distribu-
tion at their inception (Knight 1992). In contrast to many perspectives that
view institutional development in terms of occasional moments of extreme
openness followed by long periods of institutional stability if not “stasis,”
the perspective elaborated in this book suggests a model of institutional
change through ongoing political negotiation. Elements of continuity and
change are not separated into alternating sequences where one or the other
(let alone “agency” or “structure”) dominates, but rather are often em-
pirically closely intertwined. Institutional survival in the face of shifts in
the social and political environment often involves a renegotiation of the
coalitional base on which specific arrangements rest, even as such renego-
tiations drive important changes in the form these institutions take and in
the functions they perform in politics and in markets.
Institutions can be transformed in subtle but very significant ways
through a variety of specific mechanisms, among which two figure espe-
cially prominently in the pages that follow (Thelen 2002a). One of these
is institutional layering, which as Eric Schickler has pointed out, involves
the grafting of new elements onto an otherwise stable institutional frame-
work. Such amendments, as we will see, can alter the overall trajectory of
an institution’s development. In the German case, for example, the original
training and certification system covered only the artisanal sector. How-
ever, its existence created pressures among key industrial sectors to develop
and seek state recognition for their own training institutions. The result-
ing industrial system ran parallel to the artisanal system (with some points
of tangency and also of conflict), mimicking some of its features but not
reproducing it precisely. The interactions and linkages between the two in
fact altered the trajectory of the German training system as a whole, pulling
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The Political Economy of Skills in Comparative-Historical Perspective

it away from the decentralized artisanal system toward the centralization,

standardization, and uniformity that are now considered its core and defin-
ing features.
A second mechanism through which institutions evolve is through con-
version, as the adoption of new goals or the incorporation of new groups
into the coalitions on which institutions are founded can drive a change in
the functions these institutions serve or the role they perform. In the case
of Germany, the conversion process took place in two waves, first with the
incorporation of the industrial sector and later with the incorporation of
organized labor as a full participant in administering the system. Through
these moves, the system was not just expanded but also transformed, in
functional and distributional terms, and in this way brought into synch
with important changes in the societal balance of power.
Thus, by combining elements of path-dependence approaches (em-
phasizing positive feedback effects) with historical institutionalism’s tradi-
tional emphasis on sequencing and intersections among different processes
and institutional dynamics, we can arrive at insights into when and also
how institutions change, develop, and evolve over time. The mechanisms
of institutional change identified here are quite different from the more
common punctuated equilibrium model, but they are more useful in ana-
lyzing the kind of incremental or bounded change that may constitute the
more common way that things “work” in politics. The dual notions of layer-
ing and conversion open the door for a more nuanced analysis of which specific
elements of a given institutional arrangement are (or are not) renegotiable,
and why some aspects are more amenable to change than others. As such,
these conceptualizations provide a way of thinking about institutional re-
production and change that steers a course between deterministic “lock-in”
models on the one hand, and overly fluid “one damn thing after another”
models on the other hand.
The perspective offered here has several advantages. First, it avoids those
varieties of functionalism that read the origins of institutions off the func-
tions they currently perform. The notion of conversion, in fact, provides
an analytic point of departure for understanding how institutions created
for one set of purposes come, in time, to be turned to wholly new ends. In
this sense, the idea provides a framework for a more tractable approach to
the issue of “unintended consequences,” and thus also addresses concerns
raised by Pierson and others for devising a way to think about this problem
that “turns on more than a retrospective judgment that particular actors
involved ‘screwed up’” (Pierson 2000c).
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Outline for the Book

Second, notions of institutional evolution through layering or functional

conversion are “genuinely historical” in the sense on which Skocpol rightly
insists, looking at social processes as they unfold over time and in relation to
other processes (Skocpol 1992). Models of path dependence appropriated
from economics tend to focus on a single process in isolation, bringing his-
tory in only as bookends, at the critical juncture moment, and then again
at the end of a reproduction sequence. By contrast, the model of insti-
tutional change suggested by the present study overcomes the distinction
that is commonly drawn between the analysis of institutional creation and
institutional reproduction, by specifically drawing attention to the ways
in which adaptation to other ongoing processes (and not just positive feed-
back generated by the process itself) contribute to institutional and political
continuities over very long periods of time.28
Third, such a perspective provides some insights into why it is that soci-
eties seem to exhibit some cohesion across institutional domains and over
time. There is an apparent deep contradiction between the view of societies
that institutional sociologists like Dobbin represent (where culturally spe-
cific institutions constrain the kinds of organizational forms that emerge,
which are then also broadly isomorphic with one another both across or-
ganizational domains and over time) (Dobbin 1994), and the highly fluid
view of society embraced by other theorists such as Orren and Skowronek
(where institutions created at different historical conjunctures embody-
ing very different political settlements coexist and continually collide and
abrade) (Orren and Skowronek 1994). I think that there is something to
both these views, and perhaps one reason that the kinds of collisions and
contradictions that Orren and Skowronek’s view predicts are not, in fact,
as pervasive and debilitating as one might suppose is that the process of
conversion brings organizational forms that are created in the past broadly
into synch with currently prevailing power relations and cultural norms.

Outline for the Book

This book is organized around an examination of four countries that vary
in ways that illuminate and develop these arguments. In terms of divergent

28 In a way, the view of institutional evolution elaborated here may provide a more tractable al-
ternative to the highly suggestive but somewhat abstract argument of Orren and Skowronek
concerning the way in which “change along one time line affects order along the other”
(Orren and Skowronek 1994: 321).

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The Political Economy of Skills in Comparative-Historical Perspective

national trajectories with respect to skill formation, I consider cases of

both non-liberal systems for skill formation (German and Japan) and liberal
ones (Britain and the United States). Although there are some important
similarities among the first group (and systematic differences between them
and the second group), comparisons across these cases also reveal the forces
behind the emergence of these distinctive systems.
Chapters 2 and 3 examine the diverging trajectories of skill formation in
the German and British cases. The argument highlights distinctive config-
urations and interactions among several key actors, specifically the artisanal
sector, early labor organizations, employers (particularly in skill-dependent
industries), and the state. Chapter 4 extends the argument by considering
two further cases – Japan and the United States. These cases represent vari-
ations on the themes elaborated for Germany and Britain, and they lend
further support for the theoretical claims advanced in the previous chapters.
The Japanese case represents a variation on Germany’s non-liberal train-
ing regime, but one that is organized along more segmentalist lines. The
United States shares some similarities with the British case, and illustrates
an alternative route to a liberal training regime.
Chapter 5 delves further into the politics of institutional evolution by
picking up the German case again to track its continuing development
over a longer period of time. In particular, I examine the trajectory of
institutional change through three subsequent periods. The first two – the
advent of National Socialism and the Occupation and immediate post-
World War II period – involve the kinds of historical “break points” in
which one would expect substantial institutional reconfiguration. What we
find instead, however, are significant continuities, though also important
shifts in the role and functions of institutions. The final period, the present,
by contrast, is one in which genuinely important changes may in fact be
underway. However, these changes have been set in motion not by a clear
exogenous “shock” but rather by ongoing, more drawn-out, changes in
technology and market competition set in motion in important ways by
the very “working out” of the original model. This last period thus allows
us to explore the mechanisms of reproduction and change behind these
institutions, and to observe how tangencies between the training system
and other institutional realms, in this case especially collective bargaining
institutions, operate to sustain (or undermine) distinctive national models
over time. Chapter 6 summarizes the book’s main empirical findings and
theoretical implications.

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The Evolution of Skill Formation

in Germany

The German case provides a good point of departure for a study of the
politics of skill formation. Germany has long been considered exemplary for
its vocational training system, which even despite current strains (discussed
in Chapter 5) continues to attract large numbers of German youth and
to produce an abundance of high-quality skills (Streeck 1992b; Culpepper
and Finegold 1999; Green and Sakamoto 2001: 73). Since the turn of the
century, observers from abroad have looked to the German training model
as a source of ideas and inspiration (see, for example, Cooley 1912; and, more
recently, Reich 1991). This chapter examines the genesis and early evolution
of the German system. As we will see, this system was not created “of a piece”
but rather, evolved as successive layers were patched on to a rudimentary
framework developed at the end of the nineteenth century. The critical
legislative innovation around which the whole system was constructed was
passed by an authoritarian government, initiated and originally conceived
as part of a deeply conservative political strategy aimed mostly against the
country’s nascent organized labor movement. This chapter begins to track
the processes through which this system evolved subsequently into what is
now considered a pillar of social partnership between labor and capital in
Germany today.
To preview the argument: The crucial starting point in Germany was
the survival of an independent artisanal sector, formally (and legally) en-
dowed with rights to regulate training and to certify skills. This outcome
was actively promoted by the state, with motives that were as much politi-
cal as economic. Facing a strong and radical labor movement, conservative
political forces in Imperial Germany sought to shore up a viable artisanal
sector as a political counterweight to the social democrats. Crucial legisla-
tion in 1897 created a framework for apprentice training under the control
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of the organized handicraft (Handwerk) sector, which was composed of self-

employed master craftsmen who were distinguished in legal terms and in
social status both from “industry” and from the journeymen and apprentices
they employed.1 Through this legislation the state endowed encompassing
and compulsory handicraft chambers with parapublic authority in the area
of skill formation; in so doing the law helped to stabilize apprentice train-
ing in the artisanal sector, which had previously been sliding toward sheer
exploitation. More important still, this framework had enormous implica-
tions for actors that formally stood outside the system, above all, emerging
labor unions and skill-intensive industrial sectors, especially the machine
industry.
Although it is commonplace to view Germany’s system of vocational
training as a reflection of the strength of organized labor in the postwar
period,2 the history shows that labor’s role in the development of this sys-
tem was mostly reactive and indirect. The 1897 legislation was opposed by
the social democrats, who were deeply skeptical of apprenticeship and who
had no sympathy whatsoever for the traditional artisanal sector (Hansen
1997: 378). Once the chamber-based system of apprenticeship was in place,

1 As Kocka notes (Kocka 1984: 96–7), the definition of Handwerk and of Handwerker
(craftsman/artisan) has always been somewhat slippery and has shifted over time. The im-
portant distinctions are, on the one hand, between “industry” and “Handwerk,” and between
“Handwerker” and “Arbeiter” (worker) on the other. The difference between the Handwerk
(handicraft) sector and industry was traditionally partly a matter of size (handicraft firms typ-
ically being smaller) but was linked also to the nature of production, which in the Handwerk
sector historically involved “skilled manual work [also by the master-employer himself ]
without much mechanization” (Kocka 1984: 96). Regarding the line between Handwerker
and Arbeiter, Kocka notes that “since the second third of the nineteenth century at least,
there has been a tendency towards equating Handwerker with Handwerksmeister (master
artisan)” as the term came to be “increasingly reserved for self-employed craftsmen” whereas
“Arbeiter” was “increasingly reserved for those who worked with their hands for wages”
(Kocka 1984: 96–7). See also Streeck (1992a) for a characterization of Handwerk as a
social institution and above all, as a legal concept. As he points out, much – though not
all – of what in other countries is coded as small business is organized legally in Germany
under the category of Handwerk (Streeck 1992a: 108). Rooted in the history I am about to
tell, the German artisanal sector has survived and thrived partly through state regulation
but regulation encouraging ongoing adaptation to changes in the technological and market
environment.
2 See, for example, Gillingham (1985: 424) who asserts that historically, “the demand for
increased vocational training originated on the political left.” Other characterizations of the
contemporary system also often seem to imply that organized labor had something to do
with the development of various features of the system, for example, skill standardization
(Culpepper 1999b: 4, 30) when, in fact, these features had already been well established long
before labor’s role within the system was institutionalized (1969).

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it played a hugely important role in shaping the way that organized labor
defined its interests and strategies with respect to skills. Most directly, the
existence of this system foreclosed the option of unions organizing around
the control of skilled labor markets. Even more important, as the ranks of
Germany’s social democratic unions filled up with skilled workers who had
received their credentials under the system, the unions developed a strong
interest not in dismantling, but rather in controlling or co-managing, the
system of firm-based training that it represented. Thus, in the Weimar pe-
riod German unions were already emerging as advocates of in-plant train-
ing, and ready allies of those segments of capital that had their own reasons
for wanting to break into the system of skill formation that had been created
for and was being monopolized by small employer master craftsmen.
The machine industry was the other key player in the early industrial
period. This sector was heavily dependent on skills, and therefore was
also a major consumer of the skills produced by these small handicraft
firms. Around the turn of the century, Germany’s premier machine firms
sought and tried to pursue an alternative, segmentalist model of skill forma-
tion based on training for internal labor markets and relying more heavily
on plant-based schools – very similar (as later chapters show) to practices
emerging in the United States and Japan around this time. However, for
a variety of reasons elaborated below, in Germany these firms could not
escape the logic of the pre-existing handicraft system, and the training
strategies they developed instead had to accommodate and in a sense work
around that system. The result was that industries such as these that re-
lied heavily on skills were pushed toward a more coordinated approach to
skill formation through their competition with the artisanal sector whose
power to certify skills they coveted. In a case of what Eric Schickler has
called institutional layering, the Weimar years therefore saw the creation
of a system for industrial training that ran parallel to and alongside the
previous Handwerk system. The coexistence of the two created interaction
effects that altered the overall trajectory of skill formation in Germany,
pulling it in the Weimar years away from the very decentralized, and often
unsystematic, training characteristic of the older handicraft model toward
a much higher degree of standardization and uniformity – both of which
are now considered hallmarks and defining features of the German system
as a whole.
In both cases (that is, for labor and for the machine industry), the point
is that the handicraft system produced feedback effects that had an impor-
tant formative impact on the strategies, interests, and identities developed
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by these other actors. Although neither was part of the original coalition
behind the 1897 legislation, both of these actors became invested in the
system in important ways, and became crucial “carriers” of the system as it
continued to evolve. The fact that these actors defined their interests and
strategies within the logic of the existing system stabilized that system in im-
portant ways (as debates in the Weimar years revolved entirely around the
reform of the system, not its elimination). At the same time, however, these
developments set in motion new tensions and political contests, especially
over the governance of the system and the content of in-plant training, the
results of which also altered the trajectory of training. These conflicts were
not resolved in the Weimar years, but the pulling and hauling that occurred
in the 1920s established the framework for collective governance into which
industry and (later) labor both would ultimately also be incorporated.

The Importance of the Artisanal Economy in the Evolution

of Skill Formation in Germany
The construction of the German system of vocational training was premised
in part on the defeat of an alternative liberal training regime. The politics
through which this was accomplished are tightly bound up with the political
weight and fate of the traditional artisanate. In Germany, industrialization
occurred under authoritarian auspices and the artisanal sector survived as
an important corporate actor in apprenticeship training. In the 1860s, the
government’s economic policy took a strong liberal turn. Legislation in
1869 liberalized apprentice training, removing all restrictions on who could
set up a handicraft shop and take apprentices. Despite this and other laws
that were hostile to the survival of traditional guilds, however, voluntary
artisanal associations of various sorts in fact lived on.
Meanwhile the social democratic labor movement surged in the 1870s,
elevating the “social question” to the top of the German government’s
agenda. Along with the better known “carrot and stick” policies (labor
repression and the precocious introduction of comprehensive social insur-
ance) the Imperial government’s policy toward the artisanal sector was a
third key response to the social democratic threat (see, for example, Volkov
1978: especially Chapter 7; Winkler 1971).3 The Conservative and Center

3 Blackbourn (Blackbourn 1977) describes the way in which policies toward the artisanate
in the pre-World War I period fit into a broader conservative Mittelstandspolitik (policies
directed at the “lower middle classes” generally). He notes, however, that those who looked

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parties in Imperial Germany, in particular, actively cultivated independent

artisans as a political counterforce to the surging labor movement (Volkov
1978; Lenger 1988: 154–9). The idea was that a healthy, conservative small
business sector could help prevent social disintegration and political polar-
ization, forming a bulwark against rampant liberalism on the one hand and
working class radicalism on the other. Initial moves in the 1880s to bolster
the powers of the (in Germany, surviving) voluntary guilds (Innungen) ulti-
mately gave way to more comprehensive legislation, in 1897, that organized
the artisanal sector into compulsory associations, granting them extensive
powers in the area of apprentice training (Adelmann 1979: 12–13).
The first legislation of the so-called Reform Period of the 1880s (Nov-
ellierungsperiode) played to the interests of the existing voluntary guilds
(Innungen), granting them more authority in regulating apprenticeship and
adjudicating conflicts among masters, journeymen, and trainees (see Cooley
1912: Chapter 3; Schriewer 1986: 83; Abel 1963: 35; Volkov 1978: 199–
200, 250). A measure passed in 1881, for example, delegated to the guilds
a number of privileges and responsibilities, including “the regulation of
apprenticeship, provision of ethical and technical training to apprentices,
arbitration of conflicts between masters and apprentices . . . and, in general,
[looking after] the well-being of the trade” (Hansen 1997: 325). Subsequent
amendments to the Industrial Code, in 1884 and 1887, extended these privi-
leges and “granted the voluntary guilds an exclusive right to the employment
of apprentices upon a vote of all independent masters within a district, sub-
ject to magisterial approval” (Hansen 1997: 326). These measures also gave
voluntary guilds the right to force non-member firms to shoulder part of
the expenses they incurred in supporting trade schools, providing lodging
for journeymen, and maintaining arbitration courts (ibid.). However, the
artisanal sector continued to be buffeted by economic crisis, and political
pressure for further legislation continued.
The result was a much more comprehensive intervention, the Handi-
craft Protection Law of 1897. This law created a wholly new structure of
compulsory handicraft chambers alongside the voluntary guilds (Innungen)
and other existing (regionally distinctive) institutions.4 These handicraft

to the Mittelstand as a bulwark against social disintegration by and large ignored the diversity
of interests of the groups that fell under this label. Lenger (Lenger 1988: 154–7) similarly
stresses the diversity of interests, not just within the Mittelstand but more specifically, among
Handwerker.
4 As discussed below, the handicrafts were organized somewhat differently in different regions,
with implications for both their orientation to the market and their political tendencies.

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chambers (Handwerkskammern; hereafter HWK) were endowed with ex-

tensive powers to regulate the content and quality of craft apprenticeship.
Under the new law, only persons over 24 years old who had passed a
journeyman’s examination or had worked independently in the artisanal
sector for at least five years would be allowed to take and train appren-
tices (Hoffmann 1962: 12; Kaiser and Loddenkemper 1980: 12). In addi-
tion, the law contained the first regulations to control “Lehrlingszüchterei”
(“overbreeding,” which implies both overproduction of skilled workers in
particular trades and exploitation of apprentices through their use as cheap
labor). The new law allowed artisanal chambers to set limits on the number
of apprentices a firm could take and to regulate the terms of apprentice
contracts including length of training (Hoffmann 1962: 11–22; see also
Wolsing 1977: 69, 400–2). Another mechanism for monitoring the quality
of training was the institutionalization of a system of apprentice examina-
tions administered by the HWK.5 Finally, to accomplish their enhanced
regulatory responsibilities craft chambers were authorized to send repre-
sentatives to artisanal firms to evaluate their training arrangements, and
they possessed the power to revoke a firm’s right to train apprentices if
its training was not up to their standards (see especially Hoffmann 1962:
11–22; Muth 1985: 21; Kaiser and Loddenkemper 1980: 12; Abel 1963: 36;
Wolsing 1977: 400–2).
The 1897 legislation would come to serve as a cornerstone for the
German vocational training system. As historians have argued, the impetus
behind the original proposals was deeply political and mostly illiberal. As
Hansen has emphasized, however, one must distinguish between the politi-
cal impetus behind the legislative initiatives and the outcome and economic
impact of the reforms that ultimately passed.6 The early amendments to
the Industrial Code in the 1880s were clearly “restorative” in design, and
targeted the voluntary guilds. By the late 1890s, however, new voices had
fundamentally recast the debate. One of the most important such voices was
that of “industrial associations” (Gewerbevereine) that organized small fac-
tory owners and handicraft producers in Germany’s southwestern regions,

5 The law also included provisions for the establishment of journeymen’s committees, en-
dowed with rights to participate in the regulation of apprenticeship through the HWK, and
to be represented on apprentice exam committees (Stratmann 1990: 40–1; Hansen 1997:
358, 378–9).
6 On the politics that shaped the actual content of this legislation in important ways, see
Hansen’s excellent analysis (Hansen 1997: Chapter 5), on which I draw here.

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especially Baden, Württemberg, Hesse, Thuringia, and Bavaria (Hansen

1997: 347–8). Although including some handicraft firms, these associations
had historical roots different from the traditional voluntary guilds, and un-
like the “backward-looking” guilds that dominated in some other regions,
they were thoroughly oriented to the market (Hansen 1997: Chapter 5).7
Rather than seek protection from market forces, the Gewerbevereine in
Germany’s southwestern states “sought to enhance their members’ individ-
ual competitiveness through mutual support and the systematic promotion
of technical and commercial education” (Hansen 1997: 347). Backed up by
regional governments, these districts were already promoting the founding
and extensive use of public vocational and technical schools in the early to
mid-nineteenth century.8
Producers in Germany’s decentralized industrial districts had looked on
the restorative legislation of the 1880s mentioned above with great trepi-
dation. These firms were pursuing strategies that aimed at higher quality
market segments, strategies rooted in institutions of regional governance
that were completely different from and independent of traditional guild
structures. In the 1890s, however, they were confronted with the prospect
of further legislation aimed at alleviating the plight of traditional artisans.
With justification, more progressive and market-oriented producers (and
not just in the southwest) worried that further measures to strengthen the
voluntary guilds would impinge on their autonomy and smother their dis-
tinctive regional institutions by subordinating these to national institutions
that fit the interests of more traditional handicraft producers who mostly
sought protection from the market.

7 Gary Herrigel (1996b: Chapter 2) provides a comprehensive analysis of the role played by
these associations in presiding over a very different type of industrialization in Germany’s
southwestern states. In the pre- and early industrial period, this took the form of an elaborate
putting-out system, which evolved into networks of small independent producers linked
to one another through a variety of regional institutions (financial institutions, training
institutions) that served to manage the high degree of mutual dependence among these
producers.
8 Master craftsmen in these areas founded so-called continuation schools “which required
journeymen apprentices to attend school after hours or on the weekend to receive addi-
tional technical training” (Herrigel 1996: 52). In some cases (for example, Württemberg
and Bavaria) these schools developed out of compulsory religious Sunday schools (Sadler
1908b: 520). In other cases (for example, Baden) the motives appear to have been purely eco-
nomic (Hansen 1997: 292). Either way, Germany’s southwestern states were at the forefront
of moves to make attendance at such schools mandatory for youths after elementary school,
beginning as early as 1835 when local authorities in Saxony were granted the statutory power
to enforce attendance (Sadler 1908b: 521).

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In the face of impending national action, the Gewerbevereine and their

political allies mobilized to influence the content of legislative proposals
in the 1890s, above all to prevent new provisions from undermining their
own indigenous institutions. Working through the Federal Council (where
regional interests could be articulated and forcefully so) and the impe-
rial bureaucracy, the state governments that were home to these industrial
districts sought to shape the legislation in ways that would protect their
interests.9 Their efforts put a decidedly progressive spin on the 1897 law.
Thus, the Handicraft Protection Law that ultimately passed was specifically
designed “to encourage and force handicraft producers to embrace the mar-
ket, not [as the law’s name suggests and as commonly asserted] to protect
them from it” (Hansen 1997: 315). Hansen describes the law as a “felicitous
fusion of guild-based handicraft organizational forms on the one hand, and
the market-countenancing institutions and self-help practices evolved in
regions of dispersed urbanization on the other” (1997: 314).
This legislation was crucial to stabilizing firm-based training in the hand-
icraft sector. The existence of a recognized, parapublic, and, above all, com-
pulsory system for certifying skills and for monitoring apprenticeship meant
that a fair amount of training would actually take place in artisanal firms.10
This stands in sharp contrast to other countries, such as Britain, where – in
the absence of reliable monitoring capacities (and in the context of ongoing
conflicts with unions over skill) – apprenticeship deteriorated at the turn of
the century into cheap “boy labour” (see Chapter 3). There were ample signs
that at this time in Germany as well; apprenticeship was slipping into child
labor in regions dominated by traditional artisans, and it was falling into
crisis in the more organized southwestern regions (Hansen 1997: 309–10).
Gertrud Tollkühn (1926: 9–12), for example, cites a litany of abuses of ap-
prentice training in Germany in the late nineteenth century, particularly
after the liberal Industrial Code (Gewerbeordnung) of 1869 eliminated tradi-
tional guild restrictions. She cites an increase in the exploitation of appren-
tices by master artisans and a concomitant decline in the quality of training
in that period (see also Dehen 1928: 25; Muth 1985: 18). The initial reforms

9 The Prussian state dominated the Federal Council of Imperial Germany, commanding 17
out of a total of 58 votes (Herrigel 1996b: 116–17). But while Prussia could veto legislation
that it opposed, it did not have the clout to pass new legislation that infringed on the rights
of other states, as in this case.
10 See especially Hansen (1997: 380–5), who provides a very elegant and compelling argu-
ment about how certification transformed apprenticeship into a modern training institution
(which it had not been, traditionally).

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The Importance of the Artisanal Economy

of the 1880s had little effect, as regulation through the voluntary guilds
proved weak and ineffectual. However, the Handwerkergesetz of 1897 (and
subsequent revisions in 1908), which institutionalized certification and
monitoring as described above, brought “real progress” (Tollkühn 1926: 13;
see also Adelmann 1979: 12–13; Hansen 1997: 310; Kopsch 1928: 18–19).
Skill certification and monitoring, backed up by compulsory organiza-
tions endowed with parapublic rights to ensure compliance, provided a
powerful mechanism for underwriting credible commitments between
trainees and master artisans. The former had strong incentives to accept low
wages (in fact, apprentices often still paid a fee to the employer) and rela-
tively long contractual obligations (but a maximum of four years, according
to the new Industrial Code) to earn their certification. At the same time,
oversight by the artisanal chambers provided a way of evaluating the qual-
ity of training and thus acted as a check on blatant abuse and exploitation.
Handicraft firms benefited from the apprentices’ contributions to produc-
tion, but in order to avoid losing their training privileges they also had to
train their apprentices relatively well. If their trainees consistently failed
their exams, the firm’s license to train could be revoked (Hansen 1997:
especially 382–3).
As Hansen has emphasized, this legislation represents a fascinating amal-
gam of traditional and progressive elements, as the decentralized industrial
regions were able to assert their interests and turn a fundamentally conser-
vative initiative to market-conforming ends. Very similar to developments
in social policy around this same time (see especially Manow 2001), deeply
illiberal policies were organized not so much around an attempt to preserve
the status quo as to modernize and “rationalize the societal order” (Manow
1999: 5). In vocational training as in social policy the results “established
an especially modern form of interest intermediation, ‘sharing public
space’ . . . with organized societal interests and willing to use ‘functional
organizations as co-opted agents of order’” (Manow 1999: 5). In sum, the
1897 law was absolutely key to the future trajectory of German vocational
training, and it fits very neatly into a broader class of legislation in this
period which was, as Manow puts it, “modern, but certainly not liberal”
(Manow 1999: 5).

Implications for Labor

The existence of a chamber system endowed with parapublic author-
ity to monitor in-plant training and to certify skills had very profound
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implications for both organized labor and industry. For labor, the most
important consequences were (1) effectively to rule out organizational
strategies premised on attempts to control the supply of skills in the econ-
omy, at the same time (2) setting in motion feedback effects through which
Germany’s social democratic unions would themselves become invested
in strategies premised on maintaining and expanding (but also democra-
tizing) the inherited system of plant-based training.11 I deal with each of
these, briefly, in turn.
First, and especially in the context of the comparison to Britain (Chap-
ter 3), the triumph of industrial unionism in Germany is of crucial im-
portance. German unions were clearly not “born” centralized and there
is a longstanding debate on the connections between older handicraft
( journeymen’s) associations and the unions that ultimately emerged in
Germany (see, for example, Engelhardt 1977; Kocka 1986b). In the past,
some authors attributed the triumph of industrial organization to the logic
of late industrialization (industrial concentration being seen as driving
union centralization) or to the influence of working class parties champi-
oning socialist ideologies (associated therefore with a critique of traditional
“corporate” organizational forms and “narrow” craft identities). However,
the late industrialization thesis entirely misses important aspects of German
industrial structure, and the arguments about socialist ideology gloss over
key features of early working class formation and union organization.
Jürgen Kocka’s writings, in particular, have been important in clarifying
the way in which early unions in Germany in some ways built on traditional
organizational forms (for example, journeymen’s brotherhoods) while de-
veloping identities and strategies that were simultaneously strongly anticap-
italist and anticorporate (see especially Kocka 1984; Kocka 1986a; Kocka
1986b; also Welskopp 2000).12 Craft-based journeymen’s associations were

11 This topic merits a more extended treatment than is possible here. It is surprising how
most histories of the German union movement have been told separately from (and with
little reference to) the history of vocational education and training. As Streeck and col-
leagues have pointed out, although much has been written about how industrial relations
institutions affect training (for example, the way that craft unions have tried to regulate
the content and amount of training as part of their strategies) “less is known . . . about the
inverse effect of training on industrial relations” (Streeck et al. 1987: 1).
12 Welskopp’s monumental study of the German social democratic labor movement in the
late nineteenth century shows (among other things) how German unions were pushed into
a different relationship to politics and to the social democratic party by the fact that the
regulation of training through the handicraft chambers precluded a stronger emphasis on
labor market control (as developed in Britain, for example) (Welskopp 2000).

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clearly important in the early German labor movement from the 1840s
to the 1860s. By the 1870s class awareness was on the rise, but even then
unions were still dominated by skilled workers and fragmented along craft
lines (Kocka 1986a: 339–42).13 As Kocka notes, “most unionized workers
belonged to craft- or trade-specific organizations” until the 1890s, though
unions like the metalworkers were from quite early on composed of amal-
gamations of craft organizations (Kocka 1984: 99–100).
In addition, and as Herrigel shows (1993), the organizational landscape
in Germany throughout the last decades of the nineteenth century was
considerably more differentiated than many accounts of late industrializa-
tion premised on the idea of a growing polarization of big industry and
proletariat suggest. In Germany in the late nineteenth century a number
of “different kinds of organizations – industry associations, trade unions,
craft chambers (Innungen) – [all] competed for craftsmen’s allegiance and
membership” (Herrigel 1993: 385). Herrigel puts special emphasis on the
Fachvereine (associations of skilled outworkers) with strong craft identities
as the main competitors for the allegiance of skilled workers in this period.
He argues that this organizational competition is what drove the emergence
of encompassing industry-based unions, for it forced social democrats to
articulate a coherent social ideology that distinguished them from these
other organizations. He maintains that the social democratic unions de-
veloped by filling “the negative space” that was left by the other groups,
which meant embracing an organizational form that appealed to workers
on grounds other than their craft identities (Herrigel 1993: 388).
Herrigel is right to note the continuing importance of occupational
identities within the German labor movement. But a closer look at the
most important industrial union of the time, the Metalworkers (Deutscher
Metallarbeiterverband, or DMV),14 reveals that the union sometimes or-
ganized around the Fachvereine, but in the early years especially grew
mostly by absorbing many of them. At the crucial 1891 congress (at which

13 Comparing data from strikes in the period 1780–1805 against those between 1871–1878,
Kocka shows that craft distinctions had waned over the nineteenth century. Strikes in the
earlier period almost never involved cross-craft cooperation, but by the 1870s, about 10%
of strikes (20% of factory worker strikes and 6% of journeymen strikes) were waged jointly
by different crafts, and support from other crafts was up from 13% to almost one in three.
Still, as Kocka also notes, these strike data also show that, although diminishing, there was
still a “high degree of fragmentation” along craft lines in the 1870s (Kocka 1984: 110–11).
14 The DMV was the largest of the social democratic (“free”) unions, organizing almost a
fifth of their total membership in 1913 (Domansky-Davidsohn 1981: 24).

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the principle of industrial unionism prevailed) most of the delegates were

themselves representing various associations of skilled workers, both “sin-
gle craft” and “mixed” (Albrecht 1982: 483). The DMV’s strong growth in
the years after its founding occurred primarily through the entry of previ-
ously independent craft organizations, not through recruiting new union
members.15 In other words, social democratic (industrial) unions such as
the DMV only partly grew up in the “negative space” left open around
alternative (skill-based) organizations; they also grew right into the space
previously occupied by these other pre-existing associations. This is one
reason why the union was far less inclusive than its formal organizational
form (as an industrial union) suggested, dominated instead by skilled work-
ers until after World War I.16
Moreover, the skilled workers that made up the core of the early DMV
did not leave their skilled identities at the door. On the contrary, and as
Domansky-Davidsohn notes: “The trades-based organizations (Fachorgan-
isationen) that joined the DMV did not entirely abandon older models of
organization. The founding resolution of the DMV explicitly provided for
the consolidation of individual occupational groups into local departments
(Sektionen) under leadership of the DMV” (1981: 28, 35). The DMV also
remained very attuned to conditions of the various occupational groupings,
undertaking surveys of the wages and working conditions for various trades
through the early years of its existence (1891–1914) (Domansky-Davidsohn
1981: 18). The continuing influence of these informal craft groupings may
help explain significant features of the DMV’s collective bargaining poli-
cies in the early years as well. Wage agreements in the Berlin metalworking
industry before the war were negotiated individually for separate crafts,
that is, separate contracts for separate trades (Mosher 2001: 291). Even in
the first postwar contract, in 1919, wages were differentiated by craft (for
example, toolmaker) and by the type of work done (for example, machinist,
ironworker, and so on) (Mosher 2001: 291).
These observations suggest a different question, why the skilled identities
of the various occupational groupings did not prevent them from throw-
ing their lots in with social democratic unions that were explicitly com-
mitted to industrial organization. Here a more materialist–institutionalist

15 The mergers were sometimes voluntary, but by no means always. Sometimes they were the
result of pressure by the DMV (Domansky-Davidsohn 1981: 28–9).
16 In 1913, only about 20% of DMV members were unskilled or semi-skilled workers
(Domansky-Davidsohn 1981: 32).

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approach can complement Herrigel’s identity-based analysis. As Kocka has

pointed out, the distinctly anticorporate (in addition to anticapitalist) slant
of Germany’s early unions must be understood within the context of the
broader social and political context in which they emerged and grew. In
particular, and in sharp contrast to both Britain and France, “elements of
the old corporate order survived much longer in Germany . . . into the midst
of the industrial revolution. But they remained in an unbalanced way. The
master guilds survived much better than the journeymen brotherhoods,
which had been deeply weakened by government policy. From the perspec-
tive of the journeymen, the restrictive elements of the old order lasted more
successfully than its protective elements did” (Kocka 1986a: 311–12).
In the area of apprenticeship and skill formation specifically (crucial to
any strategy organized around craft exclusivity), it is clearly significant that
union expansion in Germany took place in a context in which the skill-
regulatory functions were effectively occupied by the (master-dominated)
voluntary guilds and then (after 1897) authoritatively monopolized by the
handicraft chambers (see also Kocka 1986b: 342–3). Thus, as in Britain
(see Chapter 3), skilled workers formed the core of the early unions and in
many ways held on to their occupational identities. The difference is that
in Germany, unions were profoundly discouraged if not blocked entirely
from pursuing craft-based strategies (for example, based on controlling
skilled labor markets) in their dealings with employers.17 The hold-outs
(against industrial organization) would have been those craft workers who
for very specific and historically identifiable reasons were in fact able to
control the market in their own skill. Within metalworking, the Solingen
cutlery workers provide an example of just such a case.18

17 Philip Manow’s work has also highlighted the way in which the development of social
insurance in Germany cut off strategies premised on controlling skilled labor markets.
“Craft unions often offered special insurance benefits to their members. The new social
insurance [of the Bismarckian period] increasingly prohibited using these union insurance
schemes as ‘selective incentives’. Hence, craft unions lost an instrument that was critical for
attracting and keeping members, while industrial unions were gaining a new set of selective
incentives, including power to allocate numerous jobs in the insurance administration to
loyal followers and to have a say over impressive welfare budgets” (Manow 2001b: 117).
In addition, though Manow does not stress it, these developments meant that craft unions
could not use their friendly benefits in support of trade union goals, as was the case in
Britain.
18 See especially Boch (1985). In the case of the Solingen cutlery workers, the Fachverein
was itself the direct descendent of the masters guild. The merchants who organized the
decentralized production of specialty cutlery actively supported the power of the Fachverein
to co-manage the market in skilled labor on which production entirely depended.

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Beyond blocking unions from pursuing strategies aimed at craft con-

trol, the operation of the Handwerk training system and the survival of
apprenticeship generally produced feedback effects that were important in
shaping union orientations toward skill and skill formation. Certainly in
the early industrial period, the vast majority of skilled factory workers were
recruited directly from the artisanal sector (Kocka 1986a: 323–44; Lenger
1988: 160–2; Adelmann 1979: 19), and Handwerk continued to train large
numbers of workers throughout the late nineteenth and into the twentieth
century. Handwerk firms mostly had no intention of keeping the appren-
tices on after their training was complete, cycling them in and out to keep
costs low, taking on new apprentices rather than hiring the journeymen they
had just trained. This pattern is quite different from the practices of the
large firms in Germany in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,
which mostly trained workers that they intended to continue to employ.
By contrast, the workers trained in Germany’s handicraft sector mostly left
that sector, seeking and finding jobs in industry, and also therefore often
finding their way into social democratic unions.
The result – both of the role of the handicraft sector in supplying skills to
industry and of the survival of meaningful apprenticeship more generally –
was that significant numbers of the industrial workers that unions wound
up organizing (especially in the pre-World War I period, when the unions
were still so dominated by skilled workers) had received their skill cre-
dentials in the context of the apprentice system. Schönhoven notes that
in 1913, 80% of the DMV’s membership consisted of skilled workers who
had served an apprenticeship (gelernte Berufsarbeiter) (Schönhoven 1979:
411).19 At the level of leadership as well, the early DMV was composed of “a
group of men who all came from apprenticed trades” (aus gelernten Berufen)
(Domansky-Davidsohn 1981: 30). The point here is to underline the im-
portant feedback effects generated by the apprenticeship system in general
and the handicraft system in particular. Germany’s early social democratic
unions contained very significant numbers of skilled workers who had a
personal investment in the apprenticeship system, a system through which
they themselves had passed and which had conferred their credentials. In

19 See also Domansky-Davidsohn, who notes that despite an increase in membership among
unskilled and semi-skilled workers around 1905, “skilled workers steeped in the handicraft
tradition and those trained in industrial trades still set the tone” (Domansky-Davidsohn
1981: 32).

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light of this, it is understandable how, despite initial opposition, the unions

in a relatively short time came to define their interests not in terms of
dismantling apprenticeship, but rather in controlling or co-managing the
system of firm-based training that it represented.
Related to this and especially after 1897, unions like the metalworkers
(where apprenticed workers figured so prominently) must have recognized
the value of the kinds of skill certification functions that the handicraft
model represented, not least because certification provided their members
with a non-firm-specific way of documenting their skills in the labor market
as a whole. It simply mattered a great deal that in Germany not all training
took place within the context of large firms seeking to cultivate a loyal core of
skilled workers for their own use. From early on German workers benefited
from a system of skill certification (allowing them to document their skills)
separate from both unions and from large industrial firms. This meant
that (as in Britain) labor’s strength could be premised substantially on skill,
but (unlike Britain) without skill formation itself being contested across
the class divide (for example, with unions trying to limit apprenticeship in
order to control the supply of skills). Thus, when German unions entered
the debates on skill formation (during Weimar in a limited way, later as full
participants in the vocational education system) they framed their goals in
terms of increasing the availability of training opportunities (rather than
regulating the quantity of skills in the economy), and in democratizing and
co-managing the system of in-plant training (rather than demolishing it).
This is what made Germany’s industrial unions powerful potential allies of
those segments of industry that had their own reasons for wanting to break
into the system of skill formation that had been created for and was being
monopolized by these small employer master craftsmen.

Implications for Industry

For industry, the implications of the consolidation of a Handwerk-based
system for skill formation were no less momentous. In the first place, it
meant that industrial firms could rely on a relatively steady stream of certi-
fied skilled workers from the artisanal sector. The dependence of German
manufacturing firms on Handwerk-based skills was virtually absolute until
at least the 1880s (Tollkühn 1926: 4–5; von Behr 1981: 44–5) and dimin-
ished only very slowly in subsequent decades. In 1907, 46.5% of all youth in
training were still in the smallest artisanal workshops (under five workers)

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(Muth 1985: 36).20 As late as 1925 training was still concentrated in the
small firm sector. A national business census in that year showed that 55%
of all apprentices were being trained in Handwerk firms, as against 45% in
industry (Schütte 1992: 65).21 In short, many industrial firms in the early
industrial period in Germany were able to draw substantially on workers
trained in the artisanal sector to cover their skill needs.
Handwerk firms provided a crucial collective good but they too benefited
since many of them depended on apprentices as a source of cheap productive
labor.22 Traditionally, firms received a fee from the apprentice, and the
handicraft sector lagged behind industry by decades in moving to offer
apprentices any stipend at all (Schütte 1992: 137). In small artisanal firms,
an extra pair of hands that could be flexibly deployed as needed could make a
big difference in terms of overall output, and the training itself could be
accomplished mostly during lulls in production (Hansen 1997).23 Once the
apprenticeship was complete, master artisans may well have been perfectly
happy to see their freshly trained apprentices disappear (as journeymen) into

20 Dehen (1928: 25) provides different figures but the message is the same. He notes that in
Prussia (excluding the areas of decentralized specialty production described above), in the
years before 1871, only 375 apprentices received their training in factories. In 1881, out
of 14,616 skilled industrial workers, over eight thousand had received their training in the
handicraft sector. In 1891, out of about twenty-seven thousand skilled industrial workers,
about one-half had been trained in the handicraft sector. In 1901, it was still well over
one-third (approximately fifteen thousand out of a total of about thirty-five thousand).
21 It must be borne in mind, however, that the line between industrial firms and Handwerk
firms is and especially was somewhat fluid. Many industrial firms “grew out” of handicraft
firms. To this day, however, Handwerk is still a major training sector (see Wagner 1997:
23; also Streeck 1992b).
22 The self-interested motives of the Handwerker in apprentices-as-employees is evidenced
in the widespread exploitation of apprentices during the Great Depression mentioned
above (Muth 1985: 18; Tollkühn 1926: 9–12; Volkov 1978: 73). For this reason, too, some
segments of the artisanate resisted the expansion of compulsory continuation schools that
required them to release apprentices during working hours for supplementary classroom-
based training (Linton 1991: 90–3).
23 Figures on the net costs of training for the period under analysis here are not available. A
recent study shows, however, that even today (when apprentice wages are negotiated by
unions as a percent of skilled workers’ wages) the net costs of taking apprentices (gross cost
of training minus productive output of the trainee) is much smaller for Handwerk firms,
where training takes place in the context of production, than for industrial firms (where
training is more likely to take place in workshops). Moreover (again, for the 1990s), the
variable net cost (variable cost minus fixed costs) was in fact negative for 20% of trainees
in industry and for 30% of trainees in the craft sector, which is to say that the contribu-
tion of apprentices to production outweighed entirely the cost of training them (Wagner
1999: 44).

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Large Machine and Metalworking Companies

large industrial firms; better this than that they set up shop independently
and in more direct competition with their erstwhile masters.
Virtually the only complaints against this system before the turn of the
century came from Germany’s large machine firms – companies such as
Maschinenfabrik Augsburg Nürnberg (M.A.N.), Ludwig Loewe and Com-
pany, Borsig, and Koenig & Bauer. Like everyone else, these firms benefited
from the skills generated by the artisanal sector and they continued to draw
on this source to address their skill needs well into the twentieth century.
Beginning in the 1890s, however, these large firms had begun to complain
that they were pushing up against the limits of the skills provided by the
Handwerk sector. First, Handwerk could not produce skilled workers fast
enough to keep pace with the needs of this industry, which was expanding
exponentially at the turn of the century, and around 1900 overtook all other
sectors to become the single biggest employer of post-school-age males.24
Second, these large firms complained that workers trained in the artisanal
sector did not arrive in the factory fully competent in the new technologies
being introduced at an accelerated pace in this period (Dehen 1928: 27–8;
Tollkühn 1926: 14–16; von Behr 1981: 60–1).

Strategies of the Large Machine and Metalworking Companies

Responding to the perceived inadequacies of craft training these firms em-
barked on strategies aimed at internalizing skill formation at the firm level
and incorporating training into complementary plant social policies and
internal labor markets. In contrast to the traditional Meisterlehre model
(on-the-job training by working alongside a master craftsman), Germany’s
large machine producers sought to “rationalize” training by instituting firm-
based apprenticeship workshops. Apprentices would be trained in somewhat
larger groups and, initially at least, separate from the production process
(von Behr 1981; Eichberg 1965). M.A.N. established its training workshop
in the 1890s, a move accompanied by a steep increase in the number of
apprentices at the firm (von Behr 1981: 41, 103). The electrical equipment
giant Schuckert & Co. established a training workshop in 1890, the ma-
chine producer Borsig set one up in 1898, and other large firms in the
machine and electro-mechanical industries followed suit around the same
time (von Behr 1981: 41 and passim; Eichberg 1965: 25–34). A number

24 Together with metal processing, the machine industry accounted for nearly 40% of em-
ployment of 14- to 16-year-old (male) factory workers by 1912 (Linton 1991: 28).

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of companies also instituted factory schools (Werkschulen) that would be

responsible for the more theoretical aspects of training (see Dehen 1928:
264–70 for a complete listing, by year of founding up to 1927). Seventeen
factory schools were opened in the years before 1900, most of them in
companies located in more rural areas in northern and eastern Germany
where the educational (and for that matter, industrial) infrastructure was
weak (Dehen 1928: 12, 35). A further 55 were founded between 1900 and
1914, increasingly in larger urban centers (Dehen 1928: 65–83).25
A number of these firms epitomized the strategies that Herrigel char-
acterizes as “autarkic,” designing plant-based training programs to ad-
dress the specific skills the company needed, and linking these to other
plant-based social programs and benefits. The idea was to cultivate an
elite core of skilled workers fully versed in the firm’s production system
and loyal to the company (Dehen 1928: 15–16, 75–7). Especially in the
early years, those workers who received firm-sponsored training were ex-
plicitly being groomed for leading positions within the firm (von Behr
1981: 188). Heidrun Homburg notes the establishment of company-based
and employer-dominated (“yellow”) unions in key machine firms including
Siemens, Eckert, Loewe, and M.A.N., all of them also leaders in plant-
based training (Homburg 1982: 226–8). These companies provided worker
housing, established firm-based sickness insurance, improved working con-
ditions, and pursued a policy of recruiting among the families of cur-
rent workers (von Behr 1981: 93–4; Rupieper 1982: 85).26 As Anton von
Rieppel, the head of M.A.N., put it, in-house training created a “con-
nection between the workers and the plant management . . . so that the
workers did not want to leave” (quoted in Ebert 1984: 221, also 166; see
also Herrigel 1996b: 105). In short, Germany’s large machine producers
sought to internalize skill formation and incorporate training into a broader
segmentalist production strategy based on labor cooptation and company
paternalism.

25 Of the 145 factory schools founded by the time of Dehen’s (1928) study, almost a third
(47) were in the machine, tool, and auto industries (Dehen 1928: 7). Writing two years
later, the director of the State Technical College for the Iron and Steel Goods Industry in
Schmalkalden, Hans Kellner, noted that among the members of the Berlin Association of
Metal Employers (Verband Berliner Metallindustrieller), ten companies had Werkschulen
that trained large numbers of apprentices. These included AEG, Bergmann, Borsig, L.
Loewe, Mix + Genest, Siemens-Schuckert, Siemens-Halske, Knorrbremse, Stock + Co.,
and Fritz Werner AG (Kellner 1930: 14).
26 See also the discussion of company welfare schemes of Krupp, Zeiss, and other companies
in Lee (1978: 462–3).

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These firms were annoyed, however, by their inability to certify the skills
their training conferred. After 1897 the only way to become certified as
a “skilled worker” in Germany was through the Handwerk chambers (see
especially Hansen 1997: 380–91 on the importance of certification). There
existed no similar authority or officially recognized framework to certify
industrial training, which became a source of irritation for those firms en-
gaged in such training. Already in 1902, the association of Berlin Metal
Industrialists had sought (unsuccessfully) official recognition and certifica-
tion for industrial apprenticeship in Berlin, and accreditation for the train-
ing workshops of that city’s premier industrial training firms – AEG, Borsig,
Loewe, and others (Hansen 1997: 510–11).
In the ensuing years the issue of certification and skill testing became an
issue of some contention between industry and Handwerk (Schütte 1992:
17–19). In 1907 Handwerk conducted a survey to document industry’s heavy
reliance on handicraft training as a source of skills, and used this to support
a demand that all firms that used artisan-trained apprentices be required to
contribute to the costs of such training and to maintaining the handicraft
chambers (Schütte 1992: 18; Muth 1985: 35–6). In this period as well, arti-
sans were (still) seeking legislation that would further upgrade and protect
the standing of those who had earned “master” status within the handicraft
system (Volkov 1978: 143).27
Firms like M.A.N. found it preposterous that their own training – more
systematic by far than that of the traditional artisanal sector – was not
recognized and that they were being asked to contribute to the Handwerk-
based system to boot. As they saw it, the existing system of Handwerk-based
certification privileged and acknowledged inferior training and perversely
supported a system of skill formation they considered outdated. Managers
of these firms pointed to the inadequacy of Handwerk training to meet their
skill needs and thus the need for a separate system of testing and certification
for industry (von Rieppel 1912: 9). They denounced Handwerk’s demands
for industry to contribute more to its (Handwerk’s) system, pointing out
that Handwerk training was in fact inadequate to the needs of industry.
They went to some lengths to refute the claims of the handicraft sector by

27 In 1908 artisans got a reduced version of their demands when the government instituted
the so-called kleiner Befähigungsnachweis which stipulated that only certified master crafts-
men (that is, with master certification through the handicraft chambers) could train ap-
prentices (Hansen 1997: 506; Kaiser and Loddenkemper 1980: 12; see also Schütte 1992:
19–20).

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documenting industry’s increasing self-reliance when it came to training

(see, for example, von Rieppel 1912).
The issue of jurisdiction over skill certification and testing generated an
important and ongoing contest between handicraft masters and large ma-
chine firms. For handicraft firms, a monopoly on skill certification functions
was probably most important for enabling competition with larger firms for
the most promising young apprentices. In some cases, apprentices (but espe-
cially their parents) may have preferred a Handwerk apprenticeship because
certification itself had value, opening up avenues that (uncertified) indus-
trial training did not. Hansen emphasizes this point especially: “Thanks to
the effects of the Handicraft Law, [handicraft shops] were put in a position
to offer their apprentices precisely what industrial firms could not: pub-
licly acknowledged certificates, essential to documenting their training and
skills” (Hansen 1997: 512; see also Schütte 1992: 84). Most important, cer-
tification was necessary for attaining independent master status (which in
turn conferred the right to take apprentices) (Frölich 1919: 108–9). Main-
taining a monopoly on admittance to master status was an advantage in
competing for bright young workers, and – along with longstanding con-
cerns about overstocking particular trades – was also an important reason
why Handwerk defended the special status of the journeyman’s examina-
tion, a test it alone administered and that was the sole route for a worker to
be admitted to the master examination (Pätzold 1989: 275).
Although competition for bright young apprentices may have been an is-
sue for the large machine companies, other factors probably played a larger
role.28 In particular, firms like these, which were pursuing policies based
on internal labor markets, had a very strong interest in both lowering the
cost of pursuing segmentalist policies aimed at recruiting and retaining top

28 These firms, as we have seen, were often in a position to offer prospective apprentices
other kinds of incentives, including longer term employment prospects – since (in sharp
contrast to these companies) Handwerk firms typically did not intend to keep trainees
once they had completed their apprenticeships. Hansen has argued that the main value of
certification was to underwrite the mutual commitment between apprentices and training
firms for the duration of the training contract, to make sure the firm could recoup its
training costs through the apprentices’ contribution to production. This was certainly
one of the main functions performed by certification in the handicraft sector. Unlike in
the handicraft sector, however, training in the machine companies was accomplished in
workshops where apprentices were not contributing to production, so the “payback” issue
was not so salient as the issue of nurturing internal labor markets. I thank an anonymous
reviewer for emphasizing the different rationale for larger firms in pursuing certification
and testing rights.

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skilled workers and in gaining control over the content and definition of
skills. As pointed out above, these firms found Handwerk training utterly
insufficient. When they recruited from this sector they found they had to
invest considerable resources in retraining these workers in the specific
skills they needed. Thus, when firms like M.A.N. and Siemens made ar-
rangements with their local craft chambers to examine and certify their
apprentices (Hansen 1997: 273–4), these ad hoc arrangements proved un-
stable, often leading to conflicts over the composition of the examination
boards and the types of skills to be tested (Fürer 1927: 32–3; Botsch 1933:
7–8; Mack 1927: 105–7; Kopsch 1928: 14; Frölich 1919: 109–10). M.A.N.,
for example, had a deal with the local handicraft chamber, but continued to
complain that this arrangement was inadequate (Lippart 1919: 7).29
Despite the somewhat different motives, contemporary accounts make
it very clear that Germany’s large machine firms understood the advan-
tages of testing and certification, and perceived their inability to pre-
side over these services as a disadvantage (Frölich 1919; DATSCH 1912:
99, 303; von Rieppel 1912: 9; Lippart 1919: 5–7; Wilden 1926: 1–2;
Gesamtverband Deutscher Metallindustrieller 1934: 18–19). As a conse-
quence, large industrial firms that depended heavily on skills organized
among themselves to demand the creation of a parallel system for pro-
moting and certifying industrial training under the collective control of
the Industry and Trade Chambers (and endowed with powers equal to
those of the Handicraft Chambers). An important early step in the devel-
opment of industrial training was undertaken in 1908, with the founding
of the German Committee for Technical Education (Deutscher Ausschuß
für Technisches Schulwesen, or DATSCH). Jointly sponsored by the As-
sociation of German Engineers (Verein Deutscher Ingenieure, VDI) and
the Association of German Machine-Building Firms (Verband Deutscher
Maschinenbauanstalten, VDMA), the committee demanded from the out-
set separate testing and certification powers (emphasized, for example, as
“urgently desired” in the guidelines the organization set forth for apprentice
training; see DATSCH 1912: 99, 303).
DATSCH’s broader official goal was to “heighten interest in the pro-
motion of a well educated, skilled labor force” (Abel 1963: 41; Tollkühn

29 Although there was a gradual expansion of industry examinations under the auspices of
employer associations and the chambers of industry and commerce (IHK) in the twenties,
these exams were entirely voluntary and had no legal foundation (Kaiser and Loddenkemper
1980: 13).

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1926: 38–9).30 Although the organization made claims to speak on behalf

of industry as a whole, in fact its activities and policies in the early years
of its existence reflected the interests of the large machine companies who
dominated the VDMA in the prewar period. Anton von Rieppel, head of
M.A.N., was especially active and served as the organization’s first presi-
dent. By founding DATSCH these companies hoped to increase awareness
of the problem of skill formation in industry – partly to garner broader sup-
port for their own training efforts but also to spark greater interest on the
part of youth in industrial training.31 Despite the poaching problems that
certification would bring (through increased transparency; see Chapter 1),
machine producers had a special interest in a large pool of portable skills.
Von Rieppel himself emphasized that providing the necessary mechanics,
turners, and fitters was part of the package of services that machine mak-
ers needed to offer their customers who were not in a position to provide
for their own skill needs in this regard (von Rieppel 1912: 6). For firms
like his, enhanced organization and joint certification powers would have
looked very attractive. They would have established floors and standards
for particular skills, as well as offered mechanisms for monitoring training
in other companies.
DATSCH’s founding corresponded with the onset of rather intense skill
shortages in Germany in 1907–08, a situation that hit these firms partic-
ularly hard. There is evidence that poaching became an especially seri-
ous problem in urban centers such as Berlin, where several large machine
companies – among them, A.E.G., Borsig, Loewe, and Eckert – had facto-
ries. Companies located in more rural areas were overall less affected since
they dominated the local labor market and coupled their training programs
with an attractive package of benefits (Dehen 1928: 33). But as labor markets
grew tighter, even these firms felt the sting as workers were drawn to higher
wages in other regions (Hansen 1997: 511). In this context, DATSCH pro-
vided a forum though which these companies sought to coordinate among
themselves the management of intensified competition and to discourage
firms from cutting back on training, which would only make the problem
worse. For example, in 1911, the organization called on all member firms
to maintain a commitment to train a number of apprentices equivalent to

30 See also DATSCH Abhandlungen (I 1910: 2–5) on the founding of the organization.
31 One of the first moves (1909) initiated by von Rieppel was a survey of 18 large machine com-
panies regarding their skill needs and their experiences with handicraft-trained apprentices
(Dehen 1928: 27).

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10 to 15% of their total workforce (Dehen 1928: 168), though it is not clear
how successful this initiative was.
Germany’s large machine companies had additional incentives to orga-
nize having to do with the developments in the spread of continuation trade
schooling for youths over the age of 14. As mentioned above, Germany was,
by international standards, a pioneer in developing public trade schools,
which in some states had been made compulsory as early as the 1830s.
Moreover, in 1891, an Imperial Industrial Law (later amended in 1900)
obliged employers to grant their apprentices (and other workers under
18 years of age) time off as necessary to attend continuation schools, in ac-
cordance with regulations set down by local authorities (Sadler 1908a: 517;
Education 1909a: 147, 156).32 Over the 1890s and into the first years of
the twentieth century, the number of states requiring youth to attend such
schools increased so that, by 1908, a large majority of the youth population
was covered.33
At the turn of the century, questions about compulsion, state financing,
and the content of training in continuation schools were subjects of ongo-
ing debate in many regions (notably and perhaps most consequentially, in
Prussia). These were issues in which Germany’s large, skill-intensive firms
had clear and definite interests.34 In Prussia, small scale artisans were very
much opposed to compulsion, and especially compulsory attendance dur-
ing working hours, as this would make training more expensive for them.35
Larger firms benefited much more from compulsory attendance in pub-
lic trade schools, since – especially if they could influence the content – it
amounted to a direct subsidy for efforts already underway. The content of
continuation schooling was contested, notoriously in Prussia between the
Ministry of Education (which sought a more ideological content, that is, as

32 Backed by sanctions and the threat of fines, but also by possible imprisonment if employers
failed to fulfill their obligations (Education 1909a: 147, 156). The Industrial Code of 1869
had given local governments the power to determine local requirements with respect to
continuation schooling.
33 Those states in which attendance at continuation school was still entirely voluntary in
1908 (Hamburg, Lübeck, Reuss, and Schaumburg-Lippe) contained less than 2% of the
population (Sadler 1908b: 513–17). Other states mandated it, and still others allowed local
authorities to mandate it.
34 On these debates see especially Hansen (1997: 514–35), on which I draw here.
35 And if legislation was adopted making attendance compulsory, there was the question of
when such classes should be held – also contentious, as Handwerk preferred solutions
outside regular working hours. In 1904 the Ministry of Industry and Commerce issued a
decree that strongly discouraged holding these classes on Sunday or in the evenings.

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a vehicle for socializing youth against social democracy) and the Ministry of
Trade (which, under the influence of bureaucrats looking at the southwest-
ern model, favored more technical content and explicit links to the firms in
the local economy). The latter prevailed in these conflicts. Although Prussia
continued to lag behind the southwest in terms of the quality and the num-
ber of trade-oriented continuation schools, the period between 1885 and
1904 saw a significant rise in both the number of schools and attendance at
them.36
Thus, Germany’s large machine companies were expanding their own
independent training efforts at exactly the same time that these debates
were unfolding, and DATSCH became a vehicle through which they could
organize their lobbying efforts. Among other things, companies that had
founded factory schools worked with local authorities to get their schools
accredited or to shape the curricula of local continuation schools in ways
that served their purposes.37 Through DATSCH, firms lobbied for in-
creased participation by the state to help bear the costs of training, with
the argument that since youth training was a social good, the costs should
be borne by society as a whole. Premier industrial training firms sought to
influence the curricula of public continuation schools by donating models,
work plans, work pieces, and materials (Dehen 1928: 80–2). Dehen notes a
drop in factory school foundings after 1908 and concludes that this was no
coincidence but rather part of a strategy in which these firms were looking
for ways to offload some of their training costs onto the state.38
We can sum up developments in vocational training to the eve of World
War I. The Handwerk-based system of skill formation that came out of the
Imperial period began to build some of the scaffolding on which Germany’s
system of vocational education and training would ultimately be built. It did
so first by encouraging the development of unions whose strength derived
from organizing skilled workers but which were not wedded to strategies

36 Hansen’s figures indicate that between 1885 and 1904 the number of trade and continuation
schools in Prussia rose from 715 to 2,065, and between 1899 and 1904, attendance grew
from 83,772 to 175,100 (Hansen 1997: 520). State support was explicitly linked to the
adoption of local legislation that made continuation school obligatory for youth up to the
age of 18.
37 Greinert argues generally (also for the Weimar period) that the firms with company schools
were always torn between the desire for control and the desire to off-load some of the costs
of training onto the state (Greinert 1994: 49). Pätzold notes that in the 1920s many of the
large firms with factory schools got their facilities to count as substitutes for the public
trade schools (Pätzold 1989: 279).
38 Between 1910 and 1917 only five such schools were founded (Dehen 1928: 158).

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based on limiting the supply of skills. And second, the existence of such a
system pushed those industries that were heavily dependent on skills toward
strategies based on securing advantage within the logic of the system. The
handicraft system was a crucial focal point for the demands of Germany’s
large machine companies, in two senses. First, it was the foil against which,
through DATSCH, they railed in the prewar period. But second, the hand-
icraft system of coordinated training and self-regulation served as a model
for industry. Industrial firms engaged in training thus spent the prewar
years seeking certification for their trainees through the handicraft cham-
bers, at the same time working collectively to secure separate and parallel
certification powers.

Political Coalitions and the Evolution of the System

The Weimar period is less important for what was actually accomplished
in terms of formal (legislative) innovation in the area of apprenticeship
training for industry than for what was achieved on a voluntary (albeit well
organized) basis. These accomplishments laid the political and technical
foundations for the system that emerged later. Neither of the two key fea-
tures of the contemporary German system – a national system for certifying
industrial (in addition to artisanal) skills and full union participation in the
oversight of plant-based training – was consolidated in the Weimar years.
However, most of the groundwork for both was laid in this period.
In the first years of the Weimar Republic, the reform of apprenticeship
training was very much on the agenda. War casualties had created an acute
shortage of skilled workers alongside a severe shortage of apprenticeship
slots for youth (Pätzold 1989: 271–2). The immediate postwar period also
revealed growing abuses of apprenticeship training by master artisans in
some regions, brought on by the economic crisis after 1918 (Pätzold 1989:
265). Traditional Handwerk firms increasingly relied on apprentices as a
source of inexpensive productive labor, and the effectiveness of monitor-
ing by the Handwerkskammer was only as good as the willingness of the
chambers to punish members who abused their training privileges. These
and other problems revealed the fragility of the Handwerk-based system
and caught the attention of reform minded bureaucrats, skill-dependent
industrialists, and labor leaders who had their own reasons for questioning
the sustainability of the old system.
In addition, the years of inflation threw even the producers of Germany’s
decentralized industrial districts into turmoil. These regions were plunged
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into intense crisis that unleashed “ruinous competition” in product mar-

kets and stretched previous forms of regional collaboration to the breaking
point (Herrigel 1996b: 58–66). In this context, these producers asserted
their interests and sought solutions to their collective dilemmas through
the Association of German Machine Builders (VDMA). With the assis-
tance of the state this organization became a crucial vehicle for facilitating
coordination among small- and medium-sized producers in the machine
industries in a range of areas including, but not limited to, the area of skills.
As we will see in Chapter 3, training in Britain had by this time deteri-
orated substantially in the context of fierce competitive struggles among
firms and between employers and unions. What prevented training in
Germany from suffering a similar fate was not just the oversight rights
of the Handwerk chambers, but above all, actions undertaken by unions
and the VDMA and DATSCH which attracted the attention of state bu-
reaucrats and kept the reform of vocational training on the agenda. Thus,
despite the failure of a coalition for reform to pass legislation in this area in
the Weimar years, these organizations presided over important steps for-
ward in rendering plant-based training more systematic and uniform. The
efforts of the coalition for reform were vigorously denounced by the arti-
sanal sector. The pressures exerted by reformers, however, enhanced the
quality of training, not least by keeping Handwerk-based training in the
spotlight and encouraging comparisons of training practices in Handwerk
firms with the increasingly systematic training programs developing on a
voluntary but collective basis in industry. The Handwerkskammer opposed
state reform of vocational training, but they could scarcely defend their
monopoly to certify skills if they allowed training standards in handicraft
firms to slide.
During the war the unions had taken up the issue of vocational training
in internal discussions, and they had also floated ideas for reform that in
at least certain industrial circles were seen as “quite reasonable” (quoted in
Ebert 1984: 264; see also Schütte 1992: 28). In some industries and regions,
employers and unions demonstrated a great willingness to work together
on this matter (for example, Beil 1921: 8). For example in woodworking, the
union and the employers’ association convened a joint conference in 1916
and proposed a four-point program for reform that recognized broad par-
ticipatory rights for labor (Schütte 1992: 31).39 Within the metalworking
industry, similar willingness to collaborate across the class divide was

39 And there was a similar agreement in 1920 in the book printing industry (Ebert 1984: 270).

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evident on a regional level. In Chemnitz, for example, the regional em-

ployers association and the local union reached an agreement in 1919 on
the regulation of apprenticeship (Ebert 1984: 270).
At the national level, the Zentralarbeitsgemeinschaft, or ZAG – formed
by organized labor and employers to “institutionalize and organize future
collaboration in the formulation of joint economic and social policies”
(Feldman and Nocken 1975: 313) – also took up the issue of vocational
education reform. By 1921, the social policy committee of the ZAG had
produced a set of guidelines for future legislation in this area (Muth 1985:
446–7). These proposals anticipated a uniform framework for the regula-
tion of training, covering both industry and Handwerk. Rather than having
the handicraft chambers in charge, the guidelines called for the creation
of oversight committees composed of equal numbers of representatives of
employers and workers. Such committees were to be endowed with the
power to regulate firm-based training (including granting and revoking
training privileges) as well as to oversee and administer the examination
and certification process for skilled industrial workers. What unions would
have gotten out of this was equal representation on the oversight boards,
in exchange for which they were prepared to define the apprenticeship
contract as involving an educational rather than an employment relation-
ship (and therefore not a subject for collective bargaining).40 Industry, for
its part, would have achieved the independent certification authority that
at least the large machine and metalworking companies had long sought
(Ebert 1984: 276; Vereinigung der Deutschen Arbeitergeberverbände 1922:
142–3).41
Reforms along these lines never materialized, however, and to under-
stand why we need to take a brief look at the interests of the relevant actors
and how these interests changed in response to the shifting political and
economic climate in Germany in the 1920s. Simplifying greatly, we might
characterize the politics of skills during the Weimar Republic in terms of

40 The issue of whether an apprenticeship contract was an educational contract or an employ-

ment contract was the subject of ongoing controversy during the Weimar years. Employ-
ers, but especially artisans, were adamant that it be considered an educational contract, for
among other things this would allow them to forbid apprentices from taking part in union
events (see Stratmann 1990: Chapter 3; Kaps 1930).
41 See also the discussion of the ZAG guidelines at a conference convened by DATSCH in
Cassel in 1921 (especially Beil 1921), and the comment by Dr. Kühne, head of ZAG’s
social policy committee, who notes with satisfaction the degree of overlap between his
committee’s proposals and the views of DATSCH (DATSCH 1921: 30).

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the early failure of a coalition for the reform of apprenticeship training

(including separate industrial certification and with union participation)
premised on a core alliance between the machine industry and newly incor-
porated unions (and with the support of key ministries), and the growing
strength of an alternative coalition in defense of employer self-regulation
and against union participation (with heavy industry and the Handwerk
sector at the center).

Organized Labor’s Position in the Debates of the 1920s

The most important new voice in the debate on apprenticeship training
in the post-World War I period was that of Germany’s unions, which now
enjoyed full legal recognition. Already in 1919 the unions had called for
reforms that involved stripping the artisanal sector of its monopoly (long
a goal of the machine industry as we have seen) and for full union par-
ticipation in overseeing and administering plant-based skill formation.42
For our purposes the most important point in the unions’ role is how they
framed their goals in this area. Above all, unions sought to break the arti-
sanal chambers’ control over apprenticeship training and replace this with
a more “democratic” structure. In line with other demands raised by the
ZAG, the unions proposed the creation of oversight committees at the na-
tional and regional levels. In the union plan, such committees would be
composed of an equal number of representatives of unions and employers
(chaired by a neutral public official), and would administer and oversee gen-
eral legislative regulations in this area (Hoffmann 1962: 96; Schütte 1992:
31–2).
In 1919 the unions called for comprehensive legislation on the issue of
vocational training, to replace the system of de facto control through the
HWK. In addition to demanding a complete overhaul in the apparatus
for overseeing the apprentice system, German unions advocated a massive
expansion of such training, a comprehensive guarantee of training to all
youth. As Heinrich Abel (1963: 48) notes, what is most interesting is that
German unions had no trouble with the idea of firm-based training, but in
fact called for more firms to do more of it (see also Herber 1930: 46–7; and

42 These proposals, though not completely uncontroversial, easily carried the day at the 1919
congress of the central trade union confederation in Nürnberg (Hoffmann 1962: 95–7;
also Schütte 1992: 31–3; Ebert 1984: 262). Ebert notes that already in 1918 the unions
expressed regret for their relative neglect of the training issue in the past.

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especially Kopsch 1928: 43).43 This stands in contrast to the position of

socialist unions in other countries, such as Sweden, who preferred school-
based vocational education and were more skeptical of firm-based training
as inherently biased toward employer interests (Olofsson 2001; Crouch,
Finegold, and Sako 1999: 119). The demands of the German unions in
this period are also strikingly different from those of British unions. There,
skilled unions were locked in pitched battles, both with employers over
deskilling and with other unions over the right to perform certain operations
(demarcation disputes). In Germany, the triumph of industrial unions, along
with the institutionalization of unitary plant-based representation (in the
works council legislation of 1919), largely eliminated the institutional basis
for these kinds of disputes.44
Many, though not all, of German labor’s preferences were accommo-
dated in the guidelines proposed by ZAG’s social policy committee. The
issue of a comprehensive commitment to training for all youth and the
idea of requiring firms that employed skilled workers but did not train ap-
prentices to contribute to the costs of apprenticeship (the whole notion of
vocational training as a public duty that implied heavy state oversight and
union involvement) were vigorously and successfully opposed by business
(Seubert 1977: 71–3; Schütte 1992: 31–2 for union demands). However,
the social policy committee did envision a role for organized labor in the
oversight of plant-based apprenticeship training, though controversies lin-
gered about whether an entirely new institutional structure was needed (as
labor argued) or whether the system ought to be run through existing in-
stitutions (specifically the industry and trade chambers, as representatives
of industry advocated) (Ebert 1984: 276; DATSCH 1921: 7–34; Stratmann
1990: 40). The more the revolutionary situation that characterized the early
Weimar years receded, however, the more the legislative proposals moved

43 As put in the resolution adopted at the Nürnberg congress, “Theory without practice offers
only limited training potential” (Hoffmann 1962: 97); for the union demands, see also Ebert
(1984: 269). The unions also favored state support for small- and medium-sized firms to
share training facilities (Schütte 1992: 32; Abel 1963: 48).
44 Kopsch (Kopsch 1928: 75–89) relates the reasons of the free unions for their strongly
supportive position, despite the apparent dangers of promoting trade-based identities that
could clash with overarching union goals. Among the reasons he cites are the positive
effects of training on workers’ wages (noting the possibility that unskilled workers could
exert downward pressure on wages and/or pose problems in the conduct of strikes), and
the positive effect of training on discipline within the union (including as a bulwark against
communist influence which was especially strong among unskilled workers at that time).

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away from the union’s demand for parity representation at the national level
(Ebert 1984: 270).
Nonetheless, union collective bargaining policy and evolving industrial
relations institutions proved crucial to the evolution of skill formation in
industry during the Weimar years. First, sectoral bargaining drove a signif-
icant narrowing of wage differentials between skilled and unskilled workers
in the immediate post-World War I years.45 An initial, particularly sharp
reduction in wage differentials occurred between 1919 and 1921, by which
time unskilled wages in several industries had risen to 85 to 95% of skilled
wages (Mosher 2001: graphs 6–5a, 6–5b, 6–5c, 256–8). The trend toward
wage compression was partially reversed in the currency stabilization (after
1924), but even in this and the subsequent recovery period, skill differentials
remained below their prewar levels. Jim Mosher has traced these effects to
three new features of the political–economic context in the Weimar period.
First and most important, business finally (grudgingly) accepted collec-
tive bargaining with the unions. In the revolutionary situation of the first
postwar years this appeared to them the lesser of two evils. Mosher notes
that whereas in 1913 only 20% of the German workforce was covered by
collective bargaining, by 1924 this figure had increased to 61.2% (Mosher
2001: 280). Second, the Weimar years saw the culmination of the shift from
skill-based unions to industrial unions, a process accelerated and in a way
completed by state policy that recognized the industrial unions as the main
representatives of the working class and shielded them from breakaway
craft unions (Mosher 2001: 304–9). Third, there was a shift in the balance
of power within the unions themselves, as a massive influx of unskilled work-
ers into the unions completely offset the previous predominance of skilled
workers (Mosher 2001: 287).
This last point bears emphasis. As Mosher notes (Mosher 2001: 286–7),
in 1914 the German metalworkers union overwhelmingly organized skilled
workers (only 27% of the members of this industrial union were semi- or
unskilled workers). In addition, the strategies of the union continued to
reflect the dominance of skilled workers in important ways. The Stinnes-
Legien Agreement of 1919 provided a huge boon for union organization –
membership jumped from 1.7 million in 1916 to 10.7 million by 1919, most
of the new recruits coming from the ranks of unskilled workers. The pro-
portion of skilled workers in the key metalworking union (DMV) dropped
from 73% of total membership in 1913 to 59.4% in 1919. Thus, by very

45 This discussion draws on Mosher (Mosher 2001: 239–44).

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early on in the Weimar Republic, skilled workers no longer commanded

such an overwhelming majority within the union (Mosher 2001: 286–7).
Conflicts in 1919 in both Berlin and Bavaria (home to a large number
of the machine companies I have been discussing, including AEG, Borsig,
Loewe, L. Schwartzkopf, H. F. Eckert, Siemens-Schuckert, and M.A.N.)
were fought over demands by the metalworkers union to reduce the num-
ber of separate wage groups. In the Berlin conflict, for example, the union
wanted just three categories – skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled workers)
and lower skill differentials (unskilled workers to receive 86% of a skilled
worker’s wage). Employers (and although there is no direct evidence of this,
perhaps especially those pursuing policies aimed at stabilizing internal la-
bor markets and career ladders for individual workers) wanted to maintain
a larger number of wage groups (six, though it should be noted that this was
substantially down from the prewar norm of hundreds of separate trades-
based classifications) and overall higher differentials (unskilled workers to
receive 71% of a skilled wage).46 In Berlin a compromise was hammered out
in arbitration, but across Germany, employers were making some (in com-
parative perspective) rather substantial compromises on these issues with
labor, partly out of fear that intransigence would drive workers into the more
radical communist or anarcho-syndicalist unions. Some employers recog-
nized that stabilizing sectoral bargaining with the DMV also had the advan-
tage of preventing bargaining fragmentation and resulting wage competi-
tion among firms in a period of relative skilled labor scarcity. In particular,
the machine industry faced demands by a craft-based machinist union that
sought a separate agreement for its members and machine firms were will-
ing to work together with the DMV to prevent this (Mosher 2001: 306–8).
Skill differentials increased again somewhat after the currency stabiliza-
tion (1924), a period when unions were weakened by higher unemploy-
ment and when the political shift to the right enhanced the role of state
arbitrators who were sympathetic to employer demands for greater differ-
entiation (Mosher 2001: 297–301). Skill differentials never returned to pre-
World War I levels, however. Some wage compression survived an overall
drop in union membership (in 1926, back to 5.9 million workers) despite
the fact that losses were heaviest among unskilled workers (in metalwork-
ing, for example, the proportion of unskilled and semi-skilled workers fell
back to 26.8 percent by 1929) (Mosher 2001: 301). Unions maintained a
commitment to reducing skill differentials through these changes, in part

46 The ultimate settlement in Berlin called for five categories and 76% (Mosher 2001: 292–3).

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because union leaders viewed unskilled workers as a core constituency –

and after the membership losses, essentially a constituency that had to be
won back. In addition, skilled workers had few options in this system, since
Weimar legislation and labor market institutions (including works councils)
protected the position of the country’s industrial unions and shielded them
from competition from alternative craft-based organizations (Mosher 2001:
304–9).
The implications of developments in wage bargaining in Germany in the
Weimar years for skill formation were significant. In Chapter 1 we saw how
labor market imperfections and wage compression provide an inducement
for firms to invest in training by allowing the company to capture some of
the rents. Wage compression in this period rendered unskilled labor rela-
tively expensive, while holding down the wages of skilled workers. These
conditions provided incentives for firms to move up market and to invest
in worker training. For the large firms, such training could become part of
the “efficiency wage” they offered to attract the best new recruits (Schütte
1992: 137; Swenson 2002). More generally, training would have simply
paid off more when skilled workers’ wages were held below their marginal
productivity (Acemoglu and Pischke 1998: 80–1). Meanwhile, high unem-
ployment provided workers with continuing incentives to acquire training,
as joblessness was much lower among skilled workers (Mack 1927: 2).47
Poaching problems were also mitigated somewhat by loose labor markets
for most of the Weimar years, whereas industry-wide bargaining reduced
incentives for workers to engage in job hopping.
In short, conditions in the early Weimar years reduced disincentives
for firms to engage in training while also providing incentives for youth to
invest in skills. Apprentices also bore part of the costs, for as Table 2.1 shows,
apprentice wages remained low relative to wages for unskilled youth.
If union wage policy contributed indirectly to maintaining an overall
higher level of training, other aspects of union bargaining had a second,
more direct impact on the character of that training. In 1919, unions’
newly acquired collective bargaining rights were ambiguous on whether
they extended to concluding agreements on the terms and conditions ap-
plied to apprentices. The extent to which the conditions of apprenticeship
could be regulated through collective bargaining was a hotly contested issue

47 Mack reports that the “latest” government statistics (presumably from 1926) indicated
that 24% of unemployed were skilled workers or craftsmen, whereas 76% were unskilled
workers (Mack 1927: 2).

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Table 2.1. Weekly wages (in Reichsmark, RM) for youth, by year of apprenticeship

Year of Youth with No wage

app’ship wage info (pct) To 4RM 4–7RM 7–10RM 10–15RM Over 15
First 44,091 3.0 49.6 36.2 8.2 2.3 0.7
Second 43,452 2.3 26.5 39.2 24.4 5.9 1.7
Third 32,718 2.3 13.1 33.4 29.9 16.4 4.9
Fourth 3,443 1.6 6.9 31.1 36.1 16.9 7.4
Complete 4,546 0.6 0.6 4.8 15.6 43.3 35.1
Unskilled 36,240 3.2 8.2 20.8 22.9 29.8 15.1
total 164,490 2.6 24.9 32.1 20.8 13.5 6.1
Source: Schütte 1992: 135.

throughout the Weimar years. Traditional artisanal firms were particularly

adamant that the apprenticeship relationship be considered an educational
not an employment relationship (Kaps 1930: especially 5, 16). Among other
things, this allowed them to keep unions out of their affairs, and made it
easier for them to continue to use apprentices as a source of flexible and
cheap labor without being scrutinized by “outsiders.” The issue was not
decided formally and definitively until 1928 when – in the context of a
case brought by the construction industry – the Labor Court (Reichsar-
beitsgericht, or RAG) ruled that apprenticeship contracts could indeed be
considered a type of employment contract (Kaps 1930: 10–11; Kipp 1990:
224; Stratmann 1990: 37–8).48
Even before this, however, where unions were strongest they concluded
agreements that included provisions regulating some aspects of appren-
ticeship. Based on a survey of over three thousand collective bargains from
1922/23, Schütte shows that regulation of apprenticeship was most ad-
vanced in the metalworking and machine building industries, where almost
30% of apprentices were covered by contractual regulations at the regional
or local level (Schütte 1992: 131). In 1923, 124 of 159 collective bargains ne-
gotiated by the DMV had stipulations that “fully regulated” apprenticeship;
35 that “partially regulated” it (Schütte 1992: 133).49 According to DMV

48 According to Molitor, court decisions during the 1920s rather consistently held that the
apprentice relation was a work relationship (Molitor 1960: 13–16). This opened the door for
regulation of apprentice pay and working conditions through collective bargaining in some
sectors. However, in the absence of explicit legislation (the ZAG guidelines for vocational
training discussed above never having been passed into law), the issue remained contested.
49 In 1924, 45 of 62 agreements in metalworking regulated apprenticeship “fully”; 17 did so
“partially” (Schütte 1992: 133).

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statistics, the number of collective bargains that included some regulation

of apprenticeship rose from 2.6% in 1920 to 45.7% in 1930 (ibid.). The
number of apprentices covered by contractual provisions rose from 61,173
in 1925 to 87,237 by 1929 – which amounted to 66% of the apprentices
in the areas covered by the DMV (ibid.). In general, then, it seems that
despite ongoing legal ambiguities concerning their right to negotiate on
these issues, unions in the Weimar period did win some influence, at least
in key “pockets” of industry, over apprenticeship training.
The content of such collective bargains reveals that the interest of unions
went beyond securing reasonable pay for apprentices, that to them “social-
political aspects were at least as important” (Schütte 1992: 131). Thus,
contractual provisions dealt quite centrally with the conditions of work and
training, including provisions that limited the number of allowable appren-
tices, provided for oversight of training and vocational school attendance,
laid out the rights and responsibilities of apprentices and firms, and estab-
lished the length of apprenticeship (Schütte 1992: 132; Mack 1927: 22–4).
Since these are all things that in the Handwerk sector would have been over-
seen by the chambers, union collective bargaining policies in some sense
offered “an answer to the questions that had been left unanswered by the
industrial code” (quote from Schütte 1992: 131; see also Mack 1927: 23;
Kopsch 1928: 88). In addition, unions would have had a strong interest in
ensuring that the skills taught by training firms were general rather than
firm-specific (Culpepper 1999b: 4). General skills would enhance the mar-
ket position of their members, but in addition, unions were extremely leery
of employer efforts to tie workers to particular companies, part of their
ongoing battle against company unionism in this period.
It should be noted, however, that collective bargaining did not produce
anything like uniformity in terms of the conditions of apprentice training
in industry. Regulation through these means was very spotty, and worked
best in the regions that were heavily organized by the unions, for example,
industrial centers such as Berlin. From the perspective of the union, regu-
lation of apprenticeship through collective bargaining was mostly seen as a
temporary necessity, until more comprehensive legislation could be passed
(Schütte 1992: 140–1).

The Position of the Machine and Metalworking Industry

The machine and metalworking industries were in some ways labor’s natu-
ral allies when it came to initiatives to reform apprenticeship. Large firms
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in the machine industry had their own reasons for wanting to break the arti-
sanal chambers’ monopoly on skill certification. Already in 1918, DATSCH
(under M.A.N. Director Gottlieb Lippart) set out an eight-point reform
program “to overcome Handwerk’s hegemony” in this area through tar-
geted cooperation with the unions (Schütte 1992: 29). DATSCH wanted
to forestall direct state control of vocational training and preserve a system
of self-administration through economic associations (Pätzold 1989: 273).
However, as we saw above, skill-dependent industries like metalworking
had longstanding troubles arranging for their apprentices to take exams
and have their skills certified (Kopsch 1928: 14; Mack 1927: 105–7; Wilden
1926). “[F]or that reason industry had repeatedly and insistently petitioned
the government to modify the legal guidelines pertaining to the appren-
tice’s final examination in the Industrial Code so that they might apply
not only to Handwerk but to industry as well” (Mack 1927: 105). Although
Handwerk actively opposed the guidelines proposed by the ZAG, and other
segments of industry ranged from indifferent to hostile, some members of
DATSCH endorsed the proposals as a “worthwhile framework” for reform
(Muth 1985: 448; Beil 1921: 8 and passim).
The position of the metalworking industry on the skill issue was rooted
in the economic and political realities of the time. First of all, the war itself
had brought about intense labor shortages, and heightened competition for
skilled workers confounded the strategies of engineering firms attempting
to nurture a stable and loyal core of skilled workers. This problem was most
intense in Berlin where there was a significant concentration of engineering
firms in close proximity to one another. During the war these companies had
managed this competition with the assistance of the 1916 Auxiliary Service
Law (Hilfsdienstgesetz, or HDG), which contained specific restrictions on
the movement of skilled workers. But with the end of the hostilities these
firms sought an alternative and perhaps more enduring solution.50 Machine
firms in more remote areas faced less intense poaching problems and over-
all were less enthusiastic about all forms of collective bargaining. Given the
political climate, however, they too were willing to tolerate and engage in
tactical cooperation with organized labor, not least to keep more radical

50 As an indication of the poaching problems they faced, it is noteworthy that in the first
postwar collective bargaining rounds with unions, in 1919, Berlin metalworking employers
sought to impose maximum wage rates within individual wage groups (Mosher 2001: 292,
citing Metallarbeiter Zeitung 37 (32) August 9, 1919: 125). The union rejected the idea of
wage maxima, which it would have been hard put to enforce in any case.

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working class currents at bay. Moreover, the formal institutionalization

of collective bargaining and works councils rendered previous strategies
premised on company paternalism and blatant anti-unionism untenable –
or at least more difficult. As Mary Nolan points out, “yellow trade unions
were outlawed, collective bargaining was legitimated, and protective leg-
islation and social insurance were expanded, all of which made traditional
patriarchal company social policy ineffective” (1994: 181–2). More gener-
ally, the shift toward the institutionalization of collective bargaining on a
sectoral basis “led to some reorganization of the employers’ associations
so that the structure better matched the designated fourteen industries”
(Mosher 2001: 306–7), which further facilitated coordination.
In addition, wage compression provided a boon to training in these firms,
something they were already well set up to do, by introducing just the sorts
of labor market imperfections that Acemoglu and Pischke describe (see
Chapter 1). This could not have come at a better time, since the political
and economic context rendered the skill needs of Germany’s machine in-
dustry more demanding still. A stagnant domestic market and a tighter and
more hostile international market (including the growing success of lower
cost producers in the United States and boycotts of German goods by
several countries) combined to push German machine producers further
up-market, toward the production of more specialized and higher qual-
ity machines, intensifying their dependence on a highly skilled workforce
(Dehen 1928: 169–70). Even as wages were compressed, training became
something that firms could offer as a selective incentive to recruit young
workers (or “sold” as insurance against unemployment). This helps to ex-
plain why the first round of wage compression (most intense in 1919–21 but
continuing until 1924) was accompanied by a flurry of activity in founding
new plant-based training schools (Dehen 1928: 158), as seen in Table 2.2.
In some regions where legislation had been passed making attendance at
vocational schools compulsory for apprentices, large firms were able to
have their factory schools count as a substitute, which effectively provided
them with a training subsidy (Pätzold 1989: 279; Mack 1927: 100; Kopsch
1928: 17).
In general, representatives of skill-dependent machine and metalwork-
ing firms were keen to preserve and expand high quality training in in-
dustry. For this reason, they were overall more willing than many other
segments of industry to work with unions to achieve joint goals, and in
cities like Berlin had achieved “close collaboration” with the unions across
a range of training issues (quote from Kantorowicz 1930: 63; see also Beil
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Table 2.2. Number of Factory

Schools ( Werkschulen) founded
during and after World War I

1917–1918 7
1919 10
1920 8
1921 5
1922 4
1923 17
1924 2
1925 2
1926 5
1927 6
1928 3?
Source: Dehen 1928: 158.

1921: 8). Above all, employers in these sectors sought to keep vocational
training focused on objective, scientific, and technical training and free
from partisan struggles and class politics (see, for example, comments by the
head of the Association of Berlin Metal Industrialists in Kantorowicz 1930:
62–3).

The Drive toward Standardization

A more important development in the Weimar years in the evolution of
the German system was a significant push toward skill standardization. The
lead actor in this effort was the Association of German Machine Builders
(VDMA), which underwent an enormous and highly consequential shift in
composition and orientation during World War I (Feldman and Nocken
1975). Traditionally dominated by large producers, this organization was
transformed by the (state-sponsored) incorporation of a large number of
small- and medium-sized firms. The government had charged the associa-
tion with organizing the procurement of wartime machinery and as part of
this effort, “a dense internal network of cartels and associations was created
within the VDMA itself to organize the machinery industry” that could co-
ordinate the strategies – on wages, training, and other issues – of the firms
in the industry as a whole. “This extended the influence of the VDMA
into areas of the German economy that it had previously stood outside
of” (Herrigel 1996b: 63). As Feldman and Nocken point out, during the
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Weimar years the VDMA emerged as “one of the most powerful, best orga-
nized, and, in many respects, most modern of trade associations” (Feldman
and Nocken 1975: 433).
In particular, the expansion had the effect of drawing into the associ-
ation increasing numbers of smaller producers, the so-called industrielle
Mittelstand. By 1923, the VDMA had grown well beyond the dominance
of large machine firms, organizing fully 90% of all machine construction
firms in Germany (Feldman and Nocken 1975: 422). Herrigel notes, “As the
1920s progressed, the VDMA’s former identification with the large autar-
kic producers gave way to a distinctive small- and medium-sized producer
orientation” (Herrigel 1996: 63). A number of these firms had traditionally
depended on regional vocational and technical institutions and, because
of the high mobility of skilled labor among firms, they also relied heavily
on general skills (Herrigel 1996b: 52). The VDMA played a key role, not
just in promoting coordination on skills but in coordinating the strategies
of these firms on a range of issues, including organizing competition and
maintaining term-fixing and specialization cartels (Herrigel 1996b: 63).
Enhanced coordination among machine companies through the VDMA
had important implications for skill formation and specifically for the drive
toward greater skill standardization. Such coordination discouraged firms
from engaging in (industry-degrading) cutthroat competition based on
lower wage, lower skill strategies and supported increased coordination
in training issues. The interests of the industrielle Mittelstand in the area
of training also dovetailed in very important ways with those of the Berlin
machine and metal firms, a key constituency behind training reform and
skill standardization. Thus, the new, more inclusive VDMA that emerged
from the war became, in the Weimar years, the “reform-oriented van-
guard of industry” in the area of vocational training (Schütte 1992: 28).
Whereas large firms that could support extensive internal labor markets
had long fixed on the goal of developing their own individual (company-
based) training programs, the industrielle Mittelstand had a greater interest
(and also deeper roots) in a collective solution to skill formation.51
The large companies that had dominated the VDMA before the war had
focused their energies primarily on the issue of certification, but the shifting
balance within the organization brought the issue of skill standardization

51 These were often also the kinds of firms and regions (and not the large firm sector) where
the metalworkers’ union was able to achieve a more substantial presence from early on
(Schönhoven 1979: especially 416–17).

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increasingly to the fore.52 In this regard, the agenda of the machine in-
dustry diverged from the previous trajectory set by the Handwerk-based
apprenticeship system. The Handwerk sector had long enjoyed certifica-
tion powers, but training was not particularly standardized (Wolsing 1977:
423–5). By its nature, Handwerk-based apprenticeship training depended
crucially on the specifics of the production process in which an appren-
tice was engaged. Since an apprentice learned through on-the-job training
and working at the side of a master artisan, the training depended heavily
on a number of shop-specific factors. Even in the best circumstances, the
content and quality of training were extremely sensitive to the pedagogic
skills of the employer and the particular kinds of work that came in over
the course of an apprentice’s tenure (Pätzold 1989: 264). Certification and
standardization were not necessarily a tightly integrated package.
The drive toward standardization was led by the VDMA, through
DATSCH, whose mission was redefined and redirected somewhat with
greater attention to the technical tasks associated with establishing a col-
lective framework for skill development in the industry. The 1920s mark
the high point of DATSCH’s most intensive efforts toward this goal (Muth
1985: 348–52). DATSCH’s pioneering work to systematize and rationalize
industry-based training earned it considerable prestige and established the
organization as a widely recognized authority in this area.53 By 1919, the
VDMA and the Association of German Metal Industrialists (GDM) had
already worked out an apprentice contract for the whole machine indus-
try (DATSCH Abhandlungen 1919: 6). In the 1920s, DATSCH produced a
standardized inventory of skilled trades for the metalworking industries (in-
cluding a number of new, specifically industrial trades), with profiles of the
skills required for each. The organization also generated and disseminated
standardized training materials, including very detailed training courses

52 Although it should be noted that even some of the large machine companies had begun to
question the limits of company-based training policies (Dehen 1928: 166–7; Pätzold 1989:
272). And, as the 1920s progressed, Germany’s large machine companies engaged in ongo-
ing internal rationalization efforts that also relied on a higher degree of skill standardization.
These companies had previously organized production around rather sprawling networks
of very specialized workshops, but by the late 1920s they sought to control costs through
rationalization efforts. This involved cutting wasteful duplication of efforts and more in-
terchangeability in deploying resources (including skilled labor) as dictated by changes in
the market. This required greater flexibility to rotate engineers and workers around the
various production areas as needed (Herrigel 1996: 106–8).
53 DATSCH received material support from the Reichskuratorium für Wirtschaftlichkeit
(DATSCH Abhandlungen 1926: 11)

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(Lehrgänge) for the various trades, beginning with the most common –
machine builders, fitters, toolmakers, patternmakers, moulders, smiths, and
precision mechanics. In this period, DATSCH presided over significant
steps forward in the standardization and systematization of skills, making
progress on these fronts well before industry enjoyed formal certification
powers.
In 1926 DATSCH also began developing skill profiles for a number of
semi-skilled occupations. This reflected the organization’s effort to prevent
companies from misusing the institution of skilled apprenticeship by having
apprentices perform tasks that involved a much narrower range of skills than
those expected of skilled industrial workers (Facharbeiter). An increasing
division of labor and accompanying skill specialization in metalworking
were underway in many countries, having started at the turn of the century
and being well advanced by the 1920s. DATSCH sought to prevent the
downgrading of skill by identifying and cataloguing certain occupations
as “semi-skilled” and by establishing a maximum two-year training period
for such occupations (Rathschlag 1972: 14–15). Stratmann notes that the
prestige that DATSCH enjoyed in this period grew to such an extent that
in the 1930s, even the handicraft sector allowed DATSCH to formulate
technical instructions for its apprentice training (Stratmann 1990: 47).
Although it is difficult to know how widely implemented DATSCH
concepts and methods were, there are indications that key industries such
as machine building employed them on a relatively broad scale (Schmedes
1931: 12). Referring to the model contract developed by the VDMA to ren-
der apprentice contracts more uniform among their member firms, Mack
notes that the model contract was “being utilized by firms with or with-
out minor changes made” and that only a few firms had their own con-
tract (Mack 1927: 93). Muth asserts that although the DATSCH guidelines
were voluntary, nonetheless, “with the support of the individual trade as-
sociations (Fachverbände) they were widely distributed in practice. In this
way the mechanical industry became the first sector in Germany to imple-
ment a broadly uniform system of vocational training” (Muth 1985: 350).
A contemporary observer, Gertrud Tollkühn, similarly asserted that the
guidelines and training materials that DATSCH produced and dissemi-
nated “were indeed used by most of the firms as a foundation” for their
training (Tollkühn 1926: 40). In the absence of regulatory powers like those
of the Handwerk sector, the capacity of firms to enforce uniform standards
rested on the participation of the unions, and especially, on the efforts of
strong trade associations like the VDMA.
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Summing up developments to this point: There had been a shift in the

market that the German machine industry faced, from generally expand-
ing markets of the pre-World War I period to an absolutely stagnant domes-
tic market and more hostile global markets in the immediate postwar period,
forcing machine firms further up-market. At the same time, the VDMA was
transformed by a shift from dominance by large machine companies (mostly
worried about getting their excellent training facilities equipped with certi-
fication powers) to small- and medium-sized firms (which put an emphasis
on standardization, since their production networks relied on more flexi-
bility and worker mobility). The work of the VDMA in the Weimar years,
organized around stabilizing product market competition through orga-
nization and coordination, placed a premium on coordination in training
as well. These developments help to explain an overall shift in the work
of DATSCH, which along with its continuing lobbying for certification,
increasingly promoted skill systematization and standardization.
DATSCH’s technical achievements in this period were crucial for the
later development of training standards (see below). In the 1920s, however,
industrial training was still premised to a very large extent on voluntarism.
More precisely, it depended on exhortations but not sanctions by trade as-
sociations such as VDMA, but it was supported by the unions’ wage policies
(which reduced skill differentials) and union efforts (although limited) to
regulate apprenticeship through collective bargaining. Some employers
associations and some local chambers of industry and trade (IHKs) took
the initiative in creating machinery for administering exams for industrial
apprentices, but these arrangements still lacked the legal foundations that
prevailed in the Handwerk sector (Kaiser and Loddenkemper 1980: 13;
Wilden 1926). Separate and reliable certification for industrial apprentice-
ship and firmly institutionalized union rights in this area were still distant
goals. These groups faced formidable political opponents in the Weimar
years. I now turn to the topic of the political coalition against reform.

The Political Coalition against Reform

First, the traditional artisanate opposed all reforms from the start, both to
preserve its monopoly on skill certification and to keep unions out of the pic-
ture. Artisans’ opposition to the reforms that were being proposed goes back
to this sector’s heavy reliance on the productive labor of apprentices (Abel
1963: 45; see also Herber 1930: 49–74 for differences between Handwerk
and unions on proposed legislation for vocational training). Without a
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Table 2.3. Weekly wages (in Reichsmark, RM) for young workers in large, medium, and
small firms, 1929 (% of firms)

Firm size None To 4RM 4–7RM 7–10RM 10–15RM Over 15

Large 0.4 11.7 28.0 27.1 22.9 9.9
Medium 1.6 25.0 33.4 21.3 13.6 5.1
Small 7.0 37.1 33.2 14.0 6.3 2.4
Note: Large firm = over 50 employees, middle-sized = 6–50 employees, small firm =
1–5 employees.
Source: Schütte 1992: 136.

monopoly on certification (through the HWK), these firms would have

a very hard time competing with industry (which offered higher wages
and typically more systematic training). Data from a survey conducted in
the late 1920s suggest that the wages of apprentices in small firms (and this
would have included most artisanal shops) lagged substantially behind those
in larger firms. As late as 1929, 7% of apprentices in the small handicraft
firms still received no wage at all (see Table 2.3).
Well into the 1920s, some handicraft masters in small municipalities
were still collecting a fee from their apprentices, and sometimes requiring
them to work overtime without pay (Schütte 1992: 127).54
Handwerk thus had no interest in sharing its special status with industry,
for this would squander the one advantage they held over industrial firms
when it came to recruiting able young workers. Local handicraft chambers
frequently sabotaged efforts to secure the same status for industrial appren-
tices as enjoyed by their own. For example, although industrial apprentices
could in principle be certified through the HWK, local chambers often
threw up obstacles, causing problems in the constitution of joint examina-
tion boards, failing to recognize the results of tests for industrial appren-
tices, and refusing to admit those trained in industry to take the master
exam (Kipp and Miller-Kipp 1990: 234; Wilden 1926: 1).
But the biggest threat to Handwerk was organized labor, since union par-
ticipation in regulating apprenticeship would interfere with Handwerk’s use
of apprentices as a source of flexible and cheap productive labor. Artisans
vehemently opposed union influence over training through collective bar-
gaining, which they saw as a direct assault on Handwerk’s longstanding

54 Handicraft firms were also likely to deduct pay from an apprentice for school attendance
(Schütte 1992: 127).

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system of self-governance (Kaps 1930: especially 5, 16; Pätzold 1989: 268).

Until 1918, most matters relating to apprenticeship were governed by the
Reichsgewerbeordnung, which left it to the handicraft chambers to regulate
the length of apprenticeship (but establishing a maximum of four years –
paragraph 130), set the terms of the probationary period, regulate the
dissolution of apprentice contracts, and establish sanctions for appren-
tices who broke their indentures (Schütte 1992: 121). Handwerk fought
union regulation of these matters as violations of the Reichsgewerbeord-
nung. They were also, and in some ways most, adamant in their resistance
to union wage setting, and struggled with all means available to defend the
“wage autonomy” of the handicraft sector (Schütte 1992: 126).
These jurisdictional issues were hotly contested in a series of legal chal-
lenges. Conflicts continued despite a number of court decisions and even
a ruling by the National Labor Ministry (Reichsarbeitsministerium) that
specifically confirmed that the material conditions of apprenticeship could
be regulated through collective bargaining, and that limited the role of the
guilds and the handicraft chambers to regulating specifically those aspects
that bore directly on the training itself – exams, certification, and so on
(Schütte 1992: 123–4, 129).55 It must nonetheless be noted that the handi-
craft sector as a whole was quite successful in its efforts to keep unions out
of its affairs. Union attempts to influence working conditions in the arti-
sanal sector (mostly by trying to have collective bargains declared “generally
applicable”) were largely unsuccessful. One study covering over three thou-
sand collective bargains from 1922 to 1923 revealed that although unions
were able to conclude contracts dealing with apprenticeship matters cover-
ing 37% of all industrial apprentices, they could only influence conditions
for 3% of Handwerk apprentices (Schütte 1992: 131).
Handwerk opposed almost all the reform efforts undertaken in the
Weimar period. Any system that would unify Handwerk and industry under
the same framework with union participation would create an impossible
situation for Handwerk, which relied on the contributions of apprentices to
production but could not compete with wages and conditions in industry.
In addition, other segments of industry had never been that sympathetic
to the machine industry’s position on certification and industrial training.56
In particular, heavy industry employed mostly semi-skilled labor and had

55 On the struggles over whether apprentice relationships should be considered as educational

relations or as work relations, see also Molitor (1960).
56 Hal Hansen emphasized the importance of this to me.

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never been as concerned with the supply of skilled labor. In many cases large
firms in this industry were more capable of pursuing successful segmen-
talist strategies (Hansen 1997: Chapter 3; Herrigel 1996b: Chapter 3). Such
companies often grew up in remote agricultural areas (that is, without much
of an infrastructure for education) so they were forced to create their own
skill capacities, but they were also less vulnerable to poaching than firms
in areas like Berlin where competition in skilled labor markets was fierce.
Where firms dominated their local labor market, they were able to attract
and keep good young workers and orient their training very closely to their
own internal needs (Kaiser and Loddenkemper 1980: 62).
The lack of a consensus within the larger industrial community was al-
ready clear in 1911 and 1914 when – at DATSCH’s urging – the “Social
Policy Commission” of the Congress of German Industry and Commerce
(Deutsche Industrie und Handelstag, or DIHT) took up the skill issue.
The commission’s reports echoed DATSCH’s criticisms of the existing
Handwerk-based system, as well as of the behavior of the Handwerk cham-
bers in withholding cooperation with industry. On the question of whether
industry should administer its own separate exams for apprentices, how-
ever, the commission had to conclude that “opinions within industry are
still so far apart that the DIHT cannot yet take a position on the issue”
(Hoffmann 1962: 43). The commission simply encouraged machine firms
to continue to use the craft chambers and advised them to “watch care-
fully” the composition of the examination boards to make sure that their
apprentices were examined against the appropriate standards. As Hansen
has pointed out, the opposition of the chambers of commerce (under the
strong influence of heavy industry) was decisive, since the chambers were
the ones who would have been charged with the task of overseeing skill
formation and certification for industry (Hansen 1997: 588).
Heavy industry grew even less accommodating during the Weimar years.
The leading firms had seen no alternative but to grudgingly accept ac-
commodation with unions during the revolution, but around 1924 and
1925 many reverted to their previous Herr-im-Hause stance.57 The de-
bate over possible legislative reform of vocational training did not go away,
however, and so in the mid-1920s heavy industry began espousing a more
ideological alternative to DATSCH’s thoroughly technical and collectivist

57 This turn coincides with the end of inflation, at which point demands with respect to
wages became much “harder” constraints in export markets. I thank Hartmut Berghoff for
emphasizing the significance of this to me.

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approach to skills. Leading Ruhr industrialists took the initiative in 1925

at a meeting of the Association of the German Iron and Steel Indus-
trialists (Verein Deutscher Eisen- und Stahl Industrieller, or VDESI). The
result was the founding of the German Institute for Technical Training
(Deutsches Institut für Technische Arbeitsschulung, or Dinta), devoted to the
cultivation of a special kind of worker, trained by and for individual firms
and instilled with deep loyalty to the company.

Dinta
As the debate on vocational training reform (and possible legislation) con-
tinued in the 1920s, and with VDMA and DATSCH representing advocates
of a collectivist solution, large industrial producers felt compelled to weigh
in in these debates with their own somewhat different interests and per-
spectives on skills and training. Thus, in 1925, and on the initiative mostly
of prominent Ruhr industrialists, Dinta was founded to represent the in-
terests of German heavy industry in the skill debates of this period. Dinta’s
first director, Robert Carl Arnhold (1884–1970) was originally trained as
an engineer, and began his career in training and pedagogy in the steel
industry. After a stint in the army during World War I, Arnhold had re-
turned to become head of training for the steel division of Gelsenkirchen
Bergwerk AG. Here he developed his ideas on training and presided over
the establishment of company-based training workshops (Lehrwerkstätte)
that were a central pillar of his pedagogy (Kaiser and Loddenkemper 1980:
60–6).
Whereas DATSCH represented a more collectivist approach to skill
formation that worked through key trade associations like VDMA and the
Berlin machine group, Dinta’s conception was more resolutely autarkic.
According to Arnhold’s vision, “the ideal new skilled worker would be tech-
nically well trained, but unlike his predecessor, who had learned his skills
from other workers in artisan shops, he would be trained by the firm and
for the firm’s particular needs. He would be loyal to the firm and adapt-
able (wendig) to the changing needs of the rationalized production process”
(quote from Nolan 1994: 189 and Chapter 9 passim; italics in original; see
also Arnhold 1931: 31). Arnhold’s training concept shared with DATSCH
a critique of the “unsystematic” nature of training by Handwerk, and it
recognized and in some ways built on the training materials DATSCH
was producing. Thus, the technical/practical component of Dinta training,
although firm-centered, was not narrow. Dinta training featured two years
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of “foundational” instruction – frequently accomplished in a plant-training

workshop – followed by two more years of on-the-job training in more
specialized skills (see, for example, Nolan 1994: 194). The idea was for
trainees to have sufficiently broad training to allow them to adapt to the
firm’s changing production requirements.
In rather sharp contrast to the work of DATSCH, however, and to the
interests of important segments of the machine industry, Arnhold’s training
concept was specifically not limited to the technical and practical (Kaiser and
Loddenkemper 1980: 60–6; Arnhold 1931; Kopsch 1928: 53–67). Instead,
the technical aspects of Dinta training were closely related to an ideolog-
ical agenda that can only be described as a particularly virulent strain of
anti-unionism. By keeping training closely integrated into the production
process at the company, Dinta sought to foster a close association between
firm and worker. Arnhold himself argued for the workshop to replace the
school, and in his vision, work at “the factory would replace the union as
the nucleus of social and political organization, and the employer [would
replace] the political leader as moral guide” (Gillingham 1985: 425). In
other words, in the Dinta training concept “character-building” was very
much part of the program. Much of how Arnhold conceived the project of
training for “the whole person” came directly out of his experience in and
after the First World War (Seubert 1977: 63–7). Militaristic elements were
pervasive in Dinta training. The notions of a strong leader and of cama-
raderie, for example, were emphasized; trainees were expected to exhibit
discipline, obedience, loyalty, and industry.
The plant community was also central to the notion of training in
Arnhold’s view. Dinta activities went well beyond apprentice training to
include other aspects of plant social policy, including but not limited to
kindergartens, counseling for mothers, plant insurance policy, activities for
senior citizens, plant social clubs, publication of a company newspaper, and
the like (Baethge 1970: 52; Pätzold 1989: 277). Since the point of training
was to develop a strong bond between the trainee and the firm, the company
also took control of much of an apprentice’s free time, for example, orga-
nizing obligatory hikes and sporting activities. The goal of training was to
bind the individual to his work and his company, which meant severing any
ties – to “outsiders” (like unions) – that might interfere with this objective
or compromise a worker’s loyalty to the firm (Seubert 1977: 68). Draconian
union-busting methods in heavy industry were thus complemented and sup-
ported by policies that employed a softer ideological approach to win over
workers. As one Dinta publication put it, company policy – with respect
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to training but also firm-based social policy more generally – was seen as
integral to the “fight for the souls of our workers” (quoted in Kaiser and
Loddenkemper 1980: 77). For these reasons, Dinta was opposed at all turns
by organized labor, which thought of Dinta as a “breeding ground for yel-
low unions” (Zuchtanstalt für Gelbe) (quote from Seubert 1977: 77; see also
Fricke 1930: 95–8).58
These autarkic and paternalistic features of the Dinta training concept
help to explain why the organization also rejected the idea of working
through employer associations and other organized interests to achieve
its goals. As Arnhold opined at a conference in 1930, “with this path, we
would probably have gotten stuck or organized ourselves to death” (Arnhold
1931: 31). Dinta also opposed all efforts to subordinate firm-based train-
ing to any sort of state or parapublic controls. The organization vigorously
promoted firm-operated factory schools (Werkschulen) using Dinta tech-
niques as substitutes for public trade schools (Nolan 1994: 195; Kellner
1930: 21). Again, this was a move consistent with the cooptative-autarkic
goal of transforming apprentices “into a new kind of skilled worker by es-
tablishing factory-based alternatives to artisan skill training and to state
vocational schools” (quote from Nolan 1994: 193; Seubert 1977: 67).59
Dinta originated in, and was particularly strong in, the iron and steel
industry of the Ruhr. However, the organization and its concepts appealed
to all large producers for whom accommodation with the unions had been
purely strategic and who longed for a return to a more autarkic and pa-
ternalistic alternative.60 Dinta’s major client firms included a number of
Germany’s leading industrial giants: Gutehoffnungshütte (GHH, which by
this time had purchased M.A.N.), Hoesch, Thyssen, Schalker, and Siemens-
Schuckert among them (Nolan 1994: 187). By contrast, however, Dinta had
“no influence among technologically advanced and less reactionary firms,
such as those in the electro technical and Berlin machinery industries”

58 Though, as Nolan notes, unions acknowledged that Dinta training was often of quite high
quality (Nolan 1994: 201–2). On the skepticism and opposition of even the Christian unions
see Kopsch (1928: 67–73; also the remarks by Rütten and Mleinek in Sozialen Museum
E. V. 1931: 56–9 and 77–8 respectively).
59 However, the numbers of apprentices attending such schools always remained rather small
(never more than 2% of apprentices) (Pätzold 1989: 280).
60 This is also how the Dinta Directorate over time came to include some of the founding
fathers of DATSCH who came out of large concerns (such as Ernst von Borsig and Gottlieb
Lippart), right alongside a number of prominent Ruhr industrialists who had never taken
an interest in DATSCH and its concepts (Nolan 1994: 187).

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(Nolan 1994: 187). The latter rejected the deeply ideological and partisan
slant taken by Dinta as irrelevant to, and possibly even counterproductive
to, the task of skill promotion. In explaining why his association did not
embrace and support the work of Dinta, Heinz Kantorowicz of the Asso-
ciation of Berlin Metal Industrialists noted that the majority of member
firms thought training should be kept free of political and class conflict
(Mallmann 1990: 217).61
By the late 1920s, however, the backlash against unions and collective
bargaining was in full swing, with stepped up efforts to use works coun-
cils as vehicles for a company-based and employer-dominated alternative
to union bargaining. In these years, Arnhold presided over a significant
expansion in Dinta’s influence. In just two years (1926–1928) Dinta opened
71 new plant-training workshops (Lehrwerkstätten) and 18 factory schools
(Werkschulen). By 1929, Dinta won over another 50 training plants to its
concepts, and Dinta principles were applied in 10 new plant schools (Kaiser
and Loddenkemper 1980: 77–8). By the end of the decade, Dinta was run-
ning training programs in between 150 and 300 companies in Germany and
Austria. It published over 50 company newspapers reaching nearly a half
million workers (Nolan 1994: 187).

The Failure of the Reforms

Dinta represented an approach to training different from the existing
Handwerk system – more systematic, more autocratic, and more ideologi-
cal. In the reform debates of the 1920s, however, Dinta’s interests dovetailed
with those of Handwerk on the issue of unions. Given its orientation, Dinta
and its core supporters within heavy industry were adamantly opposed to
any legislative initiative that would have given unions a place at the table
when it came to vocational training. As we saw above, Handwerk’s opposi-
tion to reform efforts during the Weimar years were substantially motivated
by an attempt to preserve its traditional monopoly position on vocational
training (and the many accompanying economic benefits this held for these
firms), a goal with which heavy industry was not particularly sympathetic.
In their anti-unionism, the interests of Dinta and Handwerk converged

61 See also the rather friendly tone of the exchanges between union representative Fritz Fricke
and Kantorowicz, as compared to the tense exchanges between Fricke and Dinta’s Arnhold
at a 1930 conference on industrial training (Sozialen Museum E. V. 1931).

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and provided sufficient glue to hold them together over the late Weimar
years.
The departure of the Social Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische
Partei, or SPD) from government in 1923 was clearly contributory to the
failure of the reform movement.62 Under the SPD the Labor Ministry had
played a key role in the push for reform and was its strongest institutional
advocate. But once the Ministry was no longer in SPD hands, the pressure
for a law quickly subsided, and work on reform came to a somewhat abrupt
halt. Meanwhile, outside the government sphere, events in the late 1920s
continued to promote more intense inter-industry coordination on skills,
even as they completely undermined any possibility of state-led reform,
particularly any version based on union participation. In 1924, employers
began complaining of skill shortages, despite overall still high unemploy-
ment (Mosher 1999: 13). Studies also cite worries of a looming skill shortage
due to hit Germany in 1929 (a consequence of low birth rates during the
war) (Kopsch 1928: 25–6; Mack 1927: 3). Such concerns kept apprentice-
ship reform on the public policy agenda.
However, by this time, the political and economic climate had shifted
considerably. For one thing, unions had been on the defensive since the
stabilization crisis, and compulsory arbitration was increasingly filling in
where free collective bargaining failed. By 1929, over half of the (nearly
ten thousand) industrial conflicts concerning wages and hours were being
settled through arbitration, and almost 20% of the time the state medi-
ator’s decision was declared binding (Nolan 1994: 161–2). Thus not only
was labor much weaker, but also those sectors once most willing to contem-
plate some form of joint (labor-employer) regulation balked, as it increas-
ingly looked as if “union regulation” in the end meant “state regulation,”
the one thing most segments of German business – whatever their other
differences – wanted to avoid (Feldman 1970; Feldman 1977: especially
146). Combined with the continuing opposition of Handwerk and grow-
ing anti-unionism among big industry as a whole, this constellation formed
the basis of a coalition against reform, or better, in support of employer-
dominated “self-regulation” premised on voluntarism and the promise of
greater cooperation between Handwerk and industry (Ebert 1984: 318–20;
Herber 1930: 48; Schütte 1992: 84–7).

62 Jim Mosher has emphasized this point to me in personal communications.

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Voluntary Cooperation as an Alternative to Legislative Reform

In 1925, the Association of German Employers’ Organizations (Vereini-
gung der Deutschen Arbeitgeberverbände or VDA), the League of German
Industry (Reichsverband der Deutschen Industrie or RDI), and DATSCH
joined together to found the Working Committee for Vocational Training
(Arbeitsausschuß für Berufsbildung, or AfB) (DATSCH 1926: 11), with
Ernst Borsig as president (Mallmann 1990: 215–16; Kopsch 1928: 29–31).
The German Congress of Industry and Trade (Deutscher Industrie und
Handelstag, or DIHT) joined the organization a year later (Muth 1985:
375). Building on DATSCH’s work for the machine and metal industries,
the AfB drew up the first list of skilled occupations for the metalworking,
shipbuilding, and chemical industries and presided over the generation of
systematic training materials (Muth 1985: 378). By 1927, the Berlin Associ-
ation of Metalworking Employers had developed training courses for most
of the 58 discrete occupations that the AfB (through the Gesamtverband
Deutscher Metallindustrieller) had identified for that sector. Even in those
cases where training courses (Ausbildungslehrgänge) were not developed,
the organization provided occupational profiles that defined the skills re-
quired and established boundaries between discrete occupations (Mallmann
1990: 216).
Handwerk was pulled along in the process as training there also became
increasingly systematic over the later years of the Weimar Republic. This
was partly driven by arguments by progressive elements of the handicraft
sector that saw unsystematic training as a threat to Handwerk as a whole.
Handwerk representatives themselves began to press for apprenticeship
training that was as “systematic, multifaceted and uniform” as that in the
big industrial firms (quoted in Pätzold 1989: 266). By the end of the 1920s
some regions had begun developing and disseminating training materials
for some artisanal trades similar to those being developed for industrial
occupations (Pätzold 1989: 266).63
Although these developments substantially advanced the cause of col-
lectivism by intensifying employer coordination in apprenticeship training,
they also sealed the fate – for the time being at least – of any comprehensive
legislative reform, and especially of any reform based on union participa-
tion. The evidence suggests that in the late 1920s handicraft chambers in

63 Although it must be added that this was extremely difficult, since most Handwerker resisted
such moves as an infringement on their autonomy. Their chambers therefore had trouble
forcing the adoption of these materials (Pätzold 1989: 266–7).

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many regions had grown more accommodating, which is to say more will-
ing to strike local deals to test industrial apprentices, including in some
cases with “mixed” (industry/handicraft) examination committees (Mack
1927: 106).64 Finally, the coalition in support of collectivism based on em-
ployer domination and self- (as opposed to state) regulation was completed
when the key industrial associations reached a national agreement with
Handwerk, whose two main associations, the Congress of German Crafts
and Trades (Deutscher Handwerks und Gewerbekammertag or DHGT) and
the League of German Crafts (Reichsverband des Deutschen Handwerks),
joined the AfB in 1927 (Ebert 1984: 314; Muth 1985: 377).
These developments dealt the coup de grace to the by now increasingly
languid debate over legislative reform. Instead of a comprehensive new
law, industry and Handwerk reached a voluntary accommodation in peak-
level negotiations that committed local Handwerk chambers to work to-
gether with industry and trade chambers to preside over the examination
and certification of industrial apprentices (Schütte 1992: 84–5). This deal
had the effect, within industry, of hiving off any support that might have re-
mained or been mustered for reform through any sort of government action
by addressing the one issue that had rankled some segments of the business
community: certification and testing. The deal thus consolidated industry
behind a voluntary solution to the issue, as well as forging an alliance be-
tween Handwerk and industry (especially heavy industry) against reform
(Schütte 1992: 86–7). Or, as the executive committee of the DIHT put it
in 1929, “The DIHT has pointed out several times in the last years that in
light of the positive developments in apprenticeship training arrangements
on a voluntary basis . . . there is no urgent need for comprehensive legislative
regulation” (Hoffmann 1962:101, emphasis in original; see also Kopsch
1928: 14).
In the ensuing years it became clear that this was a fairly opportunistic
alliance of convenience that was not terribly robust. The solution forged
in 1928, which allowed for joint (artisanal–industry) committees in some
regional chambers, proved unstable, as some local craft chambers resisted
compliance (Kipp and Miller-Kipp 1990: 234; Schütte 1992: 86; Wolsing
1977: 74). Among other regulations, the 1928 deal had called for testing
boards composed of representatives of both industry and Handwerk. In

64 Including (as early as 1924) a deal struck between the HWK Berlin and the Association
of Berlin Metal Industrialists providing for joint examinations in industry and Handwerk
(Mack 1927: 106).

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1932, however, complaints could still be heard about the inability of in-
dustrial apprentices to be tested and certified (Kipp and Miller-Kipp 1990:
234). It was up to individual handicraft chambers to decide whether or not
to allow industrial apprentices to take the journeyman examination, and
problems continued (Pätzold 1989: 276). According to a survey of industry
and trade chambers, the difficulties went back to the unwillingness of the
handicraft chambers to recognize the results of tests that industrial appren-
tices took (Kipp and Miller-Kipp 1990: 234).
In any event, the time for reform had come and gone: vocational training
was off the agenda for the remainder of the Weimar years. The Depression
of 1929 killed any lingering hopes of reform, as vocational training spun
into crisis. Firms were engaged in massive layoffs and not in any position to
offer apprenticeship positions to youth. The number of company schools
“tumbled” after 1929 (Greinert 1994: 49). Between 1929 and 1934, appren-
ticeship slots fell by a third and did not climb back to 1929 levels until 1936,
and then only on the basis of a massive push by the state (Hansen 1997:
603–4). For their part, those young Germans who could find work were un-
der tremendous economic pressure to provide for unemployed family mem-
bers, and thus opted for unskilled work rather than embark on a long in-
vestment in apprenticeship to the skilled trades (Kaiser and Loddenkemper
1980: 13).
The certification that the machine industry sought in the Weimar years
was finally granted by the National Socialists, who presided over a massive
increase in vocational education and the inauguration of a standardized
system for industrial training, with industry and trade chambers – with pre-
rogatives now comparable to those of the handicraft chambers – in charge of
the administration and certification of training for skilled industrial work-
ers (Facharbeiter) (see Chapter 5). The system was built on foundations
laid down in the Weimar years. Apprenticeship training for industry was
explicitly patterned after the Handwerk model of plant-based training and
substantially incorporated the technical and organizational innovations de-
veloped on a voluntary basis by industry and, above all, by the machine
industry through the work of the VDMA and DATSCH.
The final piece of the puzzle, full labor participation in the oversight of
in-plant training, was achieved only much later, in the post-World War II
period. But here again, important developments were strongly foreshad-
owed in the Weimar years. Thus, for example, the demands of German
unions after 1945 (with respect to apprenticeship training) were virtu-
ally the same as those they made after World War I: not a dismantling of
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in-firm training, but rather an equal role with employers in administering

and overseeing it. The comprehensive legislation that unions had sought
unsuccessfully in the Weimar years was picked up again as a demand after
World War II. The resulting Vocational Training Act of 1969 incorporated
many of the important elements of the proposals of the early Weimar years
(Chapter 5).
This provides a good juncture to step back from the German case to
examine other countries in which the evolution of apprenticeship and skill
formation took a very different route. The next chapter examines the de-
terioration of apprenticeship and plant-based training in Britain in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The subsequent chapter looks at
the Japanese and U.S. cases, which represent variations, respectively, on the
German and British themes.

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in Britain

In the case of Germany, we saw that state policy in the early industrial period
was crucial to establishing the trajectory that skill formation there would
take. Legislation targeted at the artisanal sector contributed to the survival
of a relatively stable system of apprenticeship, and at the same time discour-
aged unions from pursuing skill-based strategies for labor market control.
Firms in industries that depended heavily on skills drew on the artisanal sec-
tor as a source of skilled labor but they also competed with Handwerk as a
corporate actor, especially over skill certification. This produced a dynamic
through which industry was pushed and pulled toward training practices
that built on, and in some ways paralleled, those developed in the artisanal
sector.
In Britain, state policy worked in the opposite direction, contributing
to the deregulation of traditional apprenticeship and indirectly encourag-
ing the development of skill-based unions pursuing strategies premised on
craft control. The legal framework in place in the nineteenth century dis-
couraged the formation of unions among unskilled laborers while encour-
aging skilled workers to organize around the provision of friendly society
benefits. Responding to this set of incentives and constraints, early trade
unions organized their strategies around the attempt to influence wages
and employment by manipulating the supply of skilled labor. This set up
a completely different set of dynamics in Britain in which apprenticeship
was contested not – as in Germany – between an independent artisanal sec-
tor and an emerging industrial sector, but rather between craft unions and
employers in skill-dependent industries.
Apprenticeship survived in Britain but what was not achieved was a
durable settlement between skilled unions and employers on the regulation
of in-plant training capable of punishing opportunism and making credible
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State Policy and the Artisanate

commitments possible. As Swenson has argued in another context, such

cross-class alliances are sometimes the only viable foundation of enduring,
effective institutionalized systems for regulating labor markets on a broad
basis (Swenson 2002). British apprenticeship was fragile precisely because it
rested instead on a balance of power between employers and skilled unions
that could be (and was) repeatedly upset by shifting macro-economic and
political developments. Thus, despite some notable efforts at reforming
training – in the 1910s and 1920s, and again in the post-World War II
period – advances achieved under favorable conditions (often periods of
skilled labor shortages or strong government support for training) were
repeatedly rolled back when the political and/or market context shifted.
The kind of trench warfare that skilled unions and employers fought over
apprenticeship in Britain repeatedly pushed toward arrangements that far-
sighted employers regarded as suboptimal by complicating enormously the
achievement of the kind of cross-class settlement on which a more robust
and durable system would have had to rest.

State Policy and the Fate of the British Artisanate

As in Germany, the story begins with the guilds, which in Britain, too,
traditionally played an important role in regulating apprenticeship. By es-
tablishing and enforcing standards for training, British guilds sought to
regulate entry to the trade, thus protecting their own position in the mar-
ket. Where the British experience stands out in international comparisons
is not so much in the operation of the guilds in their day as in their fate.
Whereas the guilds persisted in other countries until they were abolished
through acts of state in the nineteenth century, British guilds faded very
early and gradually, beginning centuries before (Unwin 1909: 2). Coleman
dates the onset of decay to the Tudor and Stuart periods, when rapid popu-
lation growth and increasing demand for British goods (especially textiles)
abroad encouraged the early and widespread development of the putting
out system of production in rural areas (Coleman 1975: 25).1 As elsewhere,

1 In contrast to traditional craft production (craftsmen working in their own workshops),

the putting out system was based on a new division of labor in which a merchant class
(of non-producers) organized and financed production networks of domestic workers who
were dependent on the merchants for raw materials and often also the production machinery
itself. For a survey of the literature on the development of putting out in Europe as a whole
between 1500 and 1800, see Ogilvie and Cerman (1996); for an overview of developments
in Britain in the pre- and early-industrial period, see Berg (1985).

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these developments exposed urban-based guilds to new competitive pres-

sures from employers who simply ignored guild restrictions and achieved
advantage by employing labor at lower rates (Unwin 1909; see also Kellett
1958: 381–2).
In Germany, as we have seen, the state played a critical role in determin-
ing the fate of the independent artisanate. In Britain, too, state policy was
important in pushing developments forward, though in a very different di-
rection. The centuries-old Statute of Artificers (1563) codified regulations
regarding apprenticeship and the practicing of various trades (Ministry of
Labour 1928: 10–14; see also Webb and Webb 1920: 48–51). Among other
things, the law stipulated that a completed apprenticeship was a prerequisite
for practicing a craft, set the length of apprenticeship training at seven years,
established apprentice to journeyman ratios (3:1) to ensure proper training,
and regulated working conditions, wages, and other matters to prevent ex-
ploitation of apprentices (Ministry of Labour 1928; see also Perry 1976: 7;
Howell 1877: 834).
In contrast to developments in Germany, however, the British state never
provided for institutionalized enforcement mechanisms (leaving enforce-
ment to the voluntary guilds themselves), nor was the traditional legal
framework ever adapted to the changing market context. In Britain, there-
fore, the pattern was one in which the artisanate sought, unsuccessfully, in
the face of new market pressures, to defend traditional privileges, invok-
ing the pre-industrial legal framework provided by the Statute of Artificers
(Rule 1981: 114–16). As the industrial revolution took hold, however, and
the influence of the liberal bourgeoisie grew, British governments grew less
and less willing to defend traditional privileges. The guilds could appeal to
the British courts in cases of violations, but they found that judges inter-
preted the law narrowly, applying the rules only to townspeople and also
only to those trades that were in existence at the time of the Statute’s enact-
ment (Ministry of Labour 1928; Rule 1981: 108; Prothero 1979: Chapter 3).
The new occupations that arose with the advance of industry were typically
ruled to be beyond the reach of the old law (Perry 1976: 8; also Webb and
Webb 1920: 53–5).
Thus, despite the fact that “on paper the whole system of gild privilege
remained unimpaired” until the early nineteenth century, in practice it had
been rapidly disintegrating for well over a century through lack of enforce-
ment (quote from Kellett 1958: 393; see also Howell 1877; Rule 1981).
Even before the official repeal of the Statute of Artificers in 1814, exist-
ing protections were explicitly chipped away in the closing decades of the
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eighteenth century (Webb and Webb 1920: 53; Prothero 1979: Chapter 3).
As the Webbs put it,

The action of the House of Commons [at that time] was not as yet influenced by
any conscious theory of freedom of contract. What happened was that, as each
trade in turn felt the effect of the new capitalist competition, the journeymen, and
often also the smaller employers, would petition for redress, usually demanding the
prohibition of the new machines, the enforcement of a seven year’s apprenticeship,
or the maintenance of the old limitation of the number of boys to be taught by each
employer, [whereupon] the large employers would produce such a mass of evidence
that these protections were not necessary and indeed injurious of their ability to
compete. (Webb and Webb 1920: 53)

In Germany, state policy to protect and modernize the independent arti-

sanal sector helped sustain a relatively large number of self-sufficient, small
scale (skilled) entrepreneurs, organized together as employer-producers,
while sharpening the differences of interest between this group and skilled
journeymen who wound up as employees in industry (Kocka 1986b: 360–
3). In Britain, state policy indirectly promoted a very different sort of
alliance. Downwardly mobile master artisans found common cause with
journeymen-employees, as both fought against abuses of traditional privi-
leges by “illegal” masters and capitalist employers (Prothero 1979: Chap-
ter 2, especially 36–7; Rule 1981: Chapter 4; Rule 1988). Knox, for example,
writes of conflicts pitting journeymen and “good” masters against “dishon-
ourable” ones in the textile trades (Knox 1980: 30–1). Such alliances were in
evidence in the struggle over the Statute of Artificers in the years before its
repeal, and were embodied in a campaign, led by the London-based Com-
mittee of Master Manufacturers and Journeymen, to salvage and extend
the existing law in the face of pressures to abolish the system altogether.
Knox describes this effort as a “tremendous national exercise in inter-class
cooperation between the small masters and journeymen against the larger
employers” (Knox 1980: 69).
Apprenticed journeymen employed in industry and struggling indepen-
dent master artisans shared an interest in imposing regulations that would
shore up their position in the labor market and prevent them from slipping
into the same fate as the unskilled “labouring poor.” In vain they advocated
extending existing regulations regarding apprenticeship, and proposed leg-
islation that would have restricted the taking of apprentices to those who had
themselves served seven years in their trade, set limits on the proportion
of apprentices to each master and journeyman, mandated indentures for
each apprentice, and required masters to record the number of apprentices
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and journeymen in their works (Knox 1980: 78–80; see also Prothero 1979:
Chapter 3; Rule 1981: 114–16).
The failure of this alliance to protect (or revive) traditional privileges
through legislation in some ways cemented the common fate of small mas-
ters and journeymen, for it remained for both groups to find other means to
defend their position and status in the market. If the political and legal envi-
ronment was less auspicious than in Germany for defending the corporate
autonomy and status of master artisans, it was much more auspicious for the
development of trade unions that brought master craftsmen and journey-
men together, while also sharpening the distinction between this group and
the unskilled (see, for example, Rule 1988). The Combination Acts of 1799
and 1800 banned all forms of trade unions in Britain, but the prohibitions
fell far harder on unskilled than on skilled workers. Such laws as existed had
to be invoked by employers, and the latter were often reluctant to initiate
proceedings against the skilled workers on whom they relied most to keep
production going (Clegg, Fox, and Thompson 1964: 46–7; Rule 1988: 4–5).
Thus, many of Britain’s skilled trades founded very successful organizations
even during the period when the Combination Laws were in effect; some
of Britain’s skilled trades “have never been more completely organized in
London than between 1800 and 1820” (Webb and Webb 1920: 83–4).
In addition, and as important, state policy encouraged the growth of
associations of workers organized around the provision of mutual aid and
insurance, which also provided a site for forging bonds between downwardly
mobile artisans and skilled industrial workers (see, for example, Clark 2000;
Gosden 1961). So-called friendly societies, or “box clubs” (named after
the boxes in which the society’s contributions were kept) date back to the
seventeenth century in Britain, but they experienced a surge of growth
with the advance of the industrial revolution (Gosden 1961; Clark 2000;
Thompson 1963: 418).
Friendly societies were voluntary associations to which members made
regular contributions and on which they and their families could draw in
case of catastrophic losses due to sickness, death of the breadwinner, or un-
employment (Hopkins 1995; see also Baernreither 1893: 160–1; Eisenberg
1987: 94; Clark 2000: 356; Thompson 1963: 421). Journeymen were espe-
cially prominent members and founders of such organizations, but as Knox
points out “a good number of small masters [also] . . . retained membership
of a trade club or society as something to fall back on should trade fluc-
tuation prove unfavourable” (Knox 1980: 74). Britain’s skilled craftsmen
formed the kind of labor aristocracy that could afford the dues and often
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found it well worth their while to join associations that provided some in-
surance against impoverishment through sickness or old age (Clark 2000:
360; Hopkins 1995: 23; Prothero 1979: 27–8).
Although government officials were concerned that friendly societies
might be used as a front for illegal trade union activity (see, for example,
Webb, Webb, and Peddie 1911: 82), they also saw in these insurance clubs
an irresistible means for reducing the costs of supporting the poor under the
existing Poor Laws (Hopkins 1995; Clark 2000: 370–1). At the close of the
eighteenth century, “an upper class consensus emerged, which recognized
the need for a statutory framework for benefit societies . . . [which were]
seen as an ideal solution for curbing parish expenditure and encouraging
self-help among the lower orders” (Clark 2000: 370–1). These sentiments
found expression in the 1793 Act for the Encouragement and Relief of
Friendly Societies which sought to stabilize the legal and actuarial foun-
dation of the societies, while also subjecting them to some state oversight
(Brown and Taylor 1933). The law allowed friendly societies to register
with local authorities, thus obtaining a legally recognized status that would
allow them to protect their funds against fraud and embezzlement. So-
cieties that chose to register were required to submit their rules to local
magistrates who would inspect them to ensure that the society was not in-
volved in “subversive” activities, which would put them in violation of the
Act Against Sedition that had been passed a year earlier (Clark 2000: 371).
Subsequent legislation (1817) provided further incentives to founding such
societies by allowing registered societies to deposit their funds in savings
banks at a more favorable rate of interest than that prevailing in the market
(Hopkins 1995: 15).

Implications for Labor

In Germany, state policy toward the artisanal sector sharpened the line
between independent master artisans and skilled workers in industry, and
discouraged early, emerging unions from attempting to control skilled labor
markets (Kocka 1986a: 307–16; Kocka 1986b). By contrast, the legislation in
Britain promoted a blurring of the line between masters and journeymen,2

2 The term “master” took on an entirely different connotation in Britain from that in Germany
(Eisenberg 1987). Whereas in Germany, a “master” referred to an artisan who had completed
the course of training and earned a master certificate, in Britain, the “master” did not
necessarily work at the trade at all; instead: “he directed it and found the capital” (Howell
1877: 835).

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and in many ways drew early unions toward craft control strategies as the
obvious means to defend their status and material interests in the market.
The conditions under which craft labor markets can be institutionalized
are extremely restrictive (see, especially, Jackson 1984) but that does not
keep skilled workers from trying. Unions wishing to establish control over
the market in skills must accomplish several things simultaneously. They
must secure monopoly control over the pool of skills within the relevant
labor market, a task whose success actually depends rather crucially on
the structure of the product market.3 Craft control involves establishing
organizational boundaries that, ideally, include all workers who compete
for the same jobs, while excluding the unskilled ( Jackson 1984; Klug 1993:
264). A craft union that successfully organized all eligible craftsmen would
then be in a position to establish and enforce a uniform set of conditions
under which its members would work, and to ensure compliance on the part
of employers by denying offending firms access to a skilled labor force (Klug
1993: 264). Equally important, by controlling access to jobs and benefits,
the union could prevent its own members from agreeing to work for an
employer on terms that did not meet the “standard rate” set and enforced
by the union.
In mid-nineteenth century Britain, state policy and legal and market
conditions encouraged artisans to adopt strategies based on craft control.
As we have seen above, there was space for skilled workers to organize even
when unions were illegal and this space only expanded with the repeal of
the Combination Laws in 1824. Early associations of skilled workers often
formed around the provision of friendly benefits, whose insurance func-
tions provided a selective incentive for workers to join. The Webbs viewed
friendly benefits as “a great consolidating force in Trade Unionism” in
Britain (Webb and Webb 1897: 158). Friendly societies commanded strong
mechanisms for enforcing discipline internally, through workers’ own ac-
cumulated contributions: “The member expelled for behaviour ‘contrary to
the interests of the trade’ had no claim on the money he had contributed;
and any member who had been paying in for some years was likely to

3 Craft unions typically strive to organize workers on a local or regional (most ambitiously,
national) basis, but the nature of the product is crucial to defining the necessary scope of
control. Where products are mobile, localized control of labor markets will fail, for the
goods can simply be produced elsewhere. This is why, historically, craft control has proved
most stable and prevalent in industries (for example, construction) where the product is by
definition not mobile and where therefore local labor market control suffices. I thank Peter
Swenson for emphasizing this to me.

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feel that he had an investment not lightly to be sacrificed” (Clegg, Fox,

and Thompson 1964: 7). In addition, at a time when strikes were illegal
and unions’ rights were severely restricted, it did not take much for skilled
workers to figure out how to exploit the legal protections offered to friendly
societies and to use insurance funds in quiet ways to defend worker interests
and enforce union controls (Hopkins 1995: 73; Gosden 1961: 9; Clegg, Fox,
and Thompson 1964: 6; Baernreither 1893: 162). Certainly until the repeal
of the Combination Laws in 1824 and even thereafter, “Mutual Insurance
was the only method by which trade Unionists could lawfully attain their
end” (Webb and Webb 1897: 166).
In this context, unemployment benefits were especially important tools
in support of early unions’ trade strategies (Webb and Webb 1897: 153).
Worker solidarity was sorely tested in periods of economic downturn when
unemployment reduced the willingness of skilled workers to defend the
standard rate. “Accident, sickness and superannuation benefits all helped to
keep off the labour market men whose quality of work had suffered some
temporary or permanent decline which might tempt them to undermine
customary wage rates or working conditions; but it was the ‘out-of-work’
(or ‘donation’) benefit which offered most protection for the rules” (Clegg,
Fox, and Thompson 1964: 6; Prothero 1979: 30). By providing support for
members without work, the society kept such workers from being tempted
to sell their labor below the standard rate, which would undermine the
power of the union to establish and maintain wages, working times, and
standards of employment (Webb and Webb 1897: 158–62, 164).
The attempt to establish control over skilled labor markets is what drove
union strategies with respect to apprenticeship and training. In order to
maintain boundaries around the group and to avoid glutting the market with
skilled labor, journeymen’s societies sought to insist on certain standards of
training (measured, typically, in terms of serving out an apprenticeship or
its equivalent in work experience) and to try to restrict the number of ap-
prentices being turned out over time, as well as to prohibit members from
working with “illegal” (that is, non-union) men (Clegg, Fox, and Thompson
1964: 7). Requiring workers to document a certain level of skill allowed the
societies to restrict their membership and define the occupational bound-
aries of the group whose position they sought to use their funds to protect.
As the main union of skilled workers in the metalworking sector (Amalga-
mated Society of Engineers, ASE) put it, “if constrained to make restriction
against the admission into our trade of those who have not earned a right
by a probationary servitude, we do so, knowing such are productive of evil,
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and when persevered in unchecked, result in reducing the condition of the

artisan to that of the unskilled labourer, and confer no permanent advantage
on those admitted” (quoted in Knox 1980: 325).
Beyond its role as a signifier of a particular level of skill, apprenticeship
was important to the unions as the main point of entry to the trade. Only by
controlling the numbers of workers admitted to the trade could unions hope
to exercise control over the conditions under which their members would be
required to work. This is why most craft societies sought to engage employ-
ers in negotiations over the number of apprentices firms would be allowed
to take. Employers understood very well that restrictions on apprenticeship
were designed to maintain the market power of skilled workers, and union
leaders such as William Allan (secretary of the ASE) readily admitted that
the object of limiting apprentices was “to keep wages up; no question about
it” (quoted in Knox 1980: 325).
In sum, and in sharp contrast to Germany, unions were deeply involved
in attempting to regulate apprenticeship. Indeed, as Zeitlin points out,
“the most significant attempts to regulate the conditions of apprentice-
ship in British engineering during the nineteenth century came from the
trade unions;” their main interest, however, lay in restricting the quan-
tity of apprenticeships rather than guaranteeing their quality (Zeitlin 1996:
7). Conflicts over this and other “control” issues were bound to be espe-
cially intense in industries such as engineering where employers who faced
(locally based) efforts by unions to regulate the supply and price of skilled
labor were at the same time subject to product market competition that
spanned regional and increasingly also national boundaries. In general, the
constellation of political interests surrounding apprenticeship in Britain,
in contrast to Germany, ensured that plant-based training would become
bound up in struggles between employers and unions of skilled workers. As
Knox has put it, “apprenticeship became intertwined with trade unionism;
an attack on one became an attack on the other” (Knox 1980: 32).

Implications for Industry

Whereas in Germany state policy promoted the organization and mod-
ernization of associations of master artisans, which served as key suppliers
of skills for industry, in Britain the thrust of state policy was liberal and
the effects were therefore quite different. Although skilled artisans would
still preside over the training of the next generation, they did so mostly
from a very different base, from within the context of unions of skilled
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workers whose interests, with regard to training, were tied into craft-based
strategies of labor market control. Moreover, and again in sharp contrast to
Germany, British apprenticeship after the repeal of the Statute of Artificers
was a purely private contractual matter unregulated by any public or para-
public framework. No collectively defined rules – establishing the length
of training, limiting the number of apprentices, setting limits on who could
take apprentices, for example – governed the kinds of contracts that might
emerge. In some cases, apprentices and employers continued to sign formal
indentures, but in the vast majority of cases, indentures gave way over the
course of the nineteenth century to individual written contracts or informal
verbal agreements.
In the previous chapter we saw how important was certification’s role in
Germany in mitigating the problems of quality and mutual commitment
that typically plague plant-based apprentice training. In Germany, the deal
between apprentices and training firms was held in place by the interests
of both parties, and stabilized and underwritten by the certification process
that institutionalized disincentives for cheating on both sides. Similar mech-
anisms were not in place in Britain, and this led to several different kinds
of problems. First, the structure of the relationship between the apprentice
and the training firm made credible commitments on both sides difficult to
establish and maintain. In Germany, the master to whom a young worker
was apprenticed was directly responsible (and could be held accountable) for
the quality of training conferred. In Britain, by contrast, the employers who
signed the apprentice contracts were very frequently not directly involved in
the training. Rather, the task fell (or was explicitly delegated) to skilled jour-
neymen who were employed in the firm (Perry 1976: 33; More 1980: 44, 79,
142–3; Knox 1980: 118–19). Journeymen in charge of training apprentices
often served without additional pay or any explicit agreement about pre-
cise responsibilities and therefore had few incentives to use their own work
time in training (Howell 1877: 835–6; Fleming and Pearce 1916: 122).4
Social reformers at the time railed against the lack of accountability:
“The master to whom [the apprentice] was bound no longer taught him his

4 In addition, journeymen could use their influence over apprentices not just to convey the
skills of the craft but also to socialize youth into the secrets and norms of the trade that
protected their interests against employers (Eisenberg 1987). Hinton (1983: 95–6) notes
that frequently the first job an apprentice was taught was “keeping nix” which “consists in
keeping a bright look-out for the approach of managers or foremen, so as to be able to give
prompt and timely notice to the men who may be skulking, or having a sly read or smoke,
or who are engaged on ‘corporation work’ – that is, work of their own.”

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trade; he was, so to speak, pitch forked into the workshop to pick up his
trade as best he could, or to learn it from the many journeymen who were
there employed” (Howell 1877: 835). Even where foremen or supervisors
were charged with responsibility for apprentices, there were problems. In
many cases, foremen were under considerable pressure to simply get the
product out and were “too much burdened with routine duties to give much
attention to apprentices” (Fleming and Pearce 1916: 122).
In addition, Britain lacked any formal certification and examination sys-
tem to assess the quality of training that apprentices received in a given
workplace. There were thus few possibilities for sanctions against firms that
trained poorly or narrowly, either formal (revoking a firm’s license to train,
for example), or informal (for example through comparisons of apprentices’
examination scores that would affect a firm’s reputation for training). To
the contrary, British employers had for some time offered distinct “classes”
of apprenticeship. Small numbers of “premium” or “privilege” apprentices
were singled out for more systematic and comprehensive training, while
“ordinary” apprentices were simply set to work in a specific occupation
(Zeitlin 1996: 6; Tawney 1909a: 521).5 Even in industries such as engineer-
ing that relied heavily on skills, “ordinary” apprenticeship became more
informal and increasingly narrow over time, although – importantly and
paradoxically – without becoming any shorter, remaining at five to seven
years well into the twentieth century.
If employers faced fewer sanctions for failing to train their apprentices
well (and, given the long length of apprenticeship and the low wages at-
tached to it, enjoyed some incentives to exploit them as cheap laborers),
British youth also had fewer incentives to stick with their employers for the
full duration of the training period. To become a certified “skilled worker”
in Germany, a youth needed to complete an apprenticeship and pass an
exam. In Britain, there were many different ways to acquire “skilled” sta-
tus. It was entirely possible for a young man to “pick up” a trade through
an informal “learnership” in a firm or to simply use his ability to move
from company to company to acquire different skills. At the turn of the
nineteenth century, British firms had youths working for them under rad-
ically different sorts of arrangements – from formal indentures to highly
informal and fluid employment relationships. And, whereas in Germany
the most promising youths were certain to have been heavily recruited for

5 See Ministry of Labour (1928a: 18) for different “grades” or “classes” of apprenticeship (see
also 100–3, 104).

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high quality apprenticeships in the premier engineering firms, in Britain

these same young people would have found it to their advantage to avoid
formal contractual arrangements (which bound them for long periods) and
instead to rely on their own resources and the recognition of their talents
by employers to piece together their own skill repertoire.6
Membership in a trade union was an important signifier of a particular
level of skills in Britain. As the structure of apprenticeship became looser
over the nineteenth century, however, many trade societies were forced
to revise their rules for membership – from the completion of a formal
apprenticeship, to several years’ work at the trade, and ultimately to the
capacity of the worker to earn the current rate for skilled work in the district.
By the mid-nineteenth century the Amalgamated Society of Engineers had
dropped its requirement of a completed apprenticeship for membership in
the union, and accepted “all persons who have worked at the trade for five
years successively, and who are nominated by two full members who . . . are
able to vouch for him as being able to earn his living at the trade, and
to command the current wages of the district in which he is proposed”
(Howell 1877: 839; Clegg, Fox, and Thompson 1964: 4). By 1877, one
contemporary noted that “scarcely 10 per cent of those now admitted as
members of trades unions have been properly apprenticed” (Howell 1877:
854), and the completion of a formal apprenticeship became even more
loosely associated with union membership by century’s end.7 Writing in
1904 Booth described an increasingly prominent trend: “It was the ability to
command a certain rate – and not a particular level of technical competence
per se – that defined the worker as ‘skilled’” (Booth 1904: 165).
In sum, British apprenticeship in the late nineteenth century lacked a
stable, uniform framework that would have provided incentives for trainees
and training firms to commit to each other for a stable period of training
in the context of corrosive market forces and countervailing incentives.
Contracts could not be enforced since apprentices who broke off their
indentures had no resources for employers to try to recover their loss, and

6 This explains why the firms that developed the country’s best training programs (such as
Westinghouse) found that the most desirable young apprentices were precisely those who
were most reluctant to enter into an indentured relationship, preferring to take the respon-
sibility themselves for acquiring the skills they needed and then move on quickly to the best
paying positions. More on this below.
7 By the turn of the century, the ASE was even allowing some workers, “under certain condi-
tions, to join as probationary members at eighteen, and give them five years from that time
in which to obtain full wages, but this limit is not infrequently exceeded” (Booth 1903: 299).

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conversely, in the absence of any collectively defined standards of training,

apprentices had no legal means to hold accountable employers who did
not train well (Zeitlin 1996: 6–7). The entire relationship was, in contrast
to Germany at the time, extremely fluid and fragile. As Bray put it, “The
master is no longer bound to train the apprentice; the apprentice, even
where the name is retained, can usually leave at a week’s notice; there is no
tie between the two” (Bray 1909: 413).

Union and Employer Strategies in the

Metalworking/Engineering Industry
As in Germany, the metalworking industry – as a major consumer of skills –
was an important site of struggle and innovation in skill formation. How-
ever, whereas in Germany the key political conflicts were played out
between large metalworking firms and the organized handicraft sector,
in Britain apprenticeship training was contested between employers and
unions of skilled workers.
Early unions in the metalworking industries organized skilled workers
on a local basis; their strategies were premised on the use of friendly society
benefits to press employers to pay a standard rate and to control access
for workers to jobs. The most successful such organization in the early
nineteenth century, the Journeymen Steam Engine and Machine Makers’
Friendly Society, took as a prerequisite for membership either a completed
apprenticeship or seven years continuous employment at a trade. The skills
thus acquired were seen as the only guarantee of the workers’ ability to
maintain steady employment and not become a drain on the society or
pull wages down ( Jeffreys 1945: 24, 59). The “Old Mechanics” (as the
Society was nicknamed) did not have an explicit trade policy in the 1830s,
“but shorter hours of work and payment for overtime, protests against
‘illegal’ men working at the trade and objections to ‘overburdening the shop
with apprentices’ appear consistently as issues causing conflicts between the
masters and the men” ( Jeffreys 1945: 21, 24; Knox 1980: 317–18).8
An amalgamation movement among various unions in engineering
(led by the Old Mechanics) resulted in the founding, in 1851, of the

8 Given the ambiguous legal status of strikes, many conflicts were played out informally
(resistance to overtime, for example), but the first recorded strike over apprentice limitations
in the engineering industry is attributed to the Friendly Union of Mechanics (Knox 1980:
317).

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Amalgamated Society of Engineers (ASE). This new society became a

premier example of “new model unionism,” which combined centralized
(national) finances with local strategies for controlling wages and working
conditions. Under the forceful leadership of William Newton, the primary
goal of the ASE was to “destroy the redundancy in the labour market” and in
this way uphold uniformly high wages for its members ( Jeffreys 1945: 32–3).
Restriction of apprenticeship was one key feature of the overall strategy of
craft control that sparked repeated conflicts with employers (Hinton 1983:
Chapter 2). In 1852, employers in two of the country’s main engineering
centers (London and Lancashire) rallied to respond to union attempts to
enforce craft controls with a massive lockout that affected three thousand
of the ASE’s eleven thousand members. In the resulting protracted con-
flict, employers beat back the union’s main control demands but the ASE
survived and grew rather dramatically over the next years.9
The lockout prompted major changes in the union’s tactics, but its goals
remained the same. All rules regarding limitations on the number of ap-
prentices in a shop and other such control issues were expunged from the
Society’s rules, among other reasons to provide legal cover for the orga-
nization and its funds. Although the executive council repudiated the use
of strikes to achieve its ends, the policy of controlling the market in skills
remained ( Jeffreys 1945: 68). As Hinton puts it, “Between 1852–1874, the
Engineers had no formal trade policy, the original objects of the amal-
gamation having been formally abandoned in response to the defeat of
1851. . . . Nevertheless, outside the written rules, the branches conducted
the trade policy of the society – resistance to systematic overtime and piece-
work, limitation of apprentices, establishment of standard rates and hours
in each district – and manipulated the friendly benefits in order to achieve
this aim” (Hinton 1983: 76).
In other words, after 1852, the ASE’s trade policy would be conducted
not through noisy formal Executive Council resolutions and open strikes
but informally and locally. “Standard rates and hours, bans on illegal men,
limitation of apprentices, and monopolies of materials and machines were
left to the branches, to be imposed by withdrawing men from illegal shops
and supporting them by an unemployment benefit rendered more secure
by centralized finance” (Clegg, Fox, and Thompson 1964: 8). The union’s

9 Between 1852 and 1866, membership rose from 9,737 to 33,017, and funds grew from
£ 7,103 to £ 138,113. The number of branches affiliated with the Society rose in this period
from 128 to 305 ( Jeffreys 1945: 75).

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strategy hinged not so much on large-scale strikes but rather on the “Strike
in Detail” which put pressure on individual employers to conform by depriv-
ing them of skilled labor. The advantage for the union was that it minimized
costs because only a small number of workers had to be supported at any
time (Webb and Webb 1897: 169). In this way, “craft rules were . . . enforced
for the most part without large-scale collisions with the employers as a body”
(Clegg, Fox, and Thompson 1964: 9).
This strategy worked rather well, not least because the economic context
at mid-century was highly auspicious and the fragmented industry struc-
ture (overwhelmingly small-scale operations) allowed unions to play firms
off against each other ( Jeffreys 1945: 54, 102; also Elbaum and Lazonick
1986: 4). When individual employers violated the standard rate or em-
ployed excessive numbers of apprentices, the union responded with pressure
(sometimes in the form of a delegation from the union) and, where neces-
sary, passive resistance. For example, in the case of too many apprentices,
members were instructed not to teach the boys; if the issue was nonpayment
of the standard rate, skilled men were withdrawn from the shop. If members
were fired for their actions, they would be supported by donation benefits
until they found another job ( Jeffreys 1945: 69). As the first secretary of the
ASE, William Allan, put it in 1867 in testimony to the Royal Commission:
“We are very little engaged in regulating” rates of wages, “they regulate
themselves, if I may use the expression” (quoted in Webb and Webb 1897:
169).10
This strategy of localized labor control was fraught with tension because
firms subject to unevenly enforced local union controls were competing in
increasingly sprawling interregional and international product markets. By
the 1870s, British producers faced more intense competition from other
European (especially German) and U.S. engineering firms (Clark 1957).
In the 1880s unemployment in the British engineering, shipbuilding, and
metal group rose to a level significantly (25%) above that of the rest of
industry (Clark 1957: 128, fn3). In this context, the ASE Executive Coun-
cil (already cautious of large-scale confrontations with employers after
the 1852 lockout) became even more conservative – and also more con-
vinced that labor market conditions had rendered obsolete the strategy of

10 Allan was deliberately exaggerating the non-conflictual orientation of British craft unions.
The context, after all, was one in which he was trying to persuade the Commission to
support measures that would put unions on sounder legal footing. I thank Jonathan Zeitlin
for emphasizing this to me.

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controlling wages by attempting to influence the supply of labor ( Jeffreys

1945: 93).11
A dispute in 1883 over the issue of apprentice limitation is emblematic
of the dilemmas faced by the ASE in the late nineteenth century. The
conflict began when the union’s Sunderland branch took action against
companies that were flagrantly exploiting apprentices as low-wage workers.
One firm employed 672 men as against 478 apprentices (which worked
out to a ratio of 1.39 journeymen per apprentice) (Knox 1980: 327–8).
The union local provided evidence of further abuses in other companies,
for example, shops with 23 journeymen to 37 apprentices, of 25 men to
54 apprentices, and with 500 apprentices to 700 men ( Jeffreys 1945: 102).
Employers responded with an offer of concessions on union wage demands
but refused to negotiate on apprenticeship restriction (Knox 1980: 328–9).
The ensuing strike lasted from June 1883 to May 1885 (in the course of
which employers used apprentices as strike breakers) and the result was
the “virtual annihilation” of the Sunderland branch. This defeat marked
the abandonment by the union as a whole of any large-scale effort to limit
apprenticeship ( Jeffreys 1945: 102–3), even if it did not signal an end to the
skirmishing between unions and employers over training in Britain.

Apprenticeship in Britain before World War I

The decades preceding the First World War underscore crucial differences
between the German and British cases. Around the time the Handicraft
Protection Law was passed in Germany, and metalworking firms were be-
coming increasingly obsessed with securing certification powers for their
own in-plant training programs, their British counterparts were mobilizing
around a quite different project: beating back union controls and reasserting
managerial discretion on the shop floor. This development was prompted
by the plant-level tensions surrounding the introduction of new machines
and work reorganization and it culminated in the so-called Great Lockout
of 1897.

11 This conservatism had been a long-standing source of tension between the executive and
the branches. The branches and district committees carried out the trade policies of the
Society and had enough funds to get themselves into conflicts but not enough to carry them
through to completion. In the 1850s several branches had to be threatened with suspension
to force them to comply with executive decisions ( Jeffreys 1945: 73). In 1871–72 the rank-
and-file had dragged the executive into conflicts over the nine-hour day, the success of
which paved the way for the subsequent election of John Burnett (unofficial leader of the
strike) as general secretary of the ASE.

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The period between 1890 and 1915 witnessed the rapid introduction
of new technologies and production techniques, and in the engineering
and shipbuilding industries specifically, the widespread introduction of
semi-automatic machines that allowed employers to replace skilled workers
with semi- or even unskilled labor (Knox 1986: 174; also Clegg, Fox, and
Thompson 1964: 139–40; Price 1983). Among ASE members, turners (one
of the union’s two main constituencies) were particularly affected (Knox
1986: 174). The response of the union was to attempt to maintain control
through a policy of “following the work to the new machines,” that is, claim-
ing for their members the exclusive right to run new machines, irrespective
of the level of skill required. Moreover, and although previous attempts
at craft controls – for example, in 1883 – had been roundly defeated by
employers, economic recovery in the waning years of the nineteenth cen-
tury rendered labor markets tighter and emboldened skilled craftsmen to
re-assert previous controls (McKinlay and Zeitlin 1989: 35).
The changed technological and market context had, however, altered
the strategic calculus of British employers. As Clegg and colleagues point
out, before the 1890s employers had seen craft controls as a nuisance but
“tolerable . . . so long as conditions were stable or innovations gradual; but
they became intolerable when the rate of change increased” (Clegg, Fox, and
Thompson 1964: 168). Among other things, the ability of skilled workers
to enforce craft controls varied tremendously across different localities and
regions, and the market premium that accrued to producers unencumbered
by union controls (and therefore able to introduce machines and reorganize
production more easily) was substantial. Far from leveling the playing field,
the uneven effects of union policy introduced (for the affected employers)
maddening distortions in product market competition. The result was to
sharpen conflict with unions. The engineering employers struck back in
1897 with a massive mobilization in defense of “managerial prerogative.”
The story of the lockout has been told elsewhere, and cannot be dealt
with at length here (see, for example, Gray 1976). For present purposes,
the two main points concern the impact of the conflict on employers and
the outcome of the dispute. On the eve of the conflict, British engineering
employers were almost completely unorganized, but in the course of the
seven-month conflict, membership in the Engineering Employers Feder-
ation (EEF) soared, from 180 to 702 (Clegg, Fox, and Thompson 1964:
165; also Phelps Brown 1959: 162). As Clegg and colleagues note, “for the
leaders of the [newly founded] Federation . . . to extend the scope of a lock-
out, particularly at a time of improving trade, was a difficult if not unique
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operation. Their success was powerful testimony not only to the strength of
their feelings but also to a lack of fastidiousness in their methods” including
threats by large firms with extensive supplier networks to do business only
with employers who supported the Federation (Clegg, Fox, and Thompson
1964: 166). The outcome of the conflict was a virtually unalloyed victory
for the employers and one that struck directly at the decentralized control
strategies that the ASE had been pursuing on a range of issues, including
apprenticeship. The EEF forced the union to grant broad concessions on
managerial prerogatives, including acknowledging the right of employers
to hire non-unionists, the power to assign work on new machines unilater-
ally and at a wage rate satisfactory to the employee and employer, the almost
unrestricted right to call overtime, freedom to introduce piece rates, and the
abandonment of all restrictions on the employment of apprentices (Clegg,
Fox, and Thompson 1964:167; McKinlay and Zeitlin 1989: 36).
It is important, however, that the resolution to the conflict did not oblit-
erate the union.12 The terms of settlement specifically established collec-
tive bargaining and dispute resolution procedures that strengthened the
authority of the central union leadership vis-à-vis the union branches, and
it institutionalized dispute resolution procedures to enforce that control.
The effect of this on craft strategies was aptly summarized in 1914 by an
executive of the Engineers: “[p]revious to the 1897 lockout . . . the state of
disorganisation amongst the employers enabled us to secure our demands
[in shop disputes] with little or no previous negotiation. . . . Individual firms
could easily be approached” (quoted in Clegg, Fox, and Thompson 1964:
341). After the 1897 conflict (and under the terms of its settlement) the
ASE was expected “to discipline its locals, against threat of another sweep-
ing industrial lockout” (McKinlay and Zeitlin 1989: 36).

Apprenticeship after the Lockout

In Germany, machine and metalworking firms at the turn of the century
began organizing and mobilizing around the goal of securing official recog-
nition and certification powers for the training programs they had been
developing. The larger producers were spurred on in this endeavor by
competition with the handicraft chambers whose powers to certify skills

12 Nor for that matter did it lead to a complete reorganization of production in most of
engineering. This points to important differences from similar-looking struggles around
this time in Sweden and the United States. I return to this comparison in Chapter 4.

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they coveted. In Britain, engineering firms at century’s end had just scored a
victory over decentralized craft union controls and were motivated by quite
different objectives: institutionalizing a regime with the participation of the
national union, but designed above all to preserve managerial prerogatives
on the shop floor.
Apprenticeship was if anything less, not more, regulated after 1897.
Any notion of joint regulation (with the unions) of apprenticeship was not
considered – quite the contrary, as that issue was seen as part of the union
“control” package that had been so decisively defeated. Moreover, although
engineering employers in Britain had succeeded in banding together to
defeat union controls, they did not organize to coordinate among them-
selves alternative rules regarding in-plant training. Jeffreys argues that in
the wake of the 1897 conflict “employers, operating their right ‘to select
and train’ their workers, started flooding the shops with handymen and
boys” ( Jeffreys 1945: 156). On the union side, “the absence of any other
defined policy led the members to adopt isolated shop tactics. The phrase
regarding the employers’ right to train was taken literally and members
refused to assist or instruct newcomers in any way. Training was treated
as the employer’s responsibility to pursue as best he could” ( Jeffreys 1945:
157).13
Developments in this period in Britain hastened the decline of system-
atic apprenticeship through their effects on both employers’ behavior and
the incentives that youth faced. First, significant numbers of employers –
including some (though by no means all14 ) engineering employers – turned
to apprentices as a source of cheap productive labor. Second, and partly in
consequence, formal apprenticeship (under either written or verbal agree-
ment) lost the attractiveness it had once held for youths, as fewer young
people were willing to forgo the higher wages they could earn for unskilled
work and to embark on a long-term commitment to training with uncer-
tain payoffs. Though these two trends overlap and interrelate, the following
discussion treats them, to the extent possible, sequentially and in turn.

13 Even beyond the union’s official policy, the disinclination of skilled workers generally to
train new recruits was exacerbated by an increase in piecework in engineering in the years
following the union’s defeat. Any time a skilled worker spent on an apprentice came at the
expense of his own earnings ( Jeffreys 1945: 206). Knox cites figures indicating that “by
1914, 46 per cent of fitters and 37 per cent of turners were on piece rates, compared to
only 5 per cent of all engineering and boilermaking workers in 1886” (Knox 1986: 176).
14 See below for a discussion of the very different strategies of Britain’s largest and most
progressive engineering firms.

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Boy Labour. Some engineering employers undoubtedly used the defeat of

the ASE to extend the use of apprenticeship as a cheap alternative to semi-
skilled labor, providing narrow training on particular machines and then
using apprentices in place of more expensive skilled craftsmen. In the ab-
sence of any overarching regulatory authority governing apprenticeship,
broad training and high skill standards could not be enforced. The structure
of the British political economy – which as Howell (forthcoming, Chap-
ter 1) has put it, featured a “particularly brutal form of capitalism” built
on small producers and low capital requirements – exacerbated collective
action problems in training by making it easy for new entrants to the in-
dustry to compete on the basis of lower wages (Elbaum and Lazonick 1986;
Zeitlin 1990: 412). Many small British engineering firms sought advantage
through strategies designed to intensify work but without massive ratio-
nalization and work reorganization – that is, “through methods such as the
multiplication of apprentices, the manipulation of incentive payment sys-
tems, systematic overtime, and the promotion of semiskilled workers onto
simpler types of machinery” (Zeitlin 1990: 412).
We saw that in Germany small specialty producers in the country’s de-
centralized industrial districts were able to achieve significant coordination,
first through their own regional trade associations and, during the Weimar
years, through the VDMA. These organizations – propped up and pro-
moted by the state in various ways – provided a site through which small
producers were able to minimize ruinous head-to-head competition in par-
ticular product markets. This made it possible for them to invest in training
and the same institutions that organized competition in product markets
encouraged coordination on training standards. Similar institutions were
weak or nonexistent in Britain; it made a huge difference, for example,
that the EEF was an employers’, not a trade, association. It encompassed
firms in widely divergent product markets and therefore with quite dif-
ferent interests with respect to training, not to mention labor relations,
which was the association’s main brief. The EEF always struggled against
centrifugal tendencies and did best when it mobilized its members around
lowest-common-denominator demands (for example, defense of manage-
rial autonomy) rather than attempting to subordinate firms to some other
(even employer-dominated) authority (see, especially, Zeitlin 1991).
The closing decades of the nineteenth century thus saw a (further) blur-
ring of the line between apprentices and learners on the one hand and boy
labourers – that is, those “who are being employed solely with a view to the
present utility of their labour” – on the other (Tawney 1909a: 518–19, 524).
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The problem of cheap “boy labour” was widely criticized at this time in
the business and academic press but a practical reality on the shop floor
(Bray 1912; Dunlop and Denman 1912; Tawney 1909a: 519 and passim).
The specialization of production processes brought about by technological
changes was part of the problem. Tawney quotes one firm as reporting that
“Boys are kept as a rule in their own departments. They are not taught, they
are made to work” (Tawney 1909a: 522; see also Tawney 1909b: 304). He
quotes a Glasgow employer, who bluntly summarized the prevailing logic:
“‘to put an apprentice on a valuable machine is a waste of money unless he
is specialised to it, and in all trades the longer the boy is kept at the process
the sooner does he become economically profitable” (Tawney 1909a: 521).
The labor of apprentices specialized to particular machines could quickly
be turned to profit and the combination of continued long apprentice pe-
riods (still five to seven years in Britain) and the low wages they earned
made this strategy attractive for some employers (on these developments
see especially Knox 1980: v and passim).
Although these practices differed quite a lot across firms and especially
across industries,15 the “proletarianization of apprentices” in Britain at the
turn of the century was the subject of a vast literature, one that sparked a
broad debate that has no equivalent in Germany at the time (Bray 1909;
Bray 1912; Dunlop and Denman 1912; Fleming and Pearce 1916). As one
contemporary noted, “inquiry shows that several tendencies are at work to
assimilate the position of the boy who is nominally an apprentice or learner
to the position of the boy who is employed simply as a labourer” (Tawney
1909a: 519). Another bemoaned the long-term effects of the decline of ap-
prenticeship, as boys were increasingly “set to perform the same operation,
and acquire skill and dexterity only in that one direction. . . . As men they
are skilled, not in a trade, but in a single operation of that trade” (Bray
1909: 413; Tawney 1909b). Reformers and advocates of strong plant-based
training complained that “Even where apprentice agreements are drawn
up, too often youths are exploited on repetition work, and no heed is given
to the obligations due to the youth or to the community” (Fleming and
Pearce 1916: 122).
Another development in this period, related to the technological changes
discussed above and the conflicts these provoked with skilled unions, was

15 More, for example, insists that the exploitation of apprentices was exaggerated, and notes
that training did continue to take place in those industries (engineering prime among them)
in which production continued to rely heavily on skill (More 1980: passim).

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employers’ strategic use of apprentices in struggles with organized labor

(see, especially Knox 1980: 343; Knox 1986). In the 1897 dispute discussed
above, some employers had used apprentices as strike breakers, threatening
trainees with prosecution under the Masters and Servants Act of 1875 if
they refused to work (Wigham 1973: Chapter 3; Childs 1990: 786–7). In
cases in which apprentices did join in the strike, employers often forced
them back to work and obliged them to sign a document renouncing any
future participation in labor disputes – and to make up for each day out of
work with two days labor (Knox 1980: 342).
Knox notes a revival of interest on the part of employers in formal inden-
tures and written contracts between the late 1880s and 1914 (Knox 1980:
v, 129–31, 66). Although not the only reason, such interest might be partly
understood against the backdrop of the strategic importance of apprentices
in conflicts with unions (Knox 1980: 343). The sorts of indentures that
emerged in this period support this interpretation. They took the form
of private contracts that explicitly “gave the employer all the disciplinary
benefits of the traditional indenture,” but remained vague or limited in
the specification of the reciprocal duties of the firm toward the appren-
tice (Knox 1986: 180). Such indentures, in other words, were only binding
in one direction – and did not necessarily contain any guarantees to the
apprentices that the firm would provide high quality training or even con-
tinued employment for the full term of the contract. In the wake of a strike
by apprentices in 1912 in a number of major engineering and shipbuild-
ing companies in Scotland, Northeast England and Manchester, the EEF
issued a model apprentice contract for its member firms that gave strict
disciplinary powers to employers, but did nothing to establish standards for
training and specifically reserved a firm’s right to fire apprentices on the
spot for participating in strikes, as well as to lay them off if necessary in an
economic downturn (Knox 1980: 134, 226–7; see also Knox 1986 on the
strike).

Youth and Apprenticeship. The dynamics sketched out above contributed

mightily to a trend in which formal apprenticeship lost a great deal of its
attractiveness to many British youths. In a context in which apprenticeship
no longer guaranteed comprehensive training and in which there were al-
ternative possible routes to acquiring and documenting skill, many youths
began to doubt the value of making a long-term contractual commitment,
and came to prefer more flexible arrangements that would allow them to
move more freely in response to new opportunities and higher wages.
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We saw that by the first decade of the twentieth century in Germany, ap-
prenticeship was an attractive route from the perspective of both promising
young boys and their parents, who saw advantages to forgoing higher wages
for a well-defined (three- to four-year) period in exchange for the promise
of skill certification that enjoyed widespread and growing recognition in
the market. The capacity of the handicraft sector to certify the skills they
conferred had prompted leading machine firms to seek similar certification
powers for themselves in order to exercise greater control over the content
of training.
In Britain, formal apprenticeship looked much less attractive. The differ-
ence was not in the wages trainees received, for in Germany as in Britain,
apprentice wages were well below the rate for skilled workers and even
many unskilled jobs. As we saw in Chapter 1, low wages may help stabi-
lize training by shifting the costs, at least partly, onto (credit-constrained)
trainees. Rather, the key differences from the German practice were in the
length of training and especially in the advantages such training conferred.
British youth were subject to a much longer training period – between
five and seven years throughout most of the engineering industry. The
length of the apprenticeship had almost nothing to do with the time re-
quired to learn a craft. It was determined mostly by the age at which an
apprentice began, continuing typically to the age of 21, “since on the at-
tainment of that age it is open to the apprentice to repudiate the contract”
(Ministry of Labour 1928a: 83). As Table 3.1 indicates, in 1909 about one-
half of engineering apprentices served five years and over a quarter of them
served a full seven years.
If this were not enough, trainees were often expected to serve an ad-
ditional period of “improvership” before they could qualify for full adult
skilled wages. Describing conditions in the engineering industry in 1903,
Booth notes that “a lad’s period of nominal apprenticeship would normally
end at age 21” but “must not have been of less than five year’s duration,
and after that he is usually expected to serve a further period as ‘improver’ ”
which amounted to another one to three years with wages ranging “from

Table 3.1. Length of apprenticeship, percentage, figures from 1909

3 years 4 years 5 years 5–7 years 6 years 7 years

Engineering 0.1 0.9 53.5 10.0 8.0 27.5
Shipbuilding 0.2 − 53.0 0.6 18.0 28.2
Source: More 1980: 70.

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half to three-quarters of the full men’s rate . . . the employers using their dis-
cretion quite without let or hindrance in this respect” (Booth 1903: 299).
Since the vast majority of apprentices and learners – at least in engineer-
ing (according to More, 90% ([More 1980: 73]) – were required to serve
such improverships, an engineering apprentice in Britain was looking at a
very long-term commitment before he achieved “skilled status” or more
precisely, until he would be entitled to the full adult skilled rate.
The second key difference from German practice is the lack of formal
certification awarded to an apprentice on completion of his or her training,
and, related to that, some guarantee that training would be of relatively
high quality. In the absence of regulations and monitoring of training, or
any clear standards to which employers could be held accountable, youth
in Britain faced a situation in which it often made no sense to them to
submit to years of reduced wages with very uncertain returns. As Dunlop
and Denman point out, “the boy has no desire to bind himself for a long
period of years to serve for low wages when he can easily earn more money
in other ways, while his father is unwilling to pay a premium when he can
obtain no guarantee that his son will be properly taught the trade” (Dunlop
and Denman 1912: 330, fn1). Working class parents, strapped financially,
were especially dubious about the advantages of apprenticeship, and “lads
[were] drawn to [unskilled] work for the higher wages they [could] earn”
(Bray 1909: 414; Bray 1912: 137).
The pull of so-called “blind alley” jobs was overall much greater in
Britain than in Germany at this time, not least because boys left school
earlier, more typically at 12 against 14 in Germany. Citing statistics gath-
ered by a government-sponsored Education Committee, Reginald Bray
painted a bleak picture: Between 11 to 17% of 14- to 17-year-olds were re-
ported to be entering skilled trades, as against 28 to 34% entering low-skill
occupations, along with another approximately one-third of 14-year-olds
who became errand and shop boys (Bray 1909: 143).16 Tawney finds the
same thing for Glasgow (1909): 53.6% of boys left elementary schools
to become milk boys or lorry boys, 24.6% to become unskilled workers,
and only 12% to enter into an apprenticeship or learnership (Knox 1980:
42).17 No wonder contemporaries who bemoaned the decay of indentured

16 The problem was especially intense in metropolitan labor markets, where the opportunities
for low-skill service jobs were greater. Thanks to Jonathan Zeitlin for emphasizing this
to me.
17 Some of this slightly exaggerates the problem, as some youth did take up an apprenticeship
after one or two years out. But there was an overall decline between 1901 and 1911 in

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apprenticeship worried about the growing reserve of “shiftless, feckless

boys” who lacked training and discipline (Bray 1909: 412–13) and the army
of “industrial nomads” who were being turned out (Tawney 1909a: 531).18
The unskilled jobs that young boys performed were by definition without
long-term prospects, since as these young workers neared adulthood they
would be replaced by new youngsters. Thus, as Tawney complained, “The
boy, thrown out at 16, 17, or 18 or 20 years of age, drifts into the low-skilled
labour market or the army of unemployables” (Tawney 1909a: 517).
For youth who did decide to invest in training, the flip side of the “boy
labour” problem is that youth faced fewer incentives to complete an ap-
prenticeship. In Germany, an apprentice needed to complete his training
to collect his certificate, but in Britain youth were not tied to the firm in the
same way.19 Knox documents complaints in this period by employers who
were frustrated by the behavior of apprentices who abandoned their train-
ing early to take advantage of more lucrative offers (Knox 1986: 177). He
also reports that one estimate in the early 1900s indicated that “not more
than 50–55 per cent of engineering and shipbuilding apprentices completed
their time” (Knox 1986: 177–8).
These problems were well understood by contemporaries, particularly
by the firms that had the greatest stake in a well functioning training sys-
tem. The engineers in charge of training at British Westinghouse (very high
quality training, as we will see below) expressed the need for skilled trades to
be accorded a “definite status” based on a “practical test” of the apprentice’s
abilities (Fleming and Pearce 1916: 161, 122, respectively). As represen-
tatives of Britain’s most progressive training firms, they complained of a
lack of a “definite standard regarding what constitutes a skilled workman or

young workers employed in skilled trades (Knox 1980: 54). In key trades such as fitting,
turning, and erecting, for example, the number of workers under 21 years old was 33,794
in 1901 and had dropped by over 5,000, to 28,403 by 1911. The story is similar for other
trades.
18 As Childs writes: “A report from Glasgow suggested that most boy labourers and learners
(as opposed to bound apprentices) passed through at least six jobs between fourteen and
twenty-one; more often the figure was twelve jobs, while figures of twenty to thirty were
not unheard of ” (Childs 1990: 791).
19 More argues that the problem of apprenticeship defection has been overstated, and he
notes that an apprentice who absconded “risked forfeiting his ‘lines’ – his certificate at
leaving which showed that he had served so many years” (More 1980: 77). My point is
that in Britain there were other ways of achieving skilled status and that completing an
apprenticeship required a much longer commitment than in Germany.

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craftsman” (Fleming and Pearce 1916: 122). Perhaps most tellingly of all,
these training experts advocated a shortening of the length of apprenticeship
to five years maximum (Fleming and Pearce 1916: 162).
As premier training firms such as Westinghouse experienced first-hand,
the most promising youth were among the least likely to seek out a formal
apprenticeship in Britain, confident as they were that they could achieve
skilled status without binding themselves to a particular employer. The en-
gineers who helped develop Westinghouse’s training program describe the
problem well: “The lack of a definite plan of training is responsible for a
great decline in apprenticeship of any kind, because in many works the shop
youth who is not ‘bound’ is able not only to earn more money, but has all the
privileges of a formally apprenticed youth, so far as either have any at all.
Such a system is, of course, fatal to the success of a sound apprenticeship sys-
tem, since the most promising boys are unlikely to commit themselves to a
long period of service at small wages without any special ultimate advantage
to themselves” (Fleming and Pearce 1916: 122–3). Thus, when the British
Westinghouse Company began to set up its training program in 1913, they
quickly determined that the boys who were working at the company under
formal apprenticeship agreements were among the least promising trainees.
“It would seem that the system [of apprentice contracts] generally attracted
a poor type of youth, who was anxious to possess the security that a pe-
riod of apprenticeship would give, while the most intelligent youths moved
about from shop to shop, and trusted to their experience to enable them to
acquire a steadily progressive rate of wages and standard of work” (Fleming
and Pearce 1916: 141–2).
The situation in Britain at century’s end and up to World War I was
aptly summarized by the Webbs: “There are to-day so many opportunities
for boys to earn relatively high wages without instruction, that they are
not easily induced either to enter upon a term of educational servitude
at low rates, or to continue on it if they have begun” (Webb and Webb
1897: 477). They continue: “the system of apprenticeship has lost what
was really its main attraction. . . . What the father and the apprentice were
willing to pay for was, not the instruction, but the legal right to exercise
a protected trade. When this right to a trade could be obtained without
apprenticeship. . . . father and sons alike have always been eager to forgo its
educational advantages” (Webb and Webb 1897: 477–8).
By the first decade of the twentieth century, some similarities but also
several key differences had emerged in apprenticeship training in Germany

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and Britain.20 Apprentice wages in both countries were low – this being a
mechanism through which firms shifted part of the cost of training onto the
youth, a practice particularly important to smaller producers. In Germany,
however, handicraft producers faced incentives to train well. If they did
not, they would lose their license to train and, with it, the cheap extra
hand in production. Similar monitoring devices were lacking in Britain,
so that there were no real sanctions against British employers who chose
to specialize apprentices on particular machines to the detriment of their
training.
In addition, there was considerable uncertainty in Britain regarding the
quality of training and the value of formal apprenticeship. One of the fac-
tors that shored up apprenticeship in Germany was the existence of “clearly
defined and formally recognized qualifications [that provided] a ‘currency
of exchange’ between employers and employees and between educational
institutions and learners” (Cruz-Castro and Conlong 2001). This type of
certification and recognition was lacking in Britain, making it highly un-
certain on the employer side exactly what skills even a fully apprenticed
worker possessed (hence the need for an additional period of “improver-
ship” in the vast majority of cases), and highly dubious on the side of
youth what benefits were associated specifically with apprenticeship as op-
posed to the other more informal methods available for achieving “skilled”
status.

Reform Efforts before World War I

The deterioration of apprenticeship was not looked upon with equanimity
in all quarters, by any means. Ever since the Paris Exhibition of Manufactur-
ers in 1867, a growing number of voices could be heard warning that British
industry would fall behind its competitors unless something was done to
upgrade the country’s system of technical education and training (Dunlop
and Denman 1912). Educators such as Silvanus P. Thompson (Professor
of Experimental Physics at the University of Manchester) spoke for many
when he criticized the British system in 1879: “the skilled industries of
Great Britain with their irregular bands of workers, trained anyhow, no-
how, armed with scraps of empirical knowledge, and swaddled up in the
rules of thumb, are doomed before the industries of nations who bring

20 The categories around which this summary is organized come from Cruz-Castro and
Conlong (2001).

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into the field ordered legions of trained workers equipped with intellectual
weapons, and clothed with sound science. . . . We have, however, one chance
left; we must adapt our system to the new social order, and drill and train
our workers in a systematic and scientific apprenticeship” (quoted in Knox
1980: 35).
A number of voluntary and philanthropic organizations attempted to
redress the problems associated with apprenticeship training in Britain (see
especially Knox 1980; Chapter 9). Their efforts are noteworthy because
they point to the way that contemporaries understood the problems of
youth training and underscore important differences from the institution
in Germany. The problems described above – exploitation of trainees by
employers, waning interest on the part of youth in apprenticeship – attracted
the attention of a number of voluntary societies in Britain in the late nine-
teenth and early twentieth centuries. In particular, Jewish and Christian
organizations became involved in forging connections between training
firms and the youth in their communities. This movement began with the
formation, in 1868, of the Industrial Committee of the Jewish Board of
Guardians, followed in 1886 with the founding of a parallel organization,
the East London Apprenticing Fund for Christian Children ( Jevons 1908:
455–6).
These organizations took as their goal the initiation and successful com-
pletion of training for youth in their communities. They offered a number
of services, establishing contacts between firms and apprentices, directing
trainees to appropriate firms, and assisting companies in locating suitable
apprentices. They also frequently stepped in to pay a premium (or fee) to
the company (as a loan to the apprentice), a measure associated with an
explicit promise on the part of the firm to offer these apprentices more
systematic and comprehensive training than they could expect as regular
(non-premium or “trade”) apprentices. Such organizations often assigned
to each apprentice a “guardian” who would monitor the trainee’s progress
through periodic workshop visits, and at the same time make sure that the
employer was holding up his end of the agreement ( Jevons 1908: 455–6;
Knox 1980: 299–301).21

21 A secular organization, the National Institute of Apprenticeship, formed in 1898, adopted

similar goals and employed similar tools. The institute provided apprentice premiums for
boys (and girls as well), aided and advised youth and their parents in negotiating the terms
of the apprenticeship, and exercised some oversight over the training process (Knox 1980:
301–2).

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A more expansive effort (at least in its aspirations), and one that adopted
many of the same practices pioneered by the previous organizations was the
Apprenticeship and Skilled Employment Association. This London-based
organization began work in the first decade of the twentieth century, and op-
erated as an umbrella for what its organizers hoped would become a national
network of local Apprenticeship and Skilled Employment Committees. By
1909, the national association had established 17 committees in London and
10 committees in other cities including Glasgow and Edinburgh (Dunlop
and Denman 1912: 326; Knox 1980).22 This association aimed at “encour-
aging the entry of children into good trades and occupations with prospects,
by offering advice to parents and by finding definite and suitable openings
for the children” (quote is from Jevons 1908: 455; see also Bray 1909: 404).
Although not associated with any particular religious or cultural organiza-
tion, this movement, like its predecessors, was a completely voluntary and
philanthropic operation. Staffed largely by women officers, the organiza-
tion reflected middle class concerns about the growing numbers of youth
flowing into blind alley jobs (Dunlop and Denman 1912: 326–7). Local
committees nurtured strong relations with elementary schools and boys’
and girls’ clubs within their areas,23 and they organized their work around
finding suitable apprentice positions for youth in firms and establishing the
terms of the contract “with a view to securing fair conditions to the em-
ployee, and satisfactory workers to the employer” (Dunlop and Denman
1912: 327).
These committees took it upon themselves not just to make the con-
nection between apprentice and employer (and pay the premium for the
apprentice, mostly on a loan basis), but also to provide some monitoring
of the training process itself. “The work of the Committee does not cease
with the placing of the boy or girl. A watch is kept over his progress
throughout the time of apprenticeship or period of learning the trade.
This is often done through a ‘visitor’ or ‘guardian,’ who is asked to take
a generally friendly interest in the progress of his charge, and to report
on it to the Committee” ( Jevons 1908: 457). In some cases, the com-
mittee even acted as direct intermediary and contractor between appren-
tice and employer: “When possible, the Committee uses its own form
of indentures, which contains a special clause allowing a representative
to act as fourth party with power to cancel the agreement, should it be

22 Jevons (1908) contains a listing of the committees in operation in 1908.

23 From a document put out by the umbrella organization, in Jevons (1908: Appendix, 461).

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necessary either through the failure of the employer to fulfil his contract
to teach the trade, or through the bad behavior of the apprentice” ( Jevons
1908: 457).
The efforts of these voluntary and philanthropic societies are notewor-
thy, especially in comparison to Germany, as an attempt to devise some
kind of institutional infrastructure that could underwrite apprentice con-
tracts and monitor compliance on both sides – in effect, to serve some
of the functions performed in Germany by certification through compul-
sory handicraft chambers. From the perspective of the theories outlined in
Chapter 1, these committees did serve a number of functions that would
have been useful to all parties – facilitating the dissemination of informa-
tion about employment prospects in various trades, providing information
to parents and apprentices about “good” and “bad” employers from the per-
spective of training, providing oversight mechanisms that would throw a
spotlight on both the quality of training offered by employers and the efforts
and progress of apprentices themselves (Dunlop and Denman 1912:327).
Contemporaries rightly praised the work of these committees for drawing
attention to the problems of juvenile labor that were rampant at the time,
and for taking measures to ameliorate these problems – at least on a limited
basis.
Therein lay the real problem – the limited reach of these programs.
Whereas in Germany a very large proportion of apprentice training took
place under the auspices of the compulsory handicraft framework, Britain’s
voluntary system for oversight and monitoring simply never covered a sig-
nificant number of trainees (see especially Knox 1980: 301–2). The most
ambitious efforts by the Apprenticeship and Skilled Employment Com-
mittees resulted in the placement of 300 boys and girls in the first year of
their existence. This number rose to around 500 by 1907, and in 1909 the
committees placed 187 male and 259 female apprentices (along with about
double that combined number of male and female learners). The efforts
of these voluntary associations were scattered and uncoordinated, however.
Although they were acknowledged (for example, in a government report
from 1909 on youth education), it was also noted that these initiatives re-
mained very limited in scope and impact (Education 1909a: 63). Moreover,
the committees declined after 1909, a consequence in part of the extension
of the government labour exchanges instituted in that period. Bray notes
that in London (where the Association was most active) not more than 2%
of boys who left elementary schools came “under the influence of these
associations” (Bray 1912: 91).
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Strategies of Large Metalworking Companies

Large engineering companies in Britain also had reasons for viewing the
deterioration of apprenticeship with great concern. Like their counterparts
in Germany, firms such as Mather and Platt, J & J Colman, Thames Iron
Works Company, British Electric, Clayton and Shuttleworth, Hawthorn,
and Leslie and Co. relied heavily on skills and stood at the forefront of
efforts to improve apprentice training in Britain. Many of these companies
saw in German institutions and practices an explicit model to be emulated
(Fleming and Pearce 1916). Yet, as this section argues, the context was in
many ways hostile to sustaining islands of “best practice” in firm-based
training, let alone having these emerge as standard setting for the rest of
industry.
Like their German counterparts, Britain’s large engineering companies
directed considerable energy and resources toward vocational education
and training.24 Mather and Platt, a Manchester engineering firm, was con-
sidered a pioneer in the encouragement of technical education. As early as
1873, the company had founded its own workshop-based technical school,
to provide more systematic theoretical and practical training for its ap-
prentices (Perry 1976: 31; Education 1909a: 96–7). Another industrial gi-
ant, Clayton and Shuttleworth, also developed an elaborate program for
apprentice training, designed to combine “with the modern factory system
the advantages of the old system of apprenticeship” (Sadler and Beard 1908:
276–7). The program involved a mix of practical and theoretical training,
and apprentices were assigned to “superintendents” charged with the re-
sponsibility to “supervise, teach, promote, and advise” trainees (Sadler and
Beard 1908: 276–7).25 In addition to requiring the apprentice to take classes
in the firm, the company made efforts to move the apprentice around the
works to familiarize him with a broader range of trades.
Britain’s premier engineering firms strove to recruit the most promis-
ing youth into their factories and training programs. This meant avoiding
taking apprentices who had only completed the minimal mandatory ele-
mentary school, and opting instead for older boys who had continued their
education beyond the statutory minimum. This was the policy, for exam-
ple, of Vickers, which devoted considerable attention to recruitment and
among other things “insisted upon a knowledge of algebra and geometry”

24 For an overview of practices circa 1909 see Education (1909a: 96–100).

25 This firm’s apprentice program, as well as that of many of the other firms discussed below,
are summarized in Sadler and Beard (1908).

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for the youth into whose further training they intended to pour additional
firm resources. Armstrong Whitworth (Manchester) and Barr and Stroud
(Glasgow) also took account of the educational achievements and even ex-
tracurricular activities in their selection process (More 1980: 67). Cadbury
Brothers (Birmingham) required its incoming apprentices to have com-
pleted two years of evening school study (Fleming and Pearce 1916: 99).
Once an apprentice had entered the firm, these employers in various
ways promoted the continuing participation of trainees in evening techni-
cal classes, paying the student’s class fees, for example, or relieving trainees
of the obligation to perform overtime (or in some cases letting them leave
early on the day their evening class was to meet). Such were the poli-
cies, for example, of W. H. Allen, Son & Co., Ltd. (Bedford) and Palmers
Shipbuilding and Iron Company Ltd. ( Jarrow).26 Palmers instituted an ad-
ditional system of incentives, raising the wages of apprentices as they pro-
gressed through technical classes.27 Less common was the policy adopted
by Mather and Platt, which made attendance at evening technical classes
compulsory for all apprentices employed in the firm, and which also paid
or reimbursed the students’ school fees, contingent on good performance
(Education 1909b: 350).
One of the most celebrated training programs in Britain before World
War I was that developed by the British Westinghouse Company.28 The
company set up a works school in 1913, and it began operation in 1914 with
100 boys chosen for the program based on interviews. The boys participated
in a program of instruction held in the company works school organized into
subjects ranging from arithmetic to specific trade classes relating to skills
the company required. Although the program enrolled only a very small
number of the company’s young workers (about 5% of boys under 18 years
of age who were employed at the time), the number of apprentices in the
works had risen to 272 (or 23%) by a year later (1915) (Fleming and Pearce
1916: 155–6). Significantly, these training initiatives were associated with
a revival of bound indentures, and acceptance into the program required

26 Beyond this, Allen and Son also instituted a smaller program for a select group of premium
apprentices who were being groomed for “positions of responsibility.” For these appren-
tices the company arranged additional plant-based theoretical instruction including science
lectures during the winter months.
27 In the case of Palmers, however, the company itself reported, “the scheme has not, up to
the present time, been largely taken advantage of.”
28 This discussion draws on the account of Fleming and Pearce, two engineers who played a
significant role in developing and running the program there (1916).

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the boys’ parents to sign a formal agreement committing the youth to stay
at the firm until the age of 21 (Fleming and Pearce 1916: 148). Other
companies (such as Vickers, Sons and Maxim Ltd. of Sheffield) also used
private contracts to bind boys to their training term (Knox 1980: 343).
There are some important similarities between these practices and those
developed by the large metalworking firms in Germany before the war –
the overall structure and objectives of the best training facilities, and the
lack of significant participation by organized labor, for example. One is also
struck, however, by some key differences, among them an overall higher
degree of stratification of training programs in British engineering firms
and a greater emphasis (superfluous in the German context) on measures
to facilitate apprentices in attending technical classes outside of working
hours. A number of firms took on different “grades” of apprenticeship –
so-called premium versus “ordinary” or trade apprentices.29 Most often,
the more elaborate programs described above (providing true all round
training) were specifically meant for only a small subset of apprentices who
were explicitly being groomed for leadership positions in the firm.
More generally, however, the training a boy could expect to receive was
often at least in part a function of the educational background he brought
with him to the firm. In the case of Vickers of Sheffield, youths with a high
school or grammar school education might qualify for a two-year course
at the local Technical Department of Sheffield University, paid for by the
company and made possible by the grant of a two-year leave of absence from
the apprenticeship (Fleming and Pearce 1916: 99). Similarly, the apprentice
program established in 1906 by Cadbury Brothers (Birmingham), took very
few apprentices and only those who had completed two years of evening
courses were admitted to the company-sponsored trade classes (Fleming
and Pearce 1916: 99).
Talented “ordinary” apprentices could work their way up in the ranks by
demonstrating exceptional motivation or skill. Certainly the policies of the
premier training firms were designed to discover and promote ambitious
young workers – for example, by providing various incentives for trainees
to enroll themselves in evening technical classes or by rewarding them for

29 See More (1980: 104–6) on “premium” apprenticeship, which was distinguished from or-
dinary trade apprenticeship by more comprehensive training and (related to that) payment
by the apprentice of a fee to the firm of between fifty to a hundred pounds. More suggests
that “premium apprenticeship was widespread in [the engineering] industry . . . before the
First World War” and cites evidence that it even continued in some engineering firms in
the 1920s and 1930s, though in diminishing numbers (More 1980: 104–5).

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good marks they received there. By contrast, it is not clear that the practi-
cal in-plant component of training was so different from or so much more
systematic than that of other firms. Even in the top engineering firms, such
training normally took place not in specialized workshops (as in Germany’s
top training firms) but rather on the job and under the guidance of skilled
journeymen or foremen, with many of the accompanying problems cited
above.30 Firms such as Clayton and Shuttleworth (agricultural machines, in
Lincoln) and Elswick Works of Armstrong (armaments) boasted that they
provided their apprentices with an all-round training through systematic
progression through the works, but even More, who is overall rather opti-
mistic about training in this period, admits that this was “perhaps unusual”
and notes other cases where breadth of experience may have been “more by
chance than design” – and only “rarely the result of a carefully thought out
plan by management” (More 1980: 85–6). Even in the celebrated British
Westinghouse case, there were reports that training “was ‘quite haphazard’;
there was little effective supervision, and although apprentices were meant
to be moved in accordance with a plan of training, they could simply ask
and be moved” (More 1980: 85).
The policies of Britain’s premier training firms must be understood
against the backdrop of the quite different (compared to Germany) educa-
tional infrastructure they faced. A significant structural problem in Britain,
from the perspective of these firms, was the overall lower level of state-
sponsored, compulsory education and training for British youth. First and
most fundamentally, compulsory elementary education was a more recent
phenomenon in Britain than in Germany. The Elementary Education Act
of 1870 had created a national system of elementary schools (Perry 1976:
17) but local school boards exercised wide discretion and allowed a variety
of exceptions (Sadler and Beard 1908: 320–1). Subsequent legislation raised
the compulsory school age and narrowed the discretion of local authorities
when it came to younger boys and girls.31 In 1904 about 32% of British

30 Fleming and Pearce cite conflicts in some firms between apprentice supervisors and fore-
men, the former being concerned with training whereas the latter were more interested in
output (Fleming and Pearce 1916: 122). More notes that it appears to have been very rare
to establish separate training workshops, as most training was in the context of the actual
production process. Moreover, very few engineering firms (in 1925, 26 of 1,573) employed
separate “apprentice masters” charged specifically with responsibility for training (More
1980: 86).
31 Legislation in 1880 required local authorities to mandate school attendance up to 10 years
of age (Sandiford 1908: 320). Further legislation raised the minimum age step by step, to

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children obtained exemptions between the ages of 13 and 14 (Education

1909a: 26). The number of exemptions declined after that, but this occurred
slowly, especially in regions like the textile manufacturing districts, where
employers had come to depend heavily on child labor (Perry 1976).32
Another important factor was that trade-oriented continuation schools
of the sort widely compulsory in Germany by the first decade of the twen-
tieth century were neither so widespread nor so well attended in Britain at
that time. In Germany these institutions were supported by state or local
governments, backed up by laws requiring youth to attend and obligat-
ing employers to grant apprentices time off to do so (Chapter 2). In Britain
these institutions had a rockier history and received far less support from the
state.33 In the late nineteenth century, some county councils were channel-
ing funds into evening schools offering technical training, but as attendance
was entirely voluntary and the schools charged fees, the uptake, especially
among working class youth, was very low (Education 1909a: Chapter XI).
Despite efforts on the part of some local authorities to prompt employers
to encourage attendance by their youth,34 in 80% of counties, the pro-
portion of youths in evening continuation courses was below 10%; in only
12 counties did it rise above 10% in 1909 (Education 1909a: 127).35
In Germany, state support for compulsory continuing education (that
is, beyond elementary school) helped to subsidize training for youth with
more meager resources, while at the same time imposing more uniform
conditions on German employers. Conversely, in Britain, the lack of com-
pulsion contributed to a higher degree of stratification in training (that
is, the more education and training a youth arrived with and/or acquired
“on his own steam,” the more likely he would be rewarded with higher
quality training from the firm). The pre-World War I period did see the

11 years of age (1893), 12 years (1899), and 13 years (1902) (Sandiford 1908: 320–1, for
1893 and 1899; Zeitlin 1996: 17, for 1902).
32 Dunlop and Denman, for example, report that “out of an average number of 47,360 partial
exemption scholars given in the returns for 1906–07, 34,306 were employed in factories;
20,302 of these were Lancashire children, the majority of whom probably were working
in the cotton mills; 10,517 were returned for Yorkshire, and they, it may be assumed, were
for the most part engaged in the worsted manufacture” (Dunlop and Denman 1912: 312).
33 On the history of trade oriented “mechanics institutes” and continuation schools in Britain,
see especially Kelly (1992), Sadler (1908a), Sadler and Beard (1908: 21–31).
34 For example, the Manchester Education Committee provided monthly reports to firms
that were paying for their apprentices to attend classes. The reports contained information
on attendance, progress, and conduct in school (Education 1909a: 92–3).
35 Though the figures were higher in London and the County Boroughs, up to 25 to 30% at
the high end.

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development of full-time Junior Technical Schools, which provided very

high quality training for the small minority of youth who attended them
(they too charged fees). The training was of such high quality that the grad-
uates of these schools typically went straight into supervisory or mid-level
technical positions – not skilled manual positions (Zeitlin 1996). As Bray
put it, “technical education for the minority is successful, but without power
to compel attendance and limit the hours of boy-labour it is only the few
who can avail themselves of the opportunities offered” (Bray 1912: 150). Or
as the engineers in charge of the Westinghouse training programs noted
with dismay, “the workers who need industrial training the most fail to take
advantage of voluntary facilities that exist at present” (Fleming and Pearce
1916: 163).
In general, then, the kind and quality of training that a British youth
might aspire to had a great deal to do with his or her family’s ability to allow
him to tap into the services available, or to put it in Becker’s terms, credit
constraints played a much bigger role in Britain in determining which youth
received training and of what quality. The premier training firms redressed
this problem to an extent, for example, by paying class fees for evening
instruction or offering bonuses for good grades in such classes. However,
the lack of a comprehensive compulsory system meant that firms that went
this route exposed themselves to severe poaching problems (Pollard 1965:
169). A British manufacturer of diesel engines summarized the problem he
and other employers faced: “After sending its apprentices to the evening
classes, to a technical school or possibly the University . . . [the firm] would
find it had expended its money without reaping any harvest because the
apprentice would go elsewhere if he were offered better terms” (quoted
in Zeitlin 1996: 15–16). A representative of Armstrong, Whitworth and
Company pointed to exactly the same problems, and emphasized the need
for employers to cooperate on training (Education 1909b: 353).36
Even the firms that encouraged attendance at evening classes were re-
luctant to take the additional step to pay apprentices for hours spent in
the classroom. Bray, among others, noted how rare it was for employers to
give apprentices permission to attend day classes (Bray 1912: 187). Mather

36 In an interview published in 1908, Dr. Georg Kerschensteiner, one of the key architects of
compulsory continuation schools in Germany, noted that without compulsion “carelessness
and greed” on the part of employers would inevitably interfere with attendance (Stockton
1908: 543). As we have seen, Germany was much further along in requiring attendance at
this time.

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and Platt, for example, required their apprentices to attend continuation

classes, but the company was unwilling to reduce their working hours to
accommodate this. As an employer witness to the government education
committee pointed out, Mather and Platt was of the opinion that since
their boys only worked 48 hours a week, they were, “not at all fatigued at
the end of the day” and therefore quite capable of attending and getting
something out of evening trade school (Education 1909b: 349).37 A sur-
vey of 79 teachers employed in continuation schools in (mostly) northern
England confirmed that although instructors knew of instances in which
employers promoted attendance in evening courses in various ways – by
paying class fees, adjusting working hours, offering prizes and bonuses –
most firms were still unwilling to excuse their apprentices from day work
in order to attend technical classes (Beard 1908: 247).
The main demand raised in this context by prominent training firms
in Britain, therefore – completely understandable in the context described
above – was legislation that would raise the general educational require-
ments for all youth. Such firms were vocal proponents of reforms that
would have required youth aged 14 to 18 to attend compulsory technical
continuation classes, proposals modeled directly on then-prevailing prac-
tices in Germany (Zeitlin 1996: 16; see also Zeitlin 2001). The point was
that “statutory compulsion would reinforce employers’ ability to insist on
young workers’ attendance at continuation schools by imposing a similar
obligation on their laxer competitors” (Zeitlin 1996: 17). Contemporary
social reformers could not have agreed more. As Bray put it, without com-
pulsion “those [employers] who pursue the better methods disappear; those
who pursue the worse survive to propagate their kind . . . the bad pushes out
and replaces the good” (Bray 1912: 182). R. H. Tawney also argued in favor
of increased compulsory training for all youth on the grounds that “the
only way of preventing [employers] from recruiting the ranks of low-paid
irregularly employed adult workers, is to make their labour scarce and dear
by law, and to insist on their obtaining an industrial education in a Trade
School” (Education 1909a: 316–17). Along with representatives of firms
such as Mather and Platt, such social reformers in Britain argued that com-
pulsion “places all employers on the same level, and enables the best of
them to do what was before impossible. It does not thereby interfere with

37 A conclusion not shared by the consultative committee, whose members felt that a substan-
tial number of these youths would be too tired to learn much of anything at all (Education
1909a: 170).

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competition; it merely changes the direction of competition by guiding it

into less injurious channels” (Bray 1912: 182; see also Sadler 1908b: 125).
A Consultative Committee that reported to the National Board of Edu-
cation in 1909 also understood very well the problems confronting individ-
ual firms in an entirely voluntary system. Reporting on the state of British
continuation schools in 1909 they cited a litany of problems, including:
apathetic or hostile attitudes among taxpayers and local education author-
ities in many districts, a lack of cooperation on the part of employers (to
make it possible for their young workers and apprentices to attend evening
classes), and overstrained youth who could not manage the long hours re-
quired to balance work and classes. These were all problems that the Report
attributed to the “weakness of a voluntary system in impressing on the pub-
lic mind the necessity for educational care during adolescence” (Education
1909a: 133, Chapter VII passim). The “disappointing” conclusion reached
by the consultative committee, however, was that “so far as can be gathered
from the various inquiries that have been made at different times, the major-
ity of employers are quite indifferent to the education of their workpeople,”
a conclusion that led them to the overall judgment that voluntarism in this
area was doomed to fail (Education 1909a: 121).
Based on this report, the Board of Education recommended mandatory
attendance at trade classes for all youth under 17. Although the idea was
picked up by the Liberal government and formulated as a bill in 1911,
lack of employer support prevented passage (Dunlop and Denman 1912;
Zeitlin 1996: 17–18). Some industries (for example, cotton, textiles) were
utterly opposed, continuing to rely as they did on child labor (Sandiford
1908; Zeitlin 1996: 17). Industries less reliant on skills than engineering
were simply completely “indifferent” to the training problem (Dunlop and
Denman 1912: 335). Even industries that took apprentices and trained
them on the job often did not necessarily see the benefit of classes and
were reluctant to adjust apprentices’ working hours to facilitate attendance,
citing foreign competition and the need to keep labor costs low (Educa-
tion 1909b: 356–9). In sum, although almost no employers were opposed
to their apprentices attending evening classes, the majority were “actively
hostile” to the idea of adjusting working hours to make this possible (Knox
1980: 272).
Thus, premier engineering firms in Britain continued to face a dilemma
since they relied on skills but had no particular way of ensuring that their
investment would pay off in the form of a long-term employment com-
mitment on the part of the apprentice. The relatively strong position of
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skilled unions (despite strike losses, organization levels were relatively high
in engineering) and the multiplicity of unions represented in any given firm
made policies based on internal labor markets difficult to implement. In the
face of these constraints, and the problems of labor mobility across firms,
many employers adapted to the logic of the context and focused significant
energy on a relatively small number of apprentices who arrived in the firm
with well over the minimum educational qualifications and who could be
targeted by the company for leadership positions and long-term employ-
ment. For the larger numbers of “ordinary” apprentices, they were more
likely to rely on relatively inexpensive measures (relief from overtime, for
example) designed to encourage youth to seek additional training outside
the firm – but mostly on their own time.
One sees in these strategies an attempt on the part of these firms –
perfectly rational given the context – to minimize “irrecoverable” invest-
ments in training by privileging youth who arrived with more than the min-
imum and by insisting in various ways on apprentices themselves (who were,
after all, the real beneficiaries of their increasing human capital) bearing a
significant share of the costs of their own training – all the while lobbying
for the socialization of such costs as well as complementary policies to force
other firms to bear their fair share of the costs required to generate the skills
on which they all relied.

Union Strategies with Respect to Apprenticeship

The union’s position in the debates over apprenticeship and vocational edu-
cation at the turn of the century was colored by its concern with the overall
supply of skilled labor and skilled workers’ wages. In general, the ASE was
mostly content to blame employers for the sorry state of apprenticeship.
The problem, from their perspective, was the abuse of trainees as unskilled
workers, associated with a demonstrable overabundance in many firms of
apprentices in relation to journeymen. In many instances, the union clearly
had a point. But at the end of the day, the ASE also had very little to say
about the content or quality of training, and continued to focus mostly on
the “numbers” question. As one contemporary noted, the main object of
concern for unions was “regulation of the supply of workers rather than the
assurance of adequate training” (Booth 1904: 163).
In light of their own mostly failed attempts to limit the number of appren-
tices, ASE leaders worried that publicly available technical classes would

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only contribute to overstocking within particular trades. From early on,

many unionists were skeptical of the position taken by leading firms on
technical education, seeing this as an attempt to use public funds to train
enough young skilled workmen to reduce skilled wages (Education 1909a:
143). An official of the Manchester branch put it this way: “Of course, I
do not want to speak against technical education, but we find that from
technical schools and from boy’s institutes and those places, there is a pre-
ponderance of lads drafted into our trade more than into any other” (quoted
in Knox 1980: 252–3). Unionists also worried that apprentices trained in
new methods would pose a challenge to established modes of production
and therefore also a challenge to the older generation of skilled workers
who had been trained in the traditional way (Booth 1904: 163–4; Knox
1980: 254; Beard 1908: 248).38
By the first decade of the twentieth century, however, in light of the
restrictive terms of the 1897 settlement, rising unemployment, and wide-
spread abuses of apprenticeship, union attitudes toward technical training
began to shift. The ASE came around to strongly endorsing the idea of
compulsory continuation schools, very much in line with demands being
made at this time by the premier engineering companies. For the unions,
the attraction of compulsory technical education with mandatory class-
room training was based on different material interests but ultimately on
a fundamentally complementary logic. British engineering firms favored
compulsion as necessary to punish lax employers, reduce free riding, and
mitigate the competitive pressure they faced from firms pursuing lower
quality strategies based on cutting labor costs. For unions, the point of
compulsory trade schooling was to prevent the abuse of apprenticeship by
employers to put pressure on skilled wages. Requiring firms to release youth
from work to attend classes would make trainees more expensive for the
firms and therefore less attractive as a source of cheap semi-skilled labor
(Knox 1980: 262).

38 In some industries, unions raised concerns about the negative effect of increasing compul-
sory educational requirements on the incomes of poor families. This is the reason given,
for example, by skilled operatives in Britain’s textile districts for opposing proposals put
forth by the leaders of their own union for an abolition of half time employment for youth
under 13 years of age and for raising the age of compulsory school attendance (Educa-
tion 1909a: 142, 287). Tawney, a leading proponent of technical education, viewed such
positions with skepticism, arguing that organized workers, “with left-handed kindness, pre-
vent [poor youth] from overcrowding some trades, and indirectly intensify the struggle in
others” (Education 1909a: 316).

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Thus, as in Germany, there were possibilities for a coalition between

unions of skilled workers and large employers in skill-dependent industries
such as engineering with the goal of coordination and regulation of ap-
prentice training. Both sides had an interest in preventing upstart firms
from achieving advantage by undercutting high quality, high skill firms
on the basis of strategies to reduce labor costs. Agreements on the reg-
ulation of apprenticeship were achieved between unions and employers
in some industries marked by especially intense product market competi-
tion and high reliance on skilled workers.39 Unions and employers in the
printing industry, for instance, were able to reach agreement on a jointly
sponsored “Apprentice Training Scheme” in 1912. This agreement was
heavily pushed by large printing firms, which sought to curb the practices
of smaller firms that relied on the use of cheap labor and price compe-
tition. On the labor side, the express goal of the British Federation of
Master Printers was to set “a standard of reasonable conditions” and to
impose regulations on “those employers . . . who are injuring the workmen
by paying sweating wages, and injuring their fellow-employers by unrea-
sonably low prices” (quoted in Knox 1986: 180–1). The point was that “by
regulating the ratio of apprentices to journeymen and by improving the
training of the former, the ‘fair’ employer could strike a hammer blow at
their unscrupulous competitors by raising the cost of labour” (Knox 1986:
181).40
In other sectors, however, including the crucial engineering industry, the
years immediately preceding World War I witnessed, if anything, increas-
ing conflict between unions and employers over a range of control issues –
apprenticeship among them. In 1912 a new and more aggressive leadership
took control of the ASE and proceeded to abrogate the Terms of Settle-
ment signed in 1897, returning the union to an official policy of militant
defense of craft control (Zeitlin 1996: 19). The new general secretary of the
union, J. T. Brownlie, demanded negotiation of a recognized proportion of
apprentices to journeymen, claiming apprentices were not being properly
trained. Market conditions were relatively auspicious for resurgent craft

39 See Knox (1986) and Ministry of Labour (1928a: 135–7) on various agreements between
unions and employers discussed here.
40 In the building industry as well, “leading firms took the initiative on the apprentice question”
(Knox 1986: 181). In 1916 an agreement on apprenticeship was worked out between the
Institute of Builders, unions, and the Labour ministry; it, unfortunately, was not successfully
implemented, partly because of the war (Knox 1986: 181).

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militancy; skilled labor shortages in 1911 and 1912, for example, allowed
the union in many cases successfully to reimpose on employers previously
defunct restrictions in the use of unskilled workers on skilled jobs (Zeitlin
1996: 19).

The Impact of War and Its Aftermath

The onset of World War I only exacerbated ongoing conflicts over shop
floor control and managerial prerogatives. As in Germany, intense com-
petition for skilled labor and the power this conferred on unions brought
government intervention to keep industrial peace for the sake of military
production. In Germany the 1916 Auxiliary Service Act accomplished this
end by allowing unions an increased voice in plant decision making (through
works councils), a move that set the scene for the postwar incorporation of
Germany’s industrial unions into a system of unitary plant representation
(see also Thelen 1991).
In Britain the government pressured for and then underwrote an agree-
ment between the EEF and major craft unions that imposed a moratorium
on industrial action and restrictive work rules in defense-related indus-
tries for the duration of the hostilities. This paved the way for widespread
“dilution” during the war, freeing employers to introduce new machinery
and to put women and semi-skilled operatives on work previously reserved
for fully qualified workers (Haydu 1988: 130–1). Although facilitating the
reorganization of work in industries producing large runs of standardized
parts for the military, these arrangements also caused political friction, par-
ticularly between the central union leaders who signed the agreements and
the rank-and-file members who were bound and constrained by the provi-
sions they contained.
Despite increasing substitution and dilution, skilled workers enjoyed
unprecedented power during the war. Even where significant work reor-
ganization was undertaken, such craftsmen were crucial to setting up and
making the tools needed for standardized production. Chronic skilled labor
shortages tested employer solidarity and emboldened an emerging shop
steward movement that fed on rank-and-file discontent. Legally binding
arrangements (backed by sanctions by the state) that limited skilled work-
ers’ mobility, prohibited strikes, and allowed employers to proceed against
unionists or workers who sought to defend traditional practices became a
major irritation for skilled workers who watched as their jobs were rede-
fined and, often, as their wages fell in relation to semi-skilled operatives
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on piece-rate and premium systems.41 On the employer side, intense labor

shortages and the scramble for military orders fueled competition among
firms; the EEF was particularly riven by centrifugal forces in this period
(Zeitlin 1991: 62–7).
As in Germany, the war years – and accompanying skill shortages –
heightened interest in skill formation and brought forth new initiatives to
reform apprentice training.42 Important impulses in this regard emanated
from the British Board of Education, which in 1916 came under the leader-
ship of H. A. L. Fisher, a well-known and determined advocate of significant
reform in the area of vocational training. During the war, members of the
Board met with engineers and prominent advocates of vocational training
reform, including representatives of the premier training firms discussed
above.43 Such deliberations helped pave the way for the passage, in 1918,
of the so-called “Fisher Act” that raised the school-leaving age to 14 and
provided for a significant expansion of compulsory daytime continuation
schooling – 280 hours per year for all youth between 14 and 16 years of
age – though continuing opposition from employers in less skill-intensive
sectors forced a retreat from more ambitious plans.44
The war years also saw significant movement in the area of in-plant train-
ing. Meetings between the government and reform-minded employers, for
example, resulted in a proposal for a “Central Bureau for Improvement in
and Better Co-ordination of Engineering Training” that shared many of the
same goals as those articulated by German manufacturing concerns through
DATSCH. In addition to supporting compulsory continuation classes,
the employers involved in these meetings “reaffirmed the importance of
shop training” and saw the Bureau as a means for coordinating regionally
based initiatives (Zeitlin 1996: 25–6). In October of 1917, key organiza-
tions (including the EEF) and a large number of Britain’s most prominent
and influential metalworking companies heartily endorsed these proposals

41 In engineering, the proportion of boys to men also rose between July 1914 and April 1917
from 13.9 to 20.8% (Ministry of Labour 1928a: 13).
42 On the reform initiatives of this period, see especially Zeitlin (2001).
43 Sir Arthur Fleming, for example, who served as director of training at British Westinghouse,
took part, as did A. E. Berriman, who was chief engineer at Daimler (Zeitlin 1996: 25).
44 The original plan called for 320 hours of compulsory coursework per year for all youth up
to the age of 18. In the law that ultimately passed, the introduction of compulsory classes
for 16- to 18-year-olds was to be delayed for seven years after the war, and local authorities
could reduce mandatory continuation school hours from 320 to 280 for the interim period
as well (Zeitlin 1996: 22). For the provisions of the legislation, as well as some commentary,
see Brereton (1919).

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(Zeitlin 1996: 26; also Zeitlin 2001). These initiatives were followed up
by another meeting, convened by Fisher in London in May 1919, that
brought together 49 leading representatives of industry, commerce, and ed-
ucation, and resulted in the founding of an Association for the Advancement
of Education in Industry and Commerce (AEIC) (Perry 1976: 46).
Against the backdrop of these developments, one of the most promising
and potentially far-reaching initiatives came from the head of the EEF,
Allan Smith, who proposed a “bold national strategy aimed at reaching
a durable accommodation with official trade unions leaders” that, among
other things, would give unions a role in regulating apprenticeship in ex-
change for greater managerial latitude on craft-control issues (quote from
Zeitlin 1990: 415; on the aspects relating to skills specifically, see Zeitlin
1996: 27–9; Zeitlin 2001). Smith told a conference of engineering unions
in 1919, “We admit now, or propose to agree, that all questions practically
regarding apprentices should be discussed with you” (quoted in Zeitlin
1996: 28).
Smith recognized that a national-level deal was crucial to the success of
the project, since divergent rules across regions (based on uneven union
influence) was a continuing source of friction in strong interregional prod-
uct market competition. The idea – similar in some ways to the Terms
of Settlement of 1897 – was to draw the national union into a system in
which the union leadership would help to enforce greater uniformity. This
would involve reining in local activists where necessary. Thus, the offer on
the table called for negotiations with the ASE on issues relating to training
(including also the proportion of apprentices to journeymen) at the national
(specifically not the district) level. In other words, the EEF was prepared to
endorse trade union representation and participation in the regulation of
apprenticeship as part of a broad agreement to cover a range of issues includ-
ing wages and working hours and in conjunction with an overall reduction
of craft restrictions. In a report issued in 1918 the employers’ organiza-
tion proposed that all apprentices “should henceforth serve under written
agreements, whose observance might be secured through cooperation with
unions, while a national scheme should be adopted for supplementing work-
shop training with technical education” (Zeitlin 1996: 27–8).
In short, in Britain as in Germany, wartime skilled labor shortages height-
ened concerns about training, resulting in both cases in new pressures for
reform. In Germany, DATSCH’s efforts to secure legislation for a new
regulatory framework for training in industry did not bear fruit before or
even after World War I. Although the legislative reform process stalled in
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Germany, however, in the 1920s, firm-based training continued and grew.45

In Britain, by contrast, wartime initiatives on training reform quickly fell
victim in the early 1920s to renewed conflict between employers and skilled
unions.46 The immediate postwar years brought no relief from skill short-
ages, and years of centrally imposed restraint produced an upsurge of local
labor militancy as shop stewards tried to reclaim ground that had been
lost during the war. When government restrictions were lifted, therefore,
skilled engineering workers used their power “to press old demands, in-
cluding restrictions on manning machines, payment of apprentices, and
overtime work” (Haydu 1988: 168). The organizations and consortia to
promote training that had emerged during the war sputtered when the
hostilities ended. As Zeitlin notes, “the ‘Engineering Training Organisa-
tion’ formed at [the 1917] meeting never attracted sufficient funds from
individual firms to become self-sustaining and was absorbed by the EEF in
the autumn of 1920” (Zeitlin 1996: 26).
This is important because the EEF (unlike the VDMA which emerged
as a key actor in Germany) was not an organization through which British
firms coordinated in product markets, only in labor markets. It was cer-
tainly possible in theory for employers and unions to find common ground
through collective bargaining that would assist in stabilizing competition in
product markets (for example, Bowman 1985; Swenson 2002).47 The EEF
was notoriously diverse, however, and had always struggled against strong
centrifugal forces (Zeitlin 1991). In addition, since its main brief was to
negotiate with unions, any agreement the EEF sought on training would
have had to be bundled with a broader agreement over a whole range of
other control issues – a daunting prospect given the upsurge in militancy
in the first postwar years. A core and, it seems, quite fatal problem was that

45 For the reasons elaborated above, which included the growth of cross-testing and certi-
fication for industrial firms, wage compression, and the increasing power of the VDMA
which provided a key site for increased coordination among German metalworking firms
on training.
46 Jonathan Zeitlin (Zeitlin 1996; Zeitlin 2001) provides an interpretation slightly different
from the one advanced here. He sees the failure of the initiatives of this period, and also
subsequent reform efforts in the 1940s and 1960s (discussed briefly below) as much more
“contingent” in the sense that the institutional reforms proposed at these junctures might
well have taken root had it not been for complicating exogenous events and conditions.
My sense is that the differences are in part a matter of emphasis, with my analysis placing
more weight on structural conditions and institutional starting points (for example, craft
unionism).
47 And see Chapter 4 for the example of the stove foundry industry in the United States.

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the most serious EEF proposals for a national-level settlement with labor
came at a time when central union control over local shop stewards was at
a low point.
Thus, despite the overtures by EEF leaders and even encouraging re-
sponse from the union leadership, the reform initiatives of the war years did
not bring the broad agreement that Smith sought. Instead, rank-and-file
militancy in 1919–1921 set the scene for yet another dramatic confronta-
tion between unions and employers over control issues. Employers seized
on the economic downturn of 1922 to impose significant cuts in wages
and to reassert managerial control over shop floor issues. Once again, the
organizational capacities that employers had developed were deployed to
defend the autonomy of individual firms (McKinlay and Zeitlin 1989: 42),
as the EEF rallied its members again to defeat the Amalgamated Engineer-
ing Union (AEU)48 in a major lockout. In the aftermath, employers moved
aggressively to slash skilled worker wages and to reassert their rights to
deploy workers as they saw fit, to introduce piece rate systems of payment,
and to manipulate working hours to cover production needs.
The AEU suffered huge membership losses both before and especially
after the defeat. This was a “rout” from which it took the union over a
decade to recover (Tolliday 1992: 46). As McKinlay and Zeitlin put it, in
the aftermath of this historic conflict, the AEU “was all but impotent at
the national, regional and workshop levels” (McKinlay and Zeitlin 1989:
42). The union’s defeat left employers more or less free to organize work
and apprentice training as they saw fit. What they did with this autonomy,
as before, worked overwhelmingly to the detriment of training in Britain.
Over the course of the 1920s and 1930s, apprenticeship by and large de-
teriorated, as apprentices were put on routine repetitive work and used
as a buffer, being laid off in downturns (Zeitlin 1996: 5, 34–6, 49; Zeitlin
1991:72). As one Leicestershire engineering employer reported, “We ob-
tain boys direct from the elementary school as near 14 years as possible.
In these days of repetition engineering, we have not, broadly speaking,
experienced any great benefit by taking boys at a later age, say 16, from a
secondary school” (Ministry of Labour 1928a: 89). McKinlay notes that the
response of engineering employers to the recession of 1929 was to engage
in the widespread replacement of time-served workers with apprentices, so

48 In 1920 the ASE merged with several other smaller craft societies to form the AEU, or
Amalgamated Engineering Union.

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that during the years 1929 to 1932, “apprentices constituted an increasing

proportion of the engineering workforce” (McKinlay 1986: 4).
We can pause here to consider – in light of the theoretical arguments
presented in Chapter 1– the incentives faced by British firms and also by
British youth to invest in training in the post-1922 period. Recall that in
Germany, union wage policy in the interwar years was organized around re-
ducing skill differentials. Although frequently forced into somewhat wider
differentials by employers (though state intervention often produced com-
promises between the two positions), skill differentials were significantly
reduced in 1919–20 (unskilled workers receiving over 80% of the skilled
worker rates), then restored somewhat but never back to prewar levels. Such
wage compression– à la Acemoglu and Pischke (Chapter 1) – encouraged
firms to invest in worker training (and reduce their reliance on relatively
expensive unskilled labor), at the same time prompting technological inno-
vations designed to increase the productivity of skilled workers.
In Britain, too, the interwar years saw a reduction in wage differentials
between the highest and lowest skilled workers. The political dynamics and
logic were completely different, however. Knowles and Robertson docu-
ment significant reductions in wage differentials during and immediately
after the First World War in Britain; the wage rates of unskilled engi-
neering workers rose from 58.6% of the skilled rate in 1914 to 78.9% in
1920) (Knowles and Robertson 1951: 111). In this case, however, wage
compression resulted from increased organization among semi-skilled op-
erators and increased use by employers of payment by results, combined
with the union’s insistence that anyone (regardless of skill) who performed
a “skilled job” be paid at the “skilled rate.”49 As in Germany, the 1920s
witnessed a partial restoration of wage differentials but again, not back to
prewar levels. Unskilled wage rates hovered around 71% of skilled wage
rates from 1924 to 1935, according to Knowles and Robertson (Knowles
and Robertson 1951: 111).50 But in the British case, these effects stemmed

49 I am grateful to Jonathan Zeitlin for emphasizing this point to me.

50 Given the increased importance of shop floor bargaining and the expansion of piece rate
wage systems in the interwar years, weekly earnings are a better measure of wage differen-
tials than straight wage rates. Hart and MacKay directly address this issue, taking advantage
of data collected by the EEF on earnings over the period 1914 to 1968 (Hart and MacKay
1975). The results are more refined but they do not change the overall picture dramatically.
For 1926, for example, the wage rate differential is 70.8, whereas the earnings differential
is 73.9%; for 1929, it is 71.3 and 74% respectively, and for 1932, it is 71.2 and 71.5% (based
on calculations and comparisons between Knowles and Robertson’s figures and Hart and
MacKay’s).

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less from an explicit union policy of wage compression than from the deci-
mation and continuing weakness of the AEU combined with the increasing
leverage (also later increasing militancy) of semi-skilled workers (Mosher
2001).
In short, whereas wage bargaining in Germany produced outcomes that
provided employers with incentives to increase training and hire more
skilled workers (at artificially reduced rates), British employers spent the
period after 1922 engaged in very different strategies – in the older seg-
ments of the industry seeking “cost reductions through the multiplication
of apprentices and the downgrading of skilled workers rather than through
rationalization and reequipment” and in the newer sectors, through “the
manipulation of payment systems . . . to drive production processes that re-
mained flexible and labor intensive” (Zeitlin 1990: 417–18). The resulting
wage distortions, as Zeitlin has pointed out, meant that in many cases, semi-
skilled workers wound up making more money than skilled time workers
(Zeitlin 1996: 48).
These effects had important implications for the incentives facing youth
to acquire training. The combination of wage distortions, the declining
quality of training, and continuing very long training times, was deadly
for apprenticeship in this period (Zeitlin 1996: 5, 39–40).51 There were no
obvious and compelling reasons for youths to subject themselves to long
training periods when the payoff was so low and the actual skills they ac-
quired so uncertain. Although many firms were indifferent to the problems
this caused, engineering firms concerned about the supply of skilled labor
complained that low wages were drawing youth off into unskilled, dead
end jobs, and in so doing “diverted suitable recruits from the engineering
industry” (Ministry of Labour 1928b: 15).52

51 In 1925–26, 47.7% of engineering apprentices finished in five years, but for 26.1% training
dragged on for seven years; only 1.6% of all trainees served four years or less (Ministry
of Labour 1928b: 19). In addition, 57% of boy apprentices (across all industries) were still
required to serve an additional period of improvership (most commonly, twelve months).
In the engineering and allied industries the number of apprentices serving additional im-
proverships was even higher (90 and 62%, respectively) (Ministry of Labour 1928a: 85;
Ministry of Labour 1928b: 6, 34). Moreover, training times subsequently increased for
many apprentices because of the widespread use of part-time work during the Depression
(Zeitlin 1996: 53).
52 Conversely, relatively higher wages for unskilled work added to the costs of training, as
apprentice wages were driven up in certain regions by competition with industries employ-
ing youth in unskilled positions. Such was the case, for example, in the textile districts in
Britain (Ministry of Labour 1928b: 23).

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There was nothing in the structure of firm-based training in Britain

at the time to give prospective apprentices confidence that the sacrifices
they might make (in wages, for example) during training would produce
skills that would be widely recognized on the labor market. Just the oppo-
site: the terms of apprenticeship in engineering were if anything becoming
more onerous and costly and the payoff no more certain. In a way, the
scenario in Britain in the 1920s was practically the mirror image of that in
Germany at the time. In Germany, coordination among firms was steadily
increasing the quality of training and establishing ever more widely recog-
nized standards for in-plant training, thus increasing the attractiveness of
training to youth. At the same time, narrower skill differentials, imposed
first by industrial unions but later upheld and continued through state ar-
bitration (which also inhibited local adjustments) created a “productivity
gap” (between the wages of skilled workers and their marginal produc-
tivity) that provided employers with an incentive to continue to invest in
training.
In Britain, by contrast, very little progress was made in establishing stan-
dards, and there was nothing in the structure of bargaining to support and
encourage firms to invest in training, even in highly skill-dependent in-
dustries like engineering. Skill formation remained virtually unregulated
by any overarching set of rules; with the exception of a few highly spe-
cialized subsectors, there existed “no agreements between employers and
workpeople determining the conditions of employment of apprentices in
the engineering industry” (Ministry of Labour 1928b: 42). Certainly the
AEU had no say in the matter, union rules on the employment conditions
of apprentices having been explicitly ruled out by the 1922 defeat (Ministry
of Labour 1928b: 44–5). There was tremendous variety in the types of train-
ing arrangements that individual firms might work out with trainees. The
EEF did not seek to impose standards either. The rules it offered member
firms by way of recommendation were specifically the sort that prioritized
the autonomy of the individual firm. Thus, many companies followed EEF
recommendations and incorporated into apprentice contracts stipulations
that prohibited apprentices from taking part in labor disputes and clauses
that explicitly allowed the firm to lay off apprentices in economic downturns
(Ministry of Labour 1928b: 46–7).
Thus, as far as training was concerned the legacy of the 1922 strug-
gle was similar to that of 1898 – once again employers had been able to
rally around the minimalist goal of managerial autonomy, so that despite a
legacy of increased centralization of wage bargaining this was “paralleled
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The Impact of War and Its Aftermath

by ever greater diversity in other areas, such as training, payment systems

and machine manning” (McKinlay and Zeitlin 1989: 42).

British Training on the Eve of World War II

There is no doubt that significant segments of capital saw the need for
fundamental reforms in Britain’s vocational training system, and in specific
regions employers endorsed proposals that, if implemented on a broad basis,
would have put skill formation in Britain on an entirely new footing.53 Such
ambitious projects never got off the ground, however. From the perspective
of Britain’s premier training firms, very little had changed by the mid-1920s,
despite the flurry of reform enthusiasm during and after World War I,
and what changes had occurred in some ways undermined the more pro-
gressive training programs by exposing them to more intense poaching and
competitive pressures.
Even the Educational Reforms that had been passed in 1918 (the Fisher
Act) that would have raised the school age and imposed compulsory daytime
continuation classes for all youth under 18 did not take effect as planned.
Some aspects were postponed and the number of mandatory hours was
trimmed back. The implementation of the elements that remained in the
law also proved problematic. Specifically, and crucially, shortages of teachers
forced the Board of Education to delegate authority for implementing the
plans to local authorities, producing highly uneven results that redounded
to the disadvantage of employers in the more progressive regions (higher
production costs) and forced a scale-back in these areas (Zeitlin 1996: 31).54
The whole question of compulsory trade classes (at technical institutes)
remained highly contested among employers. Based on a questionnaire

53 Zeitlin notes that the urgency of reform was especially intense in the Northeast where
employers confronted severe labor shortages. In 1916 a group of engineers and employers in
this region established a “Committee on the Education of Apprentices” to discuss reforms.
The committee’s proposals called for major reforms, including the establishment by local
educational authorities of Junior Day Technical schools that could offer pre-apprentice
programs for school-leaving 14-year-olds, legislation that would compel employers to pay
for two to three and a half days of attendance in technical classes per week for youths up
to the age of 18, and provisions that would allow the most promising youths to become
part-time students at local technical colleges. At the height of the war, and in the context of
severe labor shortages, all the main engineering and shipbuilding employers in the region
approved the report (Zeitlin 1996: 23–5).
54 For this exact reason, the recommendation of the committee of inquiry that had first made
proposals in this area specifically counseled against leaving these matters to the localities
(Zeitlin 1996: 21).

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circulated among engineering employers in 1922, the Association for Edu-

cation in Industry and Commerce reported that “compulsory education is
advocated by a number of firms” but “some firms are emphatically opposed
to compulsion in any form whatever, and several other firms are doubtful of
the wisdom of compulsion” (Commerce 1930: 14). The authors note that
“one comes to the definite conclusion from the replies that compulsory
attendance . . . is inadvisable” (Commerce 1930: 19).
Prevailing practices in the 1920s continued to reflect this situation. A
much more comprehensive survey conducted in 1925 by the Ministry of
Labour revealed that only a small minority of firms required their ap-
prentices to attend evening trade classes and/or granted trainees time off
from work to facilitate this. In the metalworking industries, encouragement
by firms for apprentices to attend classes varied widely from very passive
(posters advertising evening classes) to more active. Of 1,573 metalwork-
ing firms surveyed, only 337 allowed time off to apprentices to attend class
(and in some cases this was just permission to leave early on evenings when
they had class), 62 made evening classes compulsory, and 19 made day
classes obligatory. Works schools remained rare, with only 33 firms main-
taining such schools for apprentices (Ministry of Labour 1928b: 40–1). In
general, British employers continued to think that “the better method is
to offer prizes, bonuses, and wider opportunities as inducements to those
concerned to take the utmost advantage of the facilities offered to them to
become proficient in their trades” (Commerce 1930: 19).
As for workshop-based training, apprenticeship remained highly infor-
mal and unregulated in Britain in the mid-1920s. Of those youth who were
in training in 1925, less than one-quarter (23.3%) were serving under some
form of written agreement. The rest either were in apprenticeships un-
der more informal, verbal agreements (51.6%) or working as “learners”
(25.1%) – the latter frequently confined to more specialized operations
(Ministry of Labour 1928b: 10, 40). Skills were still mostly transmitted
in the traditional way, by working alongside skilled workers (Ministry of
Labour 1928b: 39; Commerce 1930: 11–12). Only 26 of 1,573 surveyed
firms had “apprentice masters” and in the vast majority of cases (1,068) ap-
prentices acquired their training from the skilled journeymen with whom
they worked (Ministry of Labour 1928b: 39). The (less systematic and com-
prehensive) survey conducted by the Association of Education in Industry
and Commerce confirms this, noting that a number of firms report that they
have “no organized training of any description. Apprentices are engaged,
placed in the various shops for their trades, and left to pick up information
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and acquire manipulative skill as best they can from their associating with
and assisting the workmen engaged in these trades” (Commerce 1930: 10–
11). As contemporaries emphasized, “considerable responsibility for the
proper teaching of the apprentice rested upon the skilled worker. Much de-
pended upon his capacity and willingness to impart instruction” (Ministry
of Labour 1928b: 39). This arrangement, never ideal, became even more
problematic in the 1920s with the increased use of piece rates for skilled
journeymen (Ministry of Labour 1928b: 37), since any effort spent in train-
ing could easily compromise the worker’s own wage (Commerce 1930:
18, 23).55
British apprenticeship also remained highly stratified, with distinctions
drawn among different “grades” of apprenticeship, depending, among other
things, on the prior experience and completed course work a trainee brought
with him (Ministry of Labour 1928b: 41, 49–50). Although “trade” ap-
prentices were usually confined to one trade and generally to one depart-
ment, premium apprentices received more all-round training (Commerce
1930: 14–15).56 The report of the Association for Education in Industry and
Commerce referred to premium apprenticeship as the “method by which
the privileged few are allowed wide facilities to obtain training and experi-
ence” (Commerce 1930: 14). As before, top training companies still focused
heavily on encouraging apprentices to attend classes, paying the class fees,
allowing time off to enroll in evening or part time day classes (21% of engi-
neering firms surveyed), facilitating attendance at day classes (though only
about 6% of engineering firms with apprentices engaged in this practice),
and offering bonuses or prizes for good performance (Ministry of Labour
1928a: 108–9).
Whereas in Germany, firms in the interwar years increasingly coordi-
nated their training through strong trade associations such as the VDMA,
British employers still worked, if at all, mostly through the EEF and then
coordinated largely on issues such as the length of improverships and on the
wages they paid to improvers (Ministry of Labour 1928b: 35, 36). In some
regions, the local employers’ association recommended wages for appren-
tices, in some cases setting out maxima and minima (Ministry of Labour
1928b: 43). The content of training, however, was largely unregulated and

55 Even where firms placed responsibility for apprentices with foremen, there were problems
since foremen were not, typically, chosen for their pedagogic skills, and often were most
concerned simply to get the product out (Commerce 1930: 23).
56 Although, as before, there was some possibility for trade apprentices who demonstrated
special promise or aptitude to be upgraded.

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uncoordinated. The general trend throughout the 1920s was toward a de-
terioration in both the quality and quantity of training, creating a situation
that rendered the efforts of the more progressive firms more vulnerable
than ever to poaching and price competition.
There may be no better evidence of the deterioration of apprentice-
ship in the 1920s and 1930s in British engineering than the uprising of
the apprentices themselves in 1937. They demanded not just higher wages
but also improvement in the conditions and quality of their training (see
especially, McKinlay 1986). The upheaval started in engineering firms on
the Clyde, where trainees presented their employers with an “Apprentice
Charter” that laid out several demands. Among these, the apprentices de-
manded paid day release for attendance at technical education classes, so
they could get theoretical grounding to go along with their practical work-
shop experience. “For the boys, trade training was a demand of paramount
importance. Not only did apprentices suffer the indignity of being confined
to repetitive tasks, but they were intensely aware that circumscribed work-
shop experience limited their future employment prospects” (McKinlay
1986: 14). The apprentices also sought a “reasonable ratio of apprentices
to journeymen,” both as a way of improving training and to regulate the
industry’s skilled labor supply (Zeitlin 1996: 53).
The apprentice strike spread to other parts of England, suggesting that
these demands resonated widely. Employers took heed of the strike and
immediately sought to bring it under the control of organized labor by
granting apprentices union representation. Their speedy reaction reveals
the extent to which many employers had come to rely on the labor of
apprentices in their shops (McKinlay 1986). From the perspective of the
propositions laid out in Chapter 1, however, we can see why the outcome
was not altogether supportive of training in Britain. Union representation
resulted in an increase in apprentices’ real wages, which increased the costs
of training for employers (Gospel and Okayama 1991: 24). This move might
reduce employers’ propensity to exploit apprentices as a source of cheap
labor, but it also reduced their incentive to take apprentices in the first
place. In addition, as these changes were not accompanied by any agreement
providing for enhanced monitoring of the content or quality of training,
there still existed considerable disincentives for youth to commit themselves
to long training contracts (Zeitlin 1996: 39–40).
The failure to agree on a system to monitor and enforce apprentice
contracts left British apprenticeship still subject to the credible commit-
ment and coordination problems cited in Chapter 1. Apprenticeship would
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rebound again in the 1940s and 1950s in the context of skilled labor short-
ages and government encouragement and pressure, but in the absence of
any enduring settlement – anchored in an alliance between those segments
of labor and capital that shared an interest in a strong and durable train-
ing system but institutionalized on a broader basis – these later successes
were vulnerable to roll-back under less auspicious political and market
circumstances.

Comparisons and Conclusions

Several important differences between the British and German cases stand
out when it comes to the overall trajectory of apprentice training and skill
formation over the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. First, state
policy pushed in a very different direction in Britain. In Germany, state
policy established authoritative institutions for monitoring and certifying
skills in the artisanal sector, establishing a model that would later be ex-
tended to industry as well. The relatively early introduction of compulsory
continuing education established a more level playing field for training
companies, subsidizing the costs of training for both them and appren-
tices. By contrast, state policy in Britain did nothing to regulate apprentice
training directly, and state encouragement of friendly societies indirectly
fostered the formation of unions organized around the control of skilled
labor markets.
Second, in Germany, the competition that developed in the pre-World
War I and interwar period between the handicraft sector and the indus-
trial sector proved constructive, maintaining high quality training. Indus-
try coveted the powers possessed by the Handicraft chambers to define and
certify skills. The leaders in industrial training continuously drew invidious
comparisons between their own high quality (and in the Weimar years, in-
creasingly standardized) training, which spurred the handicraft chambers
to higher standards as well. Skill certification – originally the domain of
the artisanal sector – in this way came to be merged into a system of skill
standardization that developed at first on a voluntary basis in industry. In
Britain, by contrast, the constellation of interests was such that skill for-
mation was contested first and foremost across the class divide, between
unions of skilled workers and employers tenaciously resisting craft controls
at all turns. This competition, not surprisingly, proved destructive to ap-
prenticeship when no stable system of joint regulation could be negotiated,
and as trainees were frequently dragged into conflicts between unions and
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The Evolution of Skill Formation in Britain

employers. Whereas the premier training firms in Germany were preoc-

cupied with certification powers, their British counterparts were obsessed
with defeating union-imposed craft controls.
Defeat craft controls they periodically did. But, third, whereas German
firms coordinated in the Weimar years through increasingly influential
trade associations, to regulate both product market competition and train-
ing, in Britain firms organized through their employers associations and
were able only to unite around the much more limited agenda of defending
firm autonomy. Their victories over skilled unions therefore did not shore
up apprentice training and – to the extent that they specifically defended
the principle that firms be free to organize apprenticeship (and use appren-
tices) as they saw fit – contributed to its deterioration. Premier training
firms in Britain faced a landscape in which there existed no legal or parale-
gal sanctions against firms that did not train apprentices well (though there
were some negative reputational effects) but plenty of market difficulties
for those firms that did train well in the form of labor mobility and cost
disadvantages in competitive product markets.
Leading employer representatives such as the EEF’s Allan Smith saw all
of this clearly at the time, and decried the “short-sightedness” of British
employers in their approach to apprenticeship and skill formation. In the
depressed economy of the late 1920s Smith correctly predicted that the
lack of coordination among employers would have “serious consequences
for labour supply and industrial relations when trade eventually improved”
(Zeitlin 1991: 71). His prediction came true in the mid-1930s when the
economy rebounded and employers experienced intense skilled labor short-
ages (Zeitlin 1996: 48). Their competition with each other allowed the AEU
to emerge from the ashes once again to reassert control on the shop floor.
The apprentice system in Britain rested less on what Swenson would
call a cross-class alliance than it did on a tenuous balance of power, which
is why apprenticeship experienced ebbs and flows in response to changing
market and political conditions. Wigham has pointed to the cyclical na-
ture of industrial relations in the British engineering industry through the
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, also citing the lockouts of
1852, 1897, and 1922 and their effects. As he points out, after each victory,
the employers imposed settlements that reasserted their authority in their
own companies, but each time, after the unions recovered, they proceeded
again to extend their functions until “once more they intruded painfully
into management” (Wigham 1973: 2). Tied up as it was in these conflicts,
the trajectory of apprenticeship was similarly cyclical, experiencing periods
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Comparisons and Conclusions

of rejuvenation and reform initiatives under specific market and political

conditions, only to suffer successive setbacks when the context shifted.
This general pattern continued in the post-World War II period. As
Zeitlin notes, apprenticeship rebounded in the 1940s and 1950s, a con-
sequence of skilled labor shortages and of government policies that pro-
vided firms with incentives to invest in training. But the effects of these
trends were contingent on favorable economic and political conditions,
and did not prove durable. By the 1960s apprenticeship was floundering
again, prompting another round of legislative initiatives to strengthen skill
formation in British industry. In 1964, the government imposed a training
levy on all firms and created a new tripartite structure for regulating ap-
prenticeship (the Industrial Training Boards), but the effects were partly
perverse as increased costs discouraged firms from investing in training.57
In 1973 the government (under the Conservatives) undertook further re-
forms, including the introduction of exemptions to the training levy (which
reduced overall resources). Whether despite or because of these policies,
the 1970s witnessed a virtual collapse in training, as the number of appren-
tices dropped precipitously from about a hundred twenty thousand in 1970
(mostly in engineering) to about thirty thousand in 1983.58 As King has
argued, all these experiments and innovations “failed decisively to improve
training” (King 1997: 383) for lack of a settlement that could break what
he calls the country’s voluntarist tradition in order to stabilize institutions
that could overcome the credible commitment and coordination problems
that have long plagued plant-based vocational training in Britain (see also
Green and Sakamoto 2001: 138–42).59

57 On these and subsequent developments, see especially King (1997), on which I draw here.
58 Based on figures provided to me by James Mosher.
59 Subsequent shifts in policy, inaugurated under Thatcher but ultimately embraced in a
different form by New Labour, have brought a retreat from tripartism and state direction
in training and a move toward more market-based solutions (King and Wickham-Jones
1997). These moves have the effect – in Becker’s (1993) terms – of shifting the costs of
training onto youth, while also increasing the incentives for them to acquire at least certain
types of skills.

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and the United States

This chapter extends the analysis and the line of argumentation devel-
oped for Germany and Britain to two further cases, Japan and the United
States. Japan provides an important counterpoint to Germany, for there,
too, firm-based training rests on institutional arrangements that ameliorate
costly competition among firms and mitigate the collective action prob-
lems typically associated with private-sector training. Both German and
Japanese employers overcame their collective action problems in the area
of training, but they did so in radically different ways: in Germany through
the construction of a national system that generates a plentiful supply of
workers with portable skills, and in Japan, through plant-based training in
the context of stronger internal labor markets. Applying the terms intro-
duced in Chapter 1, we note a broad difference between skill formation
regimes based on “collectivism” in the German case and “segmentalism”
or “autarky” in the Japanese case.
The other case considered in this chapter, the United States, provides a
useful counterpoint to that of the British. In both countries, apprenticeship
was a source of conflict between employers and craft unions, and there-
fore, strongly contested across the class divide. As in Britain, so too in the
United States only in rare cases (the construction industry is an example)
could an accommodation be reached that stabilized coordination across
firms and between organized labor and employers in the area of apprentice
training. The U.S. case also shares some similarities with Japan, however.
Employers in both countries confronted intense skill shortages in the early
industrial period and often relied on a system of subcontracting (to indepen-
dent craftsmen) to handle the recruitment and training of skilled workers.
Where these cases diverge is in the political dynamics and the coalitions
that took shape, especially in the first decades of the twentieth century. In
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the United States, these autonomous skilled workmen were coopted into
management hierarchies in large firms, and provided a key support for em-
ployers who were intent on defeating craft unions. Together they presided
over the rationalization of production designed to reduce dependence on
skills. In Japan, by contrast, independent craftsmen (oyakata) maintained a
higher degree of independence and mobility, setting the scene for a different
kind of alliance that brought management and emerging unions together
around the shared goal of limiting the independent power of the oyakata.
In the process, large Japanese firms pioneered many policies now associ-
ated with strong firm-based training linked to progression within elaborate
internal labor markets.

The Evolution of Skill Formation in Japan

Both Germany and Japan developed relatively stable systems for skill forma-
tion, but based on very different principles and sustained by quite different
institutional arrangements. Both systems have been characterized as em-
bodying a “high skill equilibrium” (Finegold and Soskice 1988) and many
analysts have attributed the success of these two countries in world manu-
facturing markets in the post-World War II period in part to their skill base.
Germany’s system of vocational training (with its strong “corporatist” over-
sight by broad-based employers’ associations and unions) approaches the
ideal-typical “collective” solution to skill formation sketched out in Chap-
ter 1. Japan, by contrast, is best known for its extensive, firm-based system
of training strongly associated with complementary personnel policies such
as seniority wages and internal career ladders, as well as company unionism.
In terms of the analytic categories introduced in Chapter 1, the large-firm
sector in Japan comes close to the autarkic or segmentalist ideal type.
These differences in institutional arrangements have important conse-
quences for labor markets and the role of labor. Wolfgang Streeck has
argued that where (as in Germany) skills are nationally certified and doc-
umented, and therefore portable, the power (and voice) of skilled workers
within the firm is enhanced by a credible exit option. Where skill forma-
tion is not widely certified and where therefore (as in Japan) the employing
firm has privileged information about the quantity and quality of training
a worker has received, labor is in a weaker position in the national labor
market. Even here, however, employers’ substantial investment in skills and
the costs of replacement make the threat of a worker’s exit carry weight, and
this can enhance labor’s voice in plant-level decision making (Kume 1998).
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The difference is that in Germany, skilled workers’ exit options are what
give them power on the shop floor, whereas in Japan union influence is
based more on labor’s indispensable cooperation in production in the con-
text of enterprise unions’ “stakeholder” position in the firm (see Streeck
1996: 144–51 for an extended discussion).
This chapter begins by exploring the origins of the Japanese system of
strong in-plant training, against the backdrop of the German case as elab-
orated in Chapter 2. In Japan, as in Germany, a crucial first step involved
the suppression of early tendencies toward a liberal solution (freedom of
trade in Germany and labor mobility in Japan). In contrast to both Great
Britain and the United States, industrialization in Germany and Japan oc-
curred under authoritarian auspices, and in both cases state repression de-
layed the emergence of stable organizations for labor representation and
thwarted attempts by workers to organize around skill. In Japan, as in
Germany, traditional artisans played a key role in providing skills for emerg-
ing industry. Moreover, in both countries, contests between artisans and
large industrial enterprises over skill formation set in motion a competi-
tion that proved constructive rather than destructive to the preservation
of a shop floor regime premised on significant firm investment in worker
training.
Where the two cases diverge – with consequences for the institutional-
ization of two very different types of training regimes – is in the treatment by
the state of the artisanate as a corporate actor in the early industrial period.
Such differences affected the strategies of firms that depended heavily on
skills and powerfully shaped their relations with emerging unions. In Japan
the state confronted an artisanal sector that was both less organized than
in Germany and also lacked the progressive element found in Germany
in the southwestern states. Moreover, given the weakness of the Japanese
labor movement in the late nineteenth century, the political motives that
played a role in Germany for promoting artisans’ corporate organization
and independence were absent in Japan.
In contrast to Germany, where government policy promoted the orga-
nization and modernization of the handicraft sector, Japan’s developmental
state viewed the artisanate as an impediment to modernization, and govern-
ment policy actively undermined the artisanate as a unified corporate actor.
The state itself stepped into the skills void and took a much more direct
hand in promoting skill formation, importing foreign engineers and estab-
lishing training programs in state-owned enterprises. Private firms tapped
into the skills that public-sector companies generated, and both private
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and public companies dealt with the problem of skill formation by incor-
porating individual artisans (oyakata) into a system of direct employment
and company-based training. As in Germany, there were contests between
traditional artisans and industry over the content and character of appren-
ticeship training, but in Japan these were played out at the company (rather
than the national–political) level.
My analysis of developments in Japan ends in the 1930s, with only a
glance forward. This is not meant to imply that the Japanese system was fully
developed at that point – far from it. By this time, however, the divergence
between a more collectivist versus a more segmentalist approach to skills
that distinguishes the German from the Japanese system is quite evident. As
in the German case, subsequent developments would refine a system many
of whose main contours were already visible by the onset of World War II.

The Role of the State and the Fate of the Japanese Artisanate
In Germany, as we have seen, the legislation that became the cornerstone
of that country’s system of skill formation – the Handicraft Protection Law
of 1897 – was constructed around indigenous institutions and models. In
passing this law, the state embraced a policy that nurtured artisanal orga-
nizations as a political bulwark against the radical labor movement, at the
same time transforming them into a stable source of skills for emerging in-
dustry. In Japan, both the labor movement and the artisanal sector were less
organized in the early industrial period. The political motives that inspired
government policy in Germany were absent; the kind of strong and surging
social democratic labor movement that existed in Germany was not a factor
in Japan.
In Japan, state policy in the early industrial period was organized less
around preserving social stability than around promoting industrial de-
velopment. After the Meiji Restoration of 1868 the Japanese government
was convinced that destroying feudal institutions was necessary for Japan’s
industrial development. Eager to abolish all previous barriers to labor mo-
bility, the government embarked on a broad liberalization policy that un-
dermined the traditional privileges of the artisanal sector (Sumiya 1955:
33–6). In a relatively short period of time, the artisanate was confronted
with changes – revocation of their traditional privileges coupled with mas-
sive state-sponsored industrialization – that completely undermined their
corporate identity and organizations (Taira 1978: 188). Apprenticeship
training, traditionally the preserve of Japanese craft-masters, was similarly
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deregulated so that, as in Britain, apprenticeship training continued to exist

but not subject to any overarching legal or parapublic framework.1
The Meiji government took a strong deregulatory stance with regard to
the traditional artisanal sector and it also took a very direct hand in redress-
ing early, acute shortages of skilled labor. As Levine and Kawada point out,
“Throughout the first two decades following the Meiji Restoration, the new
government and its agencies virtually took sole direction of the training of
employees within the newly founded factories, arsenals, and offices – just
as it did for the whole initial push to industrialize” (Levine and Kawada
1980: 94). Thus, alongside its efforts to eliminate previous (guild-based)
barriers to labor mobility, the government also inserted itself directly into
the problem of skill formation by recruiting skills from abroad and by using
state resources to found new training institutions within the public sector
itself.
The influence of the state in training policy was felt above all in the met-
alworking and engineering sectors. These were the key industries not just
for industrial development but also for military purposes.2 As elsewhere, the
practices developed in these industries were crucial to skill formation over-
all, but the difference is that in Japan these industries were completely dom-
inated by public enterprises throughout the Meiji era (1868–1912).3 The
strong presence of the state produced an industrial structure very different
from the British case. It was dominated by enormous, vertically integrated
state enterprises (from foundry operations to machine and shipbuilding)
that completely towered over the small, traditional machine shops that had

1 Although the government issued a decree to regulate apprenticeship in 1872, it simply de-
clared that only master craftsmen could take apprentices for a maximum seven-year term and
prohibited human traffic. In some traditional industries, such as brewing and construction,
the artisanal organizations still played an important role in skill formation, but they did not
have any legal privileges.
2 As Weiss has emphasized, the state was driven as much by military motives as by the economic
exigencies of late development. Japan, she reminds us, was more or less continually at war or
preparing for one from 1894 to at least 1912 (Weiss 1993: 332–3; also Taira 1978: 175–9).
By 1905, “more than two thirds of the work force employed in the nation’s engineering works
were located in the state sector” (Weiss 1993: 333, italics in original), and a good deal of
production was directly related to military concerns.
3 Taira notes that government firms in metalworking and engineering accounted for more
workers than private firms throughout this entire period. The balance began to shift some-
what in the 1880s as the private sector took off (in part though privatizations), but the
employment ratios did not reverse until World War I. By 1920, however, employment in
private enterprises in this sector reached three times the rate in the public sector (Taira 1978:
175–6, 187).

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survived the liberalization. These public firms organized production along

completely different lines, based on sophisticated imported technologies
that required skills altogether different from those the traditional artisanal
sector was capable of generating.4
The character of industry in Japan, therefore, gave rise to distinctive
problems, above all very severe shortages of workers with the skills necessary
to operate and maintain borrowed (rather than indigenous) technologies.
The availability of government resources, however, and the captive product
market (the military) for which these firms produced suggested distinctive
solutions to the problems, solutions based among other things on the ability
of the firms to pass on the costs of the expensive training methods they
developed. In a context of overall severe skilled labor shortages and a deeply
interventionist developmental state, the state sector in Japan performed a
function for private industry similar to that of the organized artisanal sector
in Germany. In Japan, since emerging private-sector firms and factories
could draw on workers from state firms as a source of skills, there was much
movement of skilled labor from the public to the private sector. Firms like
the government-run Yahata steel mill became a major source of skills for
other firms and industries (Levine and Kawada 1980: 151).5
The Meiji government promoted skill development in two major ways.
First, the state aggressively promoted training through “international
exchange” – that is, by sending Japanese students to foreign countries to
study industrial technology and (especially) by recruiting foreign engineers
and craftsmen to come to Japan to work in government-owned factories.
This project became a major focus of attention in the late nineteenth cen-
tury. From 1870 to 1900, the Ministry of Industry spent considerable re-
sources (up to 42% of its total budget, according to some observers) on
salaries paid to teachers and consultants brought to Japan to set up im-
ported technologies and to train Japanese workers to use and maintain
these technologies (Levine and Kawada 1980: 49, 98).

4 It is not that the artisanate in Meiji Japan was completely unsophisticated, but more that
it had been much more insulated from international markets so that the leap to Western
metalworking and machine-making techniques was considerable (see Suzuki 1994). I thank
Jonathan Zeitlin for emphasizing this to me.
5 In the 1880s, many of these firms were privatized but the resulting huge enterprises (some
later to become the core of gigantic zaibatsu conglomerates such as Mitsubishi and Kawasaki)
continued to stand at the forefront of training, and also to occupy a privileged position in
the market with the government as a key and very reliable customer. The state sometimes
arranged transfers of skilled workers from state enterprises to the private companies on
whom they relied for military production (Levine and Kawada 1980: 154).

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Importing skills was not an end in itself, however, but a step toward
self-sufficiency. Thus, traditional Japanese artisans – now bereft of tradi-
tional corporate privileges – were incorporated into the state-sponsored
system as individuals and in the role of intermediaries. They were expected
to acquire skills from the foreign instructors and pass them on to other
Japanese workers (Gordon 1985: 18). Indigenous artisans were meant grad-
ually to take over the role played by the foreign craftsmen, to assist in de-
veloping a stock of indigenous skilled workers to run production indepen-
dently. This strategy was often quite successful, as the case of the Yokosuka
Shipyard shows (Yokosuka 1983: 6). Originally constructed in 1865 by the
Tokugawa Shogunate, the Yokosuka Shipyard employed 45 French engi-
neers and craftsmen in the late 1860s. Over the next 20 years the number
of foreign employees decreased to almost zero, as the skills and technology
were acquired by Japanese engineers and workers (Saegusa 1960: 61). The
core artisans and regular workers employed at the shipyard were recruited
mainly from the pool of traditional Japanese craftsmen.
Second, the government sector pioneered the establishment of factory-
based technical schools that included in-class instruction. These schools
were not intended to train ordinary workers; the graduates of the tech-
nical schools were meant to preside over on-the-job training of others
(minaraikō ). The graduates of the technical schools thus played a role
in training next-generation workers.6 For example, Yahata, a government
steel mill, initiated a state-of-the-art in-plant training program in 1898,
with the assistance of foreign, especially German, advisors. Nagasaki Ship-
yard, similarly, had a quite elaborate arrangement that included a voca-
tional school and two main training “tracks.” For young workers being
groomed for supervisory positions in the firm, training consisted of three
years of coursework, after which the trainee would be placed alongside a
skilled worker supervisor (oyakata) on the shop floor in an assistant supervi-
sory position, followed finally by four more years of class-based vocational
training. The other track, for “regular” skilled workers consisted of a com-
bination of on-the-job training and daily classroom instruction at the fac-
tory vocational school, for a total training period of five years (Taira 1978:
205–6).
6 Again, the Yokosuka Shipyard is a good example. The shipyard had two schools, one for
engineers and one for technicians. In 1883, the number of students admitted to these two
schools was 37 and about 50, respectively, as against a total of 1,505 employees in the factory
as a whole (Sumiya 1970: 17).

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Skill formation outside the public sector (and its private-sector spin-offs)
was organized along more traditional lines, and here local artisans played
an even more prominent role. In Japan’s small firm sector, as in Germany,
master craftsmen presided directly over skill formation, taking apprentices
in and working alongside them in their workshops. In Japan, such training
was often haphazard and exploitative (Taira 1978: 188–9). However, larger
factories often integrated traditional artisans into a more effective system
for apprentice training through “continuous skill” teaching, adapting tra-
ditional skills to new tasks (cf. Sawai 1996: 302; Suzuki 1992). This form
of in-plant training increased dramatically at the turn of the century with
the expansion of the metalworking sector and the growing role of large
private firms in it. In practice it resembled traditional workshop training
where young apprentices picked up their skills by working alongside skilled
artisans (Taira 1970: 109–10; Taira 1978: 189).
Thus, in spite of the destruction of their corporate organizations, tra-
ditional Japanese artisans continued to occupy an important role in skill
formation in the early industrial period. In the metalworking industries,
as in other “modern” sectors, traditional artisans were absorbed into large
companies and served as intermediaries, acquiring new skills either through
working with foreign craftsmen or in technical schools and then passing
these skills on to younger workers on the job. In the growing and increas-
ingly important private sector, traditional craftsmen were also employed
and put in charge of training through an adaptation of traditional skills to
new problems and technologies.
Either way, in both the private and public sectors, training in Japanese
factories was based on the traditional oyakata-kokata (master-apprentice)
relationship, and skilled craft masters in Japan (oyakata) came to play an
important role and to exert wide discretion on the shop floor (Gordon
1985: 38–45; Sumiya 1970: 100). The power of the Japanese oyakata de-
rived partly from the structure of the market for skilled metalworkers in
Meiji Japan, which was organized around social and economic ties. Labor
recruitment by firms, as well as the movement of workers from job to job,
was facilitated by the “referencing networks” that developed around well-
known oyakata (Taira 1978: 190). By relying on master craftsmen as suppliers
of skilled labor (through both recruitment and apprentice training), firms
could minimize the costs associated with finding appropriate skills and over-
come the problem of imperfect information (for example, about a worker’s
skill level) in the absence of any kind of formal certification or standard.

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Subcontracting work to a master craftsman also had the advantage of al-

lowing firms to spread risk in very unstable markets.7
In the public sector as well, the oyakata craft masters were very powerful,
less because of the structure of production and more because of the feudal
organization of companies in this period. In most government factories,
ex-samurai (the warrior class in the feudal system) assumed management
positions. Given their own lack of managerial skills, and in light of the
cultural and behavioral gap that separated them from the traditional arti-
sans and ordinary laborers who worked for them, the samurai managers
delegated important managerial powers to the oyakata.

Implications for Labor

The oyakata formed an aristocracy within the working classes in late
nineteenth-century Japan. Firms delegated extensive managerial functions
(for example, hiring, firing, evaluation) to them. Oyakata filled a variety of
roles within the emerging industrial sector. Some owned small machine
shops and operated as suppliers to larger firms, some contracted their own
labor and that of their retinue to large companies, others worked more
exclusively as skilled-labor subcontractors in a single firm, and some were
directly employed by a company as supervisors, exercising a great deal of
discretion over personnel policy (Gordon 1985: 36–7). Similar to German
artisans, Japanese oyakata were often able to maintain a high degree of indi-
vidual autonomy. Unlike Germany, however, they did so without any strong
corporate or collective organizational base. Japanese oyakata in the early in-
dustrial period tended to function as independent entrepreneurs, moving
around in the industrial sector, taking their skills (and their entire work
group in many cases) with them into factories, often returning to their own
independent shops in times of slack demand (Taira 1970: 110; Taira 1978:
193).
The situation was also quite different from that in Britain, however.
There, political conditions were relatively auspicious for the emergence of
organizations of skilled craftsmen with aspirations to collectively control

7 The nature of the subcontracting relationship varied. In some cases the workers an oyakata
brought in were not directly employed by the firm at all. But often even craftsmen who
belonged to an oyakata had formal employment relations with the factory. Therefore, when
oyakata could not complete the subcontracted work within the budget assigned, individual
workers could demand their normal wages from the factory management (Agriculture and
Commerce 1903, Vol. 3: 271). In this sense, the employment relationship was not so indirect.

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the market in particular trades (see the discussion in Chapter 3). State
policy allowed, and in some ways even indirectly encouraged, the forging of
links among workers in the same trade but different places of employment.
The political context was more restrictive in Japan. Unlike their British
counterparts, Japanese artisans were not permitted to form inter-regional
links between guilds or journeymen’s associations during the Tokugawa
Shogunate which preceded the Meiji Restoration (Gordon 1985: 22–5).
When the economy was liberalized, skilled artisans in Japan were much
more free floating, though they were also able to take advantage of extreme
skilled labor shortages as free agents (and employers of others). The huge
public or private firms that dominated the metalworking and engineering
industry in the early industrial period depended on oyakata and their workers
for the skills they commanded. Beyond this, the overall lack of managerial
expertise (especially in the public sector) meant that large employers also
depended on oyakata as “the principal method of work-force management
in Japanese factories before the First World War” (Taira 1978: 189).
Traditional craftsmen in Japan were thus absorbed, but mostly as in-
dividual entrepreneurs, into emerging industry and there often occupied
powerful quasi-supervisory positions. As Taira points out (Taira 1978: 187–
94), given the early – and growing – bifurcation of the metalworking and
engineering industry into a dynamic (mostly state-owned) large firm sec-
tor, alongside a less dynamic sector composed of small workshops, the place
to make one’s career was in the former, because oyakata who entered the
large-firm sector enjoyed tremendous autonomy, power, and status.8 The
enormous and sprawling factories in which oyakata operated were typically
run on a very decentralized basis, and workers in this period perceived
themselves to be members of a particular oyakata-kokata group rather than
employees of the company in which the group worked. “Unlike the latter-
day workers of Japan, a Meiji craftsman would rarely name the factory
as his employer, nor would he derive any particular pride from mention-
ing its name. His pride was in his trade and in belonging to the circle
of a respectable oyakata. . . . The coveted goal for any worker was to es-
tablish himself as an oyakata with his own workshop and kokata” (Taira
1978: 190).
Skill-based unions did not make much headway in Japan for a variety
of reasons. One is the legacy of state policy toward the guilds under the

8 Taira notes that in some cases, oyakata commanded very large retinues, of “tens or hundreds”
of subordinates that they brought with them (Taira 1978: 193).

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Tokugawa Shogunate. More important, after the Meiji Restoration, state

repression prevented craft unions from becoming institutionalized. There
were a number of attempts in the last years of the nineteenth century to form
craft unions along the lines of those in the American Federation of Labor
(AFL) in the United States (for example, in printing and iron working) but
these efforts were summarily suppressed (see, especially, Garon 1988: 29–
33; Gordon 1985). Broader-based organizations of skilled craftsmen met
the same fate. The Tekkō Kumiai or Metalworkers Union was formed in
1897 but was moribund by 1907 (Taira 1978: 191–2).
Faced with such political constraints, skilled oyakata turned to individual
strategies aimed at improving their lot through their own mobility and ini-
tiative. Many oyakata did not define their futures in terms of employment in
industry at all, expecting instead to return to their own independent work-
shops at some point (Taira 1978: 193; Gordon 1985: 417). And considering
the supervisory positions they assumed in the factories of early industrial
Japan, these skilled craftsmen in Japan occupied what Erik Olin Wright
would call a highly ambiguous class position – enjoying considerable auton-
omy and authority over other workers on the shop floor. Ordinary workers
with grievances about working conditions would more often than not direct
these at the oyakata labor boss rather than the firm, not unreasonably given
the vast powers oyakata commanded in the factory in the early industrial
period.

Implications for Industry

When it came to skills and skilled workers, the overriding problems that
firms faced in Japan in the early industrial period were intense shortages
and accompanying high labor mobility and poaching. At the same histor-
ical juncture at which machine and metalworking firms in Germany were
becoming adamant about achieving rights to certify skills and in Britain
were becoming obsessed with reasserting managerial control, their Japanese
counterparts were completely consumed with the task of controlling labor
mobility.
The oyakata system may have fulfilled the minimum need to provide
skilled labor in the metal industry in the early industrial period, but labor
mobility remained very high and if anything the oyakata system promoted
it. Although it involved plant-based training, this system did not produce
stable “segmentalism,” at least in the sense of stable internal labor markets.
Oyakata felt no particular loyalty to a firm, and “a patron would readily move
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his retinue from one work site to another in response to the highest bidder,”
a factor that contributed to extremely high levels of turnover before World
War I (Levine and Kawada 1980: 113). Moreover, even if the oyakata stayed
put, there was nothing binding about his relationship with the craftsmen
under him. Since the oyakata masters played a key regulatory role in the
labor market – controlling well-paid jobs and assigning them to his group
members – there were some incentives for craftsmen to stay with the oyakata.
But there were no formal controls, and an oyakata’s workers could and did
leave the factory at their own will (Agriculture and Commerce 1903, Vol. 2:
10). The oyakata were themselves in some cases important intermediaries,
helping craftsmen who were made redundant in one factory to find jobs
elsewhere (Yamamoto 1994: 167–8).
In addition, since apprenticeship training was unregulated, there was also
nothing to discourage labor mobility even among trainees. The system of
training at this time was plant-based, but because it was embedded in highly
fluid subcontracting relations, the skills conveyed were highly portable.9
Moreover, unlike the case in Germany, there were no particular incentives
for Japanese apprentices to stay until the end of their formal training period
if opportunities arose elsewhere (Labor 1961: 22). Thus, in the metal trades
especially, “many apprentices cut short their terms of apprenticeship and
took off into the world as independent journeymen” (Taira 1970: 109).
A certain amount of mobility was seen as completely consistent with the
progress of an apprentice’s training. Changing jobs exposed apprentices
to new techniques and technologies, so some mobility was seen as useful
in helping workers to develop their skills by experiencing various types of
work (Sumiya 1970: 162–7).
This type of mobility among skilled workers had always been a factor
in Japan, certainly in the public sector where it was a long-standing issue.
Public sector enterprises counted on a certain degree of attrition and could
maintain high quality and expensive training programs because they were
uniquely positioned to pass the costs of training along to the consumer (the
military). But because they valued the key skilled workers they had gone to

9 But with one qualification. Although mobility was a signal of the market power of skilled
workers in this period, the lack of “independent standards” for documenting one’s skill put
some limits on what they could do, since firms could not know what they were getting. One
company, Uraga, used a one-week test (employing the worker at a flat rate of 1 yen per day)
to determine the worker’s wage. If a worker felt that he was being inadequately remunerated,
that his real skills merited higher pay, he had not much recourse but to quit again (Gordon
1985: 96–7).

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some lengths to train, government factories frequently introduced policies

designed to retain a core group of skilled craftsmen, who were expected to
preside over the training of others. Therefore, as early as 1868, management
at the Yokosuka Shipyard granted 65 core artisans (kakae shokkō) “life-time”
employment.10 By 1873, the shipyard had introduced further inducements
to retain key skilled craftsmen. In that year, the company selected 110 skilled
craftsmen for “salaried” status, which guaranteed them a fixed monthly
salary even if they were absent due to illness. The company also added a
retirement bonus to keep skilled craftsmen on the job (Hazama 1964: 421).
Such plans were seldom effective, however, and they were even less so at
the turn of the century as the demand for skills grew, making business very
unstable and training extremely costly for firms.
As in Germany, the rapid growth of the metal industry at the end of the
nineteenth century generated demands for more and more sophisticated
skills.11 The result was even more intense competition for skilled workers
and rampant poaching, both among private companies and, especially, from
government-owned firms. Annual turnover rates “often exceeded 100% and
occasionally reached 200%” (Weiss 1993: 332). According to a 1901 survey,
in the ten major private metalworking factories, more than 50% of workers
had been employed there for less than one year.12 Although firms such as the
Mitsubishi Nagasaki Shipyard had attempted to achieve stability by hiring
craftsmen on a fixed-term (three-year) basis, neither employers nor workers
took this seriously (Hazama 1964: 452). Moreover, as private manufacturing
as a whole grew in size, it became difficult for individual companies to recruit
a sufficient number of skilled workers from the government-owned firms. In
addition, and reminiscent of the problems faced by the large metalworking
firms in Germany, the modernization of production technology within the
private sector required a larger number of workers with higher skill levels
than the traditional oyakata system of “continuous skill development” was
generating.

10 At this time, the Yokosuka Shipyard employed 113 regular workers ( jōyatoi), 397 helpers,
and 54 common laborers (Hazama 1964: 403; Taira 1978: 176).
11 The number of workers in military arsenals rose from about twenty-five thousand in 1899
to just over seventy-five thousand by 1912. Employment in private metal factories rose
from just under twenty-one thousand to almost seventy thousand in the same period. See
Hazama (1964: 436, 452). On the need for more differentiated and specialized skills, see
also Yamamoto (1994: 188), Inoko (1996).
12 In 1902, the median length of employment was less than one year in private machine
companies in Aichi Prefecture (Odaka 1990: 320).

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Thus, labor mobility became the overriding concern among Japanese

employers in the metalworking industries. We find in the early 1900s a num-
ber of attempts to dampen labor mobility – both through attempts to impose
restrictions directly on workers and through attempts at collective self-
restraint by employers to reduce poaching.13 For instance, high labor mo-
bility in the closing years of the nineteenth century caused some firms to take
punitive steps such as withholding apprentice pay. They also offered induce-
ments such as long-term contracts to a few select workers and/or progressive
pay scales to induce workers to stay with the firm, practices that had been
pioneered in some large public enterprises (Gordon 1985: Chapter 2).
In some industries, companies attempted to deal with ruinous competi-
tion among themselves over scarce skilled labor through collaboration. In
these cases, employers organizations brokered and enforced agreements to
prevent firms from pirating workers away from each other (Taira 1970: 111–
13). In spinning, silk, and coal, the efforts of trade associations to reduce
poaching enjoyed some limited success.14 Smaller scale, bilateral agree-
ments of a similar nature were concluded in the metalworking industries in
some regions. For instance, in 1911, at a time when the shipbuilding indus-
try was booming, Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Works in Nagasaki struck a deal
with the nearby Naval Arsenal at Kure in which they promised not to bid
workers away from each other (though it was possible for the two companies
to negotiate transfers) (Taira 1970: 115). These arrangements were unsta-
ble, however, in all sectors in which they were tried. In the metalworking
industry they were even less successful than elsewhere.15

13 The attempts at collective self-restraint occurred in the context of a proliferation of trade

associations in the early twentieth century (Morita 1926: 31–3). Around the same time,
business groups also began demanding government regulation of labor mobility (Labor
1961: 22, 36).
14 For instance, in the spinning industry, in which skilled workers are necessary but on a
seasonal basis, employers competed fiercely for workers, resulting in high labor costs. As
a solution, the employers organized their local trade association (kōjō dōmei) and introduced
a worker-registration system. In this system, once a worker was hired by one employer, other
employers could not hire that worker (Morita 1926: 107–14). In this industry, the cartel
practice worked well in some regions. In the silk industry, the National Confederation of
Silk Associations announced in 1920 that workers who were hired by a particular employer
in that year were reserved for the same employer in 1921. A similar practice could be
found in the coal-mining industry in Hokkaido in the 1920s. Even in these successful cases,
however, the practice broke down from time to time (for example, Jiji shinpō, March 22,
1926).
15 In the Tokyo area, the Association of Machine and Iron Works (Tokyo Kikai Tekkō Dōgyō
Kumiai) was organized and tried to control labor mobility, but it did not work so well as in
other sectors (Tekkō Kitai Kyōkai 1974).

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In general, such attempts foundered on a number of problems. One was

the resistance of the state, which – though often supportive of cartel prac-
tices for regulating product markets – looked less favorably on restrictions on
labor market mobility (such as cartelized wage capping and restrictions on
the ability of craftsmen to change jobs) (see, for example, the Decree of
the Vice Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, June 29, 1916). But
collective self-restraint also failed because of conflicts of interest among
firms themselves. Traditional firms and sectors wanted greater labor mar-
ket regulation, but emerging industries often wanted more “liberated” labor
(Furusho 1969). Within the metal industry, private companies were less ea-
ger to introduce such regulations because they continued to recruit skilled
workers from the government-run factories, a practice that had the implicit
blessing of the government (Yamamura 1977). In 1904, when naval arse-
nals established a voluntary rule that none of them should hire craftsmen
who quit their jobs at another arsenal, the private sector stayed out of the
arrangement, not least because private companies relied rather heavily on
poaching from the government-owned factories for skilled labor (Hazama
1964: 454–5).
It did not help matters that apprenticeship training was unregulated, for
this did nothing to discourage labor mobility among trainees, contributing
to shortages by making training more expensive. Japanese trade associa-
tions in the late nineteenth century – concentrated on merchant interests
and institutionally separate from traditional guild structures (Miyamoto
1938) – attacked the problem from the demand side but the supply side of
skills remained in the hands of the oyakata craftsmen whose traditional or-
ganizations, as noted above, had been destroyed. Attempts by employers to
reduce poaching were hobbled by the lack of any institutional framework to
ease their collective action problems by directly generating a steady supply
of skilled labor. Thus, time and again their attempts to negotiate collective
solutions to the problem of labor mobility broke down in the face of intense
competition over scarce skilled workers.16

16 On the development of business and trade associations in Japan in the pre-war period, see
the essays by Miyamoto, Kikkawa, and Fujita in Yamazaki and Miyamoto (1988). Prior to
World War I, a number of cartels formed in various light industries; only one formed in
the iron, steel, and machinery industries in that period (Kikkawa 1988: 65; tables on 62–3).
Kikkawa refers to cartels in the silk, paper, and cotton industries that apparently sought to
deal with labor shortages. He mentions efforts in those industries to prevent poaching, but
there is no mention of any joint endeavors in the area of skill formation (Kikkawa 1988:
65–6).

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Strategies of the Large Metalworking Companies

Intense competition among firms for skilled workers redounded to the ben-
efit of oyakata craftsmen, whose power derived not (as in Germany) from
their institutionalized privileges as an organized social and political group,
but rather from the scarcity of their skills and the pivotal position that indi-
vidual oyakata therefore occupied. Whereas in Germany, tensions between
the artisanal sector and industry were played out at the national–political
level, in Japan they were dealt with at the plant level, as individual employ-
ers sought to control labor mobility and to create for themselves a more
stable source of skills. In some cases, this involved the creation of wholly
new training institutions in the firm (company-based training schools), but
in others it involved strategies that sought to institute more direct forms
of control over the training provided by oyakata bosses, by incorporating
the latter more securely into firm hierarchies and establishing direct em-
ployment relations with the craftsmen under them. These strategies often
blended together in practice. I deal with them in turn.
First, some private firms in metalworking addressed skilled labor scarci-
ties and high mobility by embracing the strategy pioneered in the gov-
ernment sector, instituting their own company-based schools for trainee
workers (minaraikō ). The first company training school in the private sec-
tor was the Mitsubishi Preliminary School for Industry (Mitsubishi K ō gyō
Yobi Gakkō ), established in 1900. According to a survey by the Tokyo Ad-
vanced School for Industry, more than ten large companies had established
such schools by 1911. These schools combined on-the-job training with
classroom instruction. The training term was at least three years, and any
worker who completed the training was expected to become a core skilled
craftsman and commit himself to stay in the factory after finishing for at least
as many years as the training term had lasted (Sumiya 1970, Vol. 2: 37).
The more skills the workers acquired, however, the more likely it was
that they would be recruited by other companies, and nothing prevented
these workers from reneging on the agreement. Gordon quotes a manager
who was closely involved in the creation of the training program at a lead-
ing engineering firm, Shibaura, speaking in 1908. “Recently . . . the com-
pany established a suitable system of education, but workers . . . who have
not completed the required number of years are leaving the company in a
rush” (Gordon 1985: 74). Nor was Shibaura an isolated case; the same story
applied to the school run by Shibaura rival Hitachi. There, too, trainees
left either during the training period or soon thereafter, lured away by the

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prospect of better paying positions in Osaka or Tokyo (Gordon 1985: 75).

Mitsubishi’s training school enrolled over four hundred students in courses
to graduate between 1904 and 1909, but fewer than half stayed to the end
of the training term, and only 19% of the total entrants were still employed
by the company three years later (Gordon 1985: 75).
Given the expense of such programs (making them out of the question
for the vast majority of firms), these efforts often took place alongside other
measures designed to draw skilled workers generally into a more dependent
relationship with the company. One method was to coopt the oyakata and
take direct company control over on-the-job training. The early 1900s
thus saw an overall shift, a decline in the number of oyakata employed as
“independent bosses” on a subcontracting basis and a rise in the number of
oyakata operating as agents within a company. Cooptation involved offering
them privileged jobs which combined a high degree of job security with the
exercise of significant discretion, though now more in the context of an
overarching managerial hierarchy. As Gordon puts it, “The oyakata was
to trade his freedom for the security and status offered by the company”
(Gordon 1985: 54).
In other cases managers sought to liberate themselves from the “grip”
of the oyakata by establishing a system for training (in-house) so-called key
workers who could substitute for the the oyakata bosses. These “key” work-
ers received ongoing broad but company-specific training designed to al-
low them to be deployed flexibly in response to the company’s needs. Firms
tried to offset the reluctance of workers to invest in such company-specific
training by offering long-term employment commitments, instituting se-
niority wages and internal career ladders, and introducing company welfare
schemes (Levine and Kawada 1980: 114–18).
The transition from indirect to direct control over enterprise-based
training was slow and protracted, though overall the declining market po-
sition of independent master craftsmen relative to the more dynamic in-
dustrial sector helped push the process forward. Taira notes that the first
company-trained oyakata to emerge from the Mitsubishi vocational school
graduated in 1912, emphasizing that due to attrition from the school, it took
a very long time to displace traditional oyakata (Taira 1978: 206). In many
cases, traditional elements and modern innovations were blended together,
with young workers who completed training under the patron system be-
ing elevated to the status of (low-level) engineer or technician, and put in
charge of training the next generation of recruits (Levine and Kawada 1980:
113; Taira 1978: 205–6).
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The movement toward company-controlled training was associated with

efforts to stabilize internal markets and to encourage long-term employ-
ment. Some of the measures that figured most prominently in firm strate-
gies were seniority-based wages, company welfare provisions, and loyalty
indoctrination for core skilled workers. For instance, already in 1900 the
management of the private Nagasaki Shipyard had introduced a system
of regular workers with long-term employment guarantees and temporary
workers without secure employment. In that year, there were 5,247 regular
workers and 440 temporary workers in the shipyard; this regular worker
system resembled the regular craftsmen system of the government-owned
Yokosuka Shipyard. Management introduced various inducements, such as
a retirement bonus, to keep workers for a longer period. Labor turnover
among regular workers in the Nagasaki Shipyard was very high until 1901,
but decreased gradually thereafter, an indication that management induce-
ments seemed to be working (Hazama 1964: 454; Odaka 1984: 208).17 Here
we can find a prototype of the management system that proliferated in post-
World War II Japan, one of the characteristics of which is company-based
skill formation and internal labor markets.
Yahata is another famous early example of this strategy.18 This leading
steel producer founded a company school in 1910. In subsequent years,
training here became associated with a “finely graduated promotion ladder
and elongated status hierarchy” (Levine and Kawada 1980: 165). Promis-
ing young workers who were singled out for special training could rise to
a low-level supervisory position (gochō ), and after three years in this job
(and based on examinations to test both their technical and interpersonal
skills) they might be moved to the higher position of kumichō . As they
accumulated additional training and experience, these workers might rise
to salaried positions, beginning with promotion to kochō (production fore-
man) and eventually perhaps shokurō (managerial assistant), at which point
the worker might be deployed as an instructor in the enterprise training
program (Levine and Kawada 1980: 165–6).
Despite the relative success of some such efforts, the general problems of
labor mobility and poaching remained acute and increased during World
War I, fueled by skilled labor shortages (Taira 1970: 129–32). A factory

17 After the company introduced the regular worker system, the mobility rate (calculated by
dividing the number of hired and fired workers in a given year by the total number of
workers at the end of that year) dropped substantially, from an average (between 1898 and
1909) of 115% to an average (between 1910 and 1913) of 57%.
18 My account is based on Levine and Kawada (1980: 158–68).

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inspection report from 1919 recorded separation rates for the Japanese
machine industry of 75%; a national survey conducted around the same
time found that only 11% of the country’s three hundred thousand machine
industry workers (12% of all industrial workers) had over five years experi-
ence with the same employer (Gordon 1985: 87, 89). These conditions pro-
moted company policies designed to stabilize internal labor markets, which
strongly foreshadowed practices that would become even more widespread
later. “The granting of periodic raises to some of those who remained with
a company was one critical practice which became fairly common by the
end of World War I” (Gordon 1985: 97), as was the use of promotions
(to supervisory or foreman positions) partly on the basis of seniority, plus
bonuses and allowances associated with seniority – all used selectively and
strategically by management to keep (particular) skilled workers in place
(Gordon 1985: 98–101). Wage rates and benefits in the interwar period
also came to be associated with length of service although “promotion de-
pended upon successfully passing periodical examinations based on training
provided” (Levine and Kawada 1980: 174).

The Evolution of the Japanese Management System

As we have seen for Germany, political realignments in the 1920s were
crucial in shaping the fate of vocational training in the Weimar years. There,
an increasingly well-organized machine industry (by then representing a
growing number of small and medium-sized firms) led efforts to collectivize
and standardize vocational training in industry (although the possibility for
reform based on a cross-class coalition with labor foundered on political
and economic obstacles). In Japan, industrial and political realignments
during and after World War I would also be decisive in the evolution of
the Japanese training system. As in Germany, labor would play a supportive
though not constitutive role, but unlike Germany, the cross-class coalitions
that were forged with labor in Japan were at the plant level and not the
national-political level. Developments during and after World War I thus
pushed the Japanese training regime further along a segmentalist trajectory.
As emphasized above, Japanese firms in the early industrial period had
to contend first and foremost with a high degree of workforce instability.
The 1920s, however, brought economic conditions that eased the problem
of labor mobility considerably. As Levine and Kawada note, an economic
downturn in the 1920s rendered skills relatively more abundant and, com-
bined with increased urbanization and better education (including more
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government support for vocational education), “one reasonably might have

expected segmentation to break down and more open labor markets [to]
reemerge” (Levine and Kawada 1980: 118). As the context shifted from one
of labor shortages to labor surplus, Japanese employers might have aban-
doned in-plant training and the accompanying generous policies they had
instituted to stabilize internal labor markets. But this did not happen.
One important factor in shoring up the system was the consolidation in
the post-World War I period of the strongly dualistic industrial structure
alluded to above, consisting of (zaibatsu-connected) large firms on the one
hand, and small and medium-sized firms on the other. Whereas in Germany,
small and medium-sized machine firms were becoming more and more
organized and adapting to market changes with the aid of their dynamic
trade association (VDMA), in Japan the small-firm sector was falling behind.
Previously highly independent oyakata who may have anticipated a return
to their own workshops were more likely than ever to be willing to give
up direct management of their own work groups in exchange for “a variety
of comforts and inducements such as a status in the management structure
[of a firm], permanent tenure, higher pay, and regular increments” (Taira
1978: 205).
The dynamic firms in this period were undergoing significant mod-
ernization premised on technology borrowed from the West (Yamamura
1986). A much higher degree of capital intensity increased their concern
with retaining skills, especially advanced skills not easily acquired in the
labor market. These huge companies (with enormous internal labor mar-
kets) commanded considerable market power, which made it possible for
them to absorb rather large fixed costs, including permanent employment,
to protect their investment in training. These factors, combined with fewer
incentives and opportunities for skilled craftsmen to move, meant that the
1920s and 1930s were characterized by greater employment stability than
previous decades had known (Taira 1970: 153–4). An extensive review of
employment conditions across a number of industries, published in 1929,
documents the growing use by large firms of various incentives to increase
worker retention rates (Taira 1989: 625).19

19 The interwar period also saw the founding (in 1919) of an organization, the Kyōchōkai,
(Harmonization Society) which consisted of businessmen, members of the Diet, public
interest representatives, and representatives of government, and was designed to promote
labor–management cooperation. The organization for a time provided job placement ser-
vices, conducted research, and acted as a policy advocacy organization. Main strands of
activity were to advise employers, promote the introduction of various company-based

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Significant wage differentials emerged in Japan in the 1920s as well, with

large firms offering higher wages and in general instituting practices meant
to keep workers, particularly select skilled workers, in employment (Taira
1989: 623–4). Taira (Taira 1970: 35) reports on a study that tracks wages in
two large firms in Northern Kyushu, comparing them to the going (market)
rate for the region in these same occupations. At Yahata Iron and Steel
Works and Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Yard in Nagasaki, wages rose at the
end of World War I and continued to outpace the regional average through
the 1920s and 1930s. “The movements of wage differentials between large
firms and the labor market in the North Kyushu industrial area were . . . part
of what was happening in the whole economy” (Taira 1970: 35).
Another factor that pushed against labor market liberalization and to-
ward continued relatively generous employment packages in the large-firm
sector during and after World War I was the rise of the trade union move-
ment. Compared to the German and the British labor movements, Japanese
unions were weak, fragmented along ideological lines and organizing fewer
than 10% of all workers before the First World War. However, the years
between about 1900 and about 1920 had “witnessed the emergence of an
energetic working-class movement in the growing industrial centers of
Osaka, Kobe, Tokyo, and Yokohama,” which posed a strong challenge to
direct control and paternalism (Gordon 1985: 421). Moreover, even though
overall organization levels remained low through the interwar period, in the
crucial engineering and metalworking industries the rate was higher, reach-
ing up to 25% (Taira 1978: 212), so that unions in these skill-dependent
sectors possessed significant disruptive potential. Unlike their British coun-
terparts, however, (and as we will see, in the United States as well), Japanese
unions did not organize their strategies around establishing craft controls
(Lazonick and O’Sullivan 1997: 518), but rather around exercising influence
within existing plant employment structures.
This important difference helps explain the particular configuration of
interests and alliances that emerged in Japan, as unions and employers –
each for their own reasons – banded together to confront the independent

welfare measures, and lobby the government for social policy legislation. The organization
also published a report on the state of worker welfare systems in various companies, which
may have facilitated a degree of cooperation through information sharing among the seg-
mentalists in this period. Unions rejected the organization as an attempt to co-opt workers
but it survived until 1946 when the occupying forces dissolved it because of its role in the
war. I am grateful to Ikuo Kume for information on this organization, based on the book,
The Thirty Years of Kyōchōkai.

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power of the oyakata bosses. As described above, the oyakata craftsmen were
in charge of managing as well as training workers. Previous, longstanding
skill shortages had enhanced their power within the plant, but these skills
were becoming outdated as new (imported, advanced) technology was in-
troduced in factory production. Meanwhile, and parallel to this, young
skilled workers who had graduated from company training schools began
playing an increasingly important role on the shop floor, posing a threat
to the traditional oyakata-based shop floor regime. In some cases, union
activists organized and mobilized young skilled and semi-skilled workers
against the oyakata regime.
Important for the present argument is the fact that, in such conflicts,
management frequently sided with the union. In the large firms in the metal
industry the demands of young unionists to curb oyakata power dovetailed
with the efforts of managers to take direct control of personnel policy. The
oyakata lost their power, and management began exerting control directly
(Sumiya 1970, Vol. 2: 56). In these labor conflicts, management often made
concessions to the union in order to incorporate younger skilled workers
into the factory regime (Gordon 1985: 421). Many union demands – such as
for the introduction of an annual bonus and a retirement bonus system for
regular workers – had the effect of further institutionalizing internal labor
markets (Gordon 1985, 163–206). Already in the late 1910s a number of
firms had confronted and met such demands. These included Shibaura
Manufacturing (1916), Nagasaki Shipyard (1917), and Nippon Steel
Hiroshima Factory (1919) (Odaka 1995: 153). In addition, in 1919, workers
in the Yahata Steel Mill (the largest mill at the time) went on strike demand-
ing not just improvement of working conditions but also equal treatment
of regular blue-collar workers and white-collar officials. The young skilled
workers also demanded that career paths for managerial positions should
be open to them.20 These demands were met after a long labor conflict
(Sumiya 1970, Vol. 2: 86), thus promoting long-term employment and in-
ternal labor markets.
In the interwar period, Japanese unions continued to push for stable wage
increases based on length of employment (Gordon 1985: Chapter 5), and
since management was still concerned about skills, alliances were forged

20 Such demands make a great deal of sense in the Japanese context where the absence of any
legal right to organize and bargain collectively – until 1945 (Taira 1989: 647) – meant that
most activism would be localized, and where firm policies organized around efforts to hold
on to particularly treasured employees produced a high degree of stratification within a
given workforce (Taira 1989: 628).

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around policies of continuous skill development linked to increasing wages

over the course of a worker’s career in the firm. These developments helped
to promote the spread (at least among leading firms) of a seniority-based
wage system (nenkō joretsu, or ranking by years of experience). “The ideal
type of the nenkō joretsu system required that new hiring was limited to
young inexperienced workers and that these workers were trained and
moved up to fill various grades of skills over time” (Taira 1970: 157). En-
gineering firms that opted to implement this system did so as part of their
overarching effort to gain direct control over all aspects of personnel policy
including “recruitment, training, assignment, promotion, dismissal, and re-
tirement,” in other words, stripping the oyakata of his power and influence
by displacing the traditional practices “based on personal and personalized
relations among master craftsmen and between each one of them and his un-
derlings” (Taira 1970: 158). It is no coincidence that precisely in the 1920s a
growing number of companies began following the lead of prominent firms
(for example, the Kure and Nagasaki shipyards) in recruiting young people
directly out of school (in April of each year), and founding company schools
for training these new recruits (Dore 1973: 399–400). These developments
were especially pronounced in heavy industry, where as Nishinarita notes
the seniority-wage system was “firmly established” (Nishinarita 1995: 18).
Thus emerged in Japan the seeds of a system strongly associated with
seniority-based wages but which in reality links wages to experience ac-
quired over time in the course of a worker’s career in the firm (Thelen and
Kume 1999). Clearly managers had to balance considerations of skill against
seniority criteria, for if they rewarded workers coming in from the outside
too much they would create equity problems for those workers coming up
in the ranks within the company (Gordon 1985: 97). The entire process
through which firms began exercising direct control of training and link-
ing this to wage developments was accompanied by a parallel shift in which
training in a “trade” was gradually broken down into a series of specific tasks
(Taira 1978: 189). This development pushed further a process that had al-
ready begun in cases where youngsters worked alongside (but not under)
patron-craftsmen and where training was increasingly organized around
the needs of the firm and in the context of longer employment horizons.
Although unions were in some cases active players in these develop-
ments, perhaps the more common pattern was for management to preempt
labor conflict – and forestall union organizing in the first place (Gordon
1985: 207–35). An official of the Ministry of Interior argued at the time “it is
critically important to establish collaborative labor-management relations
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within the company before class conflict appears” (Ikeda 1982: 9). In the
1920s a number of factory committees were indeed established to facilitate
labor-management communication, many of them incorporating manage-
ment practices begun in the large companies in response to labor conflicts.
Taira notes that although collective bargaining and unionization were min-
imal in Japan in this period, employer-initiated works councils – designed
to forestall unionization – were quite widespread (Taira 1970: 144–8).21
Policies pursued by the Japanese government of the 1930s and 1940s
further encouraged segmentalism and company-based training in the con-
text of strong internal labor markets.22 In response to a dramatic four-fold
increase in strike activity in 1937 (measured in the number of striking work-
ers), the government instituted the so-called Industrial Patriotic Council
(Sangyō Hōkokukai; IPC) (Okazaki 1993). The IPC was designed to im-
prove communication and avoid conflict between workers and employers,
as well as to provide workers with company welfare privileges as part of a
war mobilization program (Saguchi 1991: 168).
The war years were very important for solidifying previously emerging
patterns (Sakurabayashi 1985). Although the IPC did not achieve its for-
mal purpose (Garon 1988: Chapter 6; see also Gordon 1985: 299–326),
it did promote a “managerial revolution” and encouraged deep changes
in Japanese corporate governance (Okazaki 1993). Taira argues that this
movement (Sanpō for short) laid the basis for enterprise unions after the
war (Taira 1989). And, although a full-fledged transformation of Japanese
corporate governance structure, in which employees’ interests were priori-
tized over those of shareholders, did not occur until after the labor offensive
in the post-World War II period (Kume 1998), we can find the roots of such
a transformation in this effort (Noguchi 1995).
In addition, the exigencies of war production brought a significant ex-
pansion of private-sector training, as in Germany under National Socialism,
directly promoted and indeed mandated by the state. In March 1939, two
significant pieces of legislation came into effect, requiring many employers
to establish worker-training programs (Gordon 1985: 265). Subsequent leg-
islation (between 1939 and 1942) imposed increasingly strict government

21 Unionization was especially low in large private-sector enterprises; in 1936 there were only
16 collective agreements with firms employing over five hundred workers (Taira 1970, 147).
22 By contrast, the attempt by the military government to introduce a nationwide system of
skill formation (through the so-called “youth schools”) failed, largely because the two goals
that animated the initiative – skill formation and infantry training – were frequently in
conflict and the latter very often overrode the former (Sumiya 1970, Vol. 2: 272).

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controls on turnover (Gordon 1985: 266–7), mitigating poaching problems

and giving employers the longer time horizons that encourage investment
in training. Legislation in this period required employers “to obtain per-
mission from the local Employment Agency office before hiring anyone,
and, in the case of experienced people, permission would be granted only
if the previous employer agreed” (Gordon 1985: 267).
Although these measures imposed significant restrictions in the labor
market, employers did not complain; quite the opposite. Associations like
the Kansai Industrial Federation were entirely satisfied with them, and
in fact asked the government to expand existing controls (Gordon 1985:
267). Although this legislation – both the laws encouraging training and
those limiting labor mobility – fell short of its goals (certainly there was a
great deal of illegal movement), it did have an important influence on the
training calculus of leading firms. As Weiss points out, this is the period
when “company training came into its own” (Weiss 1993: 346), as hundreds
of thousands of munitions workers employed throughout the metalworking
industry were officially prohibited from leaving their jobs. This in effect
made it much more attractive for employers to invest in training. Since
the early 1900s the government had repeatedly urged such training, but
now exhortations were backed up by the Technical Education Acts of 1939
that “mandated training programs for most workers (not simply salaried
employees) and for most companies. Thus, by the end of the war, training
programs were very widely established within the private sector” (Weiss
1993: 346).
The development of Japanese managerial practices after World War II
is well known and need not be rehearsed here (see, for example, Dore
1973; Kume 1998). Clearly training plays a key role in the system. On-
going skill acquisition is what traditionally has underwritten progressive
seniority-based wage increases over a worker’s career and lifetime employ-
ment guarantees, and helped to reconcile both with firm efficiency and
productivity. Perhaps a word should be said, however, about the content
of the skills produced by the German and Japanese systems. In Germany,
as we have seen, the skills that could be certified were for particular trades
or occupations, as a package as it were. In Japan, in the transition away
from the oyakata-based system and toward direct firm control, trades were
unbundled and workers acquired proficiencies in a variety of different tasks
valuable to the company. The precise package of skills acquired, in other
words, was not so much defined by a commonly understood notion of a
particular trade, but rather by the needs of the firm. This does not mean
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that these skills are entirely non-transferable (in Becker’s strict sense), but
it does mean that skill acquisition and development are organized around
different principles and goals with respect to skill “portability.”
The difference becomes clear in the skill accreditation and certification
system that emerged in Japan in the postwar period.23 A 1958 Vocational
Training Law established a system for testing and certifying skills under
the auspices of the Ministry of Labor. The system is administered with
the assistance of the National Vocational Skills Development Association,
which recruits representatives of industry and vocational training establish-
ments to set standards, and whose prefecture branches administer the tests
themselves. Through this system public and private training institutions are
accredited but so too are private sector (company-based) training schemes.
The skills tested are narrow but they are not necessarily company specific,
and certification makes them more portable by rendering them more trans-
parent to other firms. Unlike the German system, however, the skills that
are certified in Japan are “discrete and miscellaneous” and can be mixed
and matched.24 The certification and accreditation system in Japan thus
fits and reflects the different (segmentalist) logic of the Japanese training
regime (Sako 1995: 6).
Companies may seek accreditation for their own training schemes for a
variety of reasons. For many, accreditation helps in recruiting top young
workers, by establishing or maintaining a company’s reputation as a good
firm and a good employer, one that will offer ongoing training and oppor-
tunities for advancement (Sako 1995: 25). In many firms a more formalized
procedure for worker testing has been folded into the traditional inter-
nal promotion schemes. For example, some firms require workers to earn
certificates as a prerequisite for advancement or higher pay, thus provid-
ing a crucial link between seniority wages and ongoing skill acquisition –
necessary to ensure increasing worker productivity across the worker’s en-
tire career. Certification also helps organize and facilitate relations between
“core” firms and their various “peripheral” partners, for example providing
a mechanism for core firms to assess the capabilities of their various dealer-
ships. In other instances, the system provides a means for large firms to
assess the performance of their suppliers or to coordinate production with
them. Small supplier firms are sometimes required to have workers certified

23 The following account is based on Sako (1995), Dore and Sako (1989), and Crouch,
Finegold, and Sako (1999).
24 For example, one major car manufacturer had, as of 1995, 219 internal skill tests.

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under the buyer’s training system. Certification also facilitates corporate

transfers – both across firms in horizontally organized corporate groups
like Mitsui, Mitsubishi, and Sumitomo, and across vertically linked firms
(for example, buyers and suppliers) – practices that are important to many
companies in the context of long-term employment policies.

Germany and Japan Compared

In both Germany and Japan employers invest substantial resources in train-
ing their workers, but the training efforts of individual firms fit into com-
pletely different national political–economic frameworks. The origins of
Germany’s and Japan’s different systems of skill formation, I have argued,
can be traced back to differences in the relationship between the artisanal
sector and industry in the early industrial period, and particularly the way
in which the interaction between these two influenced relations between
industry and the emerging labor movement. The argument can be summa-
rized in three steps.
First, state policy toward the artisanal sector was crucial to the sub-
sequent development of the two systems. In Germany, the state actively
organized the artisanal sector and granted it monopoly rights to certify
skills, whereas in Japan state policy did nothing to regulate traditional ap-
prenticeship training. This difference had a profound impact on the quality
and supply of skills available to industry in the two countries. In Japan, craft
masters were unregulated and could shirk their training responsibilities and
apprentices could abandon their masters – and did so, as we have seen, in
large numbers. Thus the first big difference between the two cases is the
overall supply of skills available to industry and the fate of the artisanate.
Japanese managers faced more severe and chronic skilled labor shortages
and became obsessed with controlling labor mobility, whereas in Germany the
large firms most dependent on skill became intent on securing the right to
define and certify skills, a right that the Handwerk sector monopolized and
that large industrial firms coveted.
Second, in both cases, the emerging metal industries tapped into the tra-
ditional artisanate to cover their skill needs, and in both cases frictions and
tensions emerged as a result. The difference lies in the level at which such
tensions were played out – at the plant level in Japan, at the national–political
level in Germany. In Japan, where the oyakata craftsmen were not orga-
nized, emerging large firms could address their skill needs by contracting

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with individual oyakata to recruit and train skilled workers. This strategy
solved some problems but it created others, as independent and mobile
oyakata could use competition among industrial firms over scarce skilled
labor to enhance their own power within individual companies. After re-
peated (failed) attempts on the part of industry to find a solution through
“collective self control,” private firms followed the lead of public-sector
firms who had internalized skill formation, setting Japanese firms on a very
different trajectory favoring plant-based training.25 In Germany, where the
artisanate was well organized, it could not be absorbed into and subordi-
nated to industry in the same way. Tensions between the artisanate and
industry were played out at the national–political rather than the plant
level.
It is important to note here that the actual skills possessed by workers
in Japan and Germany after the turn of the century were in fact not so
different. In Japan, training was plant-based and internal to large firms, but
high levels of labor mobility suggest that the skills themselves were very
portable. Conversely, in Germany, the existence of skill certificates should
not imply that skills were particularly standardized – that development came
only later, in the machine and metalworking industries in the 1920s and in
other industries in the 1930s and 1940s under the National Socialists.
Third, and finally, the consolidation of segmentalist and solidaristic
strategies has to be understood in terms of the way in which these previ-
ous developments mediated industry’s relationship with the emerging labor
unions. In both cases, alignments and realignments among the artisanate,
industry, and unions in the 1920s appear to be crucial. In both countries,
economic trends in the early 1920s called the existing system into question,
and critical realignments (in Japan between the managers of large industrial
firms and younger skilled workers at the plant level; in Germany between
some segments of industry and labor unions at the industry level) reinforced
previous trajectories.
In Japan, segmentalist strategies before World War I were a response to
intense skilled labor shortages, and so the slack labor markets of the 1920s
might have undermined the strong internal labor markets that had been

25 In addition, in Germany, the ongoing modernization of “traditional” skills was built into
the market-conforming character of the 1897 law, which, as pointed out above, facilitated
Handwerk’s adaptation to the market (including technological change). This was quite
different from Japan, where, if traditional skills were upgraded at all, it was in the internal
labor markets of the industrial sector.

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developing. What prevented this was the growing complexity of firms’ skill
needs combined with the increasing threat of trade union influence at the
plant level, which produced a critical realignment (management with unions
or young company-trained workers against the oyakata) that consolidated
and deepened segmentalism. In Germany, where skills were more plentiful
before World War I, the crisis of the 1920s was different and stemmed
from Handwerk’s own economic crisis, which severely tested its capacity
for “collective self-regulation” and sparked concerns about impending skill
shortages. Newly incorporated labor unions emerged as potential allies for
industry against the Handwerk monopoly and in support of a solidaristic
system of skill formation for industry. In both cases, in other words, there
was a critical realignment that brought segments of industry into alliance
with labor and against the artisanate, with the difference that in Japan this
occurred at the plant level and in Germany at the industry level.
The effect of World War II in both cases was to accelerate developments
along these divergent paths. In Japan, as Weiss summarizes, “Before the
war, seniority wages, company allowances, and company training programs
linked to long-term career structures were practiced in an opportunistic,
exclusive, and capricious manner by a small number of core companies.
The effect of the war on government policy was to deepen and systematize
these tendencies and to extend them to industry as a whole” (Weiss 1993:
346). In Germany, (see Chapter 5) the National Socialist regime during
World War II presided over a massive expansion of training and the increas-
ing standardization of apprenticeship through the extension of the collec-
tivist framework that had been evolving in Germany since the nineteenth
century.
In neither Germany nor Japan was labor the driving force toward more
collectivist versus more segmentalist skill development, but unions formu-
lated their goals within the (different) logics of the two systems, and in so
doing helped to push developments further along these distinctive tracks. In
Japan, for example, unions defined their goals within the context of strong
internal labor markets in ways that helped to consolidate segmentalism and
drive skill formation down an increasingly organization-specific path. In
Germany, the fact that unions “grew up” in a context in which skill forma-
tion was already regulated (by Handwerk) discouraged craft-based control
strategies and made unions potential allies of industry in the latter’s strug-
gles for separate certification, though labor’s relative weakness (especially in
Germany’s large-firm sector) contributed to the problems of consolidating
solidarism in the Weimar years.
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The Evolution of Skill Formation in the United States

The U.S. case provides further illuminating comparisons, both to Britain
and to Japan. As in Britain, in the United States craft unions emerged
among skilled workers in key trades and organized their strategies around
the attempt to maintain and regulate craft labor markets. In the United
States, unions had an even harder time establishing craft controls due to
a number of factors including weaker traditional craft-based organizations
of any variety (for example, guilds), higher inter-regional mobility, massive
immigration in the early industrial period, a larger and more homogeneous
domestic product market, and – related to all these – the late development of
craft organizations relative to key technological and organizational changes
in industries such as metalworking. As in Britain, apprenticeship would be
substantially contested across the class divide, but an important difference
is that in the wake of their victories over “control” issues American employ-
ers went much further to crush and marginalize unions and to reorganize
production so as to reduce their reliance on skilled labor.
As in Japan, skilled workers were incorporated into low-level supervisory
positions in large U.S. corporations. The role they performed, however,
was very different from that played by traditional oyakata in the Japanese
system. Rather than serving as intermediaries in skilled labor markets or
as trainers of the next generation of skilled workers, salaried foremen in
U.S. firms more likely became the “drivers” of (increasingly) semi-skilled
labor. To put the U.S. case again in comparative perspective: whereas in
Germany, metalworking firms at century’s end were concerned to certify
skills, in Britain to reassert managerial control, and in Japan to dampen labor
mobility, in the United States the goal was above all to rationalize production
and reduce dependence on skilled labor.
Although some large firms had developed rather impressive and ambi-
tious programs for in-plant training by the turn of the century, the continued
ambitions of American craft unions to control skilled labor markets – and
a resurgence of union militancy during World War I – set the scene for a
rather different set of alliances in the 1910s and 1920s. In the period after the
First World War, the premier US training firms largely abandoned earlier
programs of broad-based training for manual workers and focused their
energies and resources instead on enlisting their foremen in a campaign
against resurgent unions, encouraging the introduction of skill-displacing
technology. By the time American unions were stabilized and collective
bargaining rights were secured (1930s and 1940s), organized labor in the

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United States was maneuvering in a more thoroughly rationalized shop

floor environment. Union strategies revolved around a narrower form of
job control in highly bureaucratized internal labor markets.

Skill Formation in Early Industrial America

The overriding fact about the U.S. case is the lack of guild structures and tra-
ditions. Absent this kind of inherited infrastructure, the regulatory frame-
work governing apprenticeship in the colonial period – although directly
borrowed from England – took on a quite different character in America
(Rorabaugh 1986: 3–16; Douglas 1921; Motley 1907: especially the intro-
duction and Chapter 1). In Britain, apprenticeship regulation as represented
in the original Statue of Artificers was closely associated with regulation
of the manual trades in the guild tradition. In America, apprenticeship as
embraced and enforced (mostly feebly) by colonial authorities was much
more tied up in civic education and Christian morality. Under colonial
law, “masters were in general required . . . to impart not only trade training,
but to give instruction in the liberal arts [reading and writing primarily]”
(Douglas 1921: 43), and apprenticeship was part of a broader project to pre-
pare youth (and especially youth from poor families) to be good citizens and
to inculcate in them Christian values (Douglas 1921: 45–7; Motley 1907:
12–13).26
To the limited extent that oversight was exercised over American appren-
ticeship, this was accomplished by the officers of colonial towns and counties
(Douglas 1921: 50). Given the conditions of “vast distances, shortages of
skilled labor, a largely agricultural population and a poorly developed le-
gal system,” however, American apprenticeship was even “less vigorously”
enforced than its English counterpart (Rorabaugh 1986: 4). U.S. (and colo-
nial) apprenticeship operated in an institutional vacuum, so that virtually
anyone could call himself a master artisan and take apprentices (Rorabaugh

26 Apprenticeship was also used as a disciplinary device for punishment of debt and penalties
for idleness (Douglas 1921: 42–3). As Douglas points out, apprentices were thus dealt with
more or less as the master’s property, so much so that “apprentices were often listed among
the assets of bankrupts and were either taken personally by the creditors as payment for
debt or sold to satisfy the obligation. Upon the death of the master, the apprentice was often
sold with the rest of the estate by the heirs” (Douglas 1921: 48). Motley points out that
employers in colonial America had such absolute control over their trainees that some of
the laws governing servants and slaves were extended to cover apprentices as well (Motley
1907: 15). As in Britain, an apprentice’s term of service, linked to the age at which he started,
continued until he reached the age of 21 (for boys; 16 for girls) (Motley 1907: 13).

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1986: 4–5; Hansen 1997: 84–5; Motley 1907: 28). As Hansen has sum-
marized: “There were no minimum levels of competence required to
practice a craft, no regulation of apprenticeship. Nor were there formal
associations of craft brothers to present joint appeals to municipal and state
officials, to build and sustain collective identity and interests, or to enforce
production standards, labor practices, price floors and the like. What little
collective action American mechanics engaged in was voluntary, ad hoc,
and ineffective” (Hansen 1997: 95).
Craft identities that in Germany were nurtured by handicraft associa-
tions or in Britain by craft unions were, by contrast, difficult to build and
maintain in colonial America. Social structures were a great deal more fluid,
as vast land resources pulled New Englanders westward and as a very large
number of craftsmen worked simultaneously as independent farmers. These
farmer artisans – many living in remote areas – of necessity operated with
a high degree of self-reliance. Rather than specializing in (and identifying
with) a particular craft, these men became proverbial jacks-of-all-trades.
The resulting “craft polyvalence,” as Hansen notes, “undercut the historic
identification of the ‘artisan’ with a particular craft and its associated tra-
ditions, and in the process fashioned an emergent Yankee tradesman, with
all the ambiguities that term implies” (Hansen 1997: 89).27
Thus, more than in Britain, apprenticeship in the United States was
always less regulated and more informal and tenuous. On the side of em-
ployers, there is ample evidence of the kinds of abuses we have already
seen in Britain (Douglas 1921: 60–2; Motley 1907: 17). The lack of any
certification or monitoring left it entirely up to the employer what kind
of training, if any, a youth would receive. Employers abused apprentice-
ship especially in times of labor shortages, making use of “bogus” inden-
tures “as a device to obtain and hold youths to unskilled factory labor”
or (later) during the Civil War when apprentices were widely deployed as
strike breakers (quote is from Rorabaugh 1986: 202–3; D. Jacoby 1991:
896).28
As for apprentices, there were no strong incentives for youth to sub-
ject themselves to long years of training with a highly uncertain payoff.

27 Or, as he pointedly summarizes: “Early American farmer-artisans . . . generally had little

time or patience for craftsmanship, possessed strong economic incentives to dispense with
it, lacked collective constraints with the capacity to compel them to it, and had virtually
nowhere to turn to acquire it” (Hansen 1997: 96).
28 Contractual obligations of this sort could be fought in the courts but this required time
and resources and so enforcement was an enormous problem.

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The problem of runaway apprentices was even more acute in the United
States than in Britain, and it continued despite legislation passed in
twelve states in the closing decades of the eighteenth century to curb the
problem (Elbaum 1989: 346–8). There was no stigma for American youth
who failed to complete their terms; on the contrary, the popular literature of
the day celebrated runaway apprentices such as Benjamin Franklin for
their spunk and initiative (Rorabaugh 1986: prologue and Chapter 7).
Poor youth were disinclined to pass up higher paying unskilled work to
pursue an apprenticeship, and certainly the more ambitious youth and
their parents were “discouraged by the uncertainty of the training offered”
(Douglas 1921: 83). These were also problems in Britain, but the unattrac-
tiveness of traditional apprenticeship would have been greater in the United
States, where the prospects for land ownership and independent employ-
ment, and the early spread of public education, created avenues for youth,
even poor youth, to pursue their own careers.29
The skills on which American industries relied in the early industrial
period were by and large not generated domestically, as in Germany or
Britain, nor through targeted foreign exchange sponsored by the state,
as in Japan. Rather, such skills were provided to employers through im-
migration, beginning in the 1830s and waxing and waning over the next
decades in response to business cycles in the United States (Shefter 1986:
200–1). “By the 1850s immigrants were a majority of the skilled craftsmen
in most large cities; in New York, for example, they dominated thirty-
two trades” (Rorabaugh 1986: 133).30 This influx of skilled workers –
mostly from the industrial districts of northern Europe – continued through
most of the 1880s. Artisans from England, Wales, and Germany provided
many of the skills on which early American industry was built; in some
cases foreign craftsmen were directly recruited through the intervention
of state legislatures acting in response to the “urgent appeal of prominent
employers” (Brody 1980: 15; Shefter 1986; quote is from Motley 1907:
18–19).

29 In Massachusetts free public schools began to spread from as early as 1700 (Douglas 1921:
44). Certainly by the end of the nineteenth century, the number of youth attending high
school was much higher in the United States than in Britain, and that number continued
to rise rapidly in the first two decades of the twentieth century (Jacoby 1985: 70).
30 Later, immigration would also provide a huge supply of unskilled workers: “from 1882 to
1900 immigration from Europe to the United States involved some 6.6 million persons”
(Klug 1993: 74). The implications of this shift in the kinds of workers entering the United
States are explored below.

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Implications for Labor

The space left by a lack of traditional guild structures and the comparatively
liberal political climate created in the United States, as it had in Britain, the
conditions under which organizations of skilled workers in key industries
like metalworking could organize to attempt to control craft labor markets.
The main immigration streams came from countries with stronger craft
traditions and immigrant groups formed the basis for labor organization in
many cities. The widespread recruitment of skilled labor from abroad thus
provided a direct avenue for the importation of strategies and organizational
models (not to mention union organizers and leaders) from Europe, espe-
cially Britain (Motley 1907: 18–19). By the 1830s, “the American working
classes evidenced striking dispositional and ideological similarities to their
English cousins” (Bridges 1986: 158). A number of journeymen’s associa-
tions were founded in this period similar to those that formed the core of
Europe’s craft unions (Brody 1980: 15; see also Montgomery 1989: 185).31
Important differences in context, however, complicated the consolida-
tion in the United States of substantial craft unions with power to contest
skilled labor markets even on a local, let alone a national, basis. Succes-
sive waves of immigration introduced a variety of linguistic, cultural, and
national differences, complicating the task craft unions faced in forming
and maintaining unified and disciplined organizations. As Shefter notes:
“When workers did join with others in an effort to improve their lives,
ethnicity was at least as likely as social class per se to be the basis of as-
sociation” (Shefter 1986: 221, 229, 231; quote is from 231). Beyond the
ethnic cleavages, American unions in the early industrial period also had
to contend with a much higher degree of mobility. Particularly after the
expansion of the railroads in the late nineteenth century, it became much
easier for workers to move. Local trade unions therefore had to contend
with relatively large numbers of craftsmen from other areas seeking em-
ployment in their district but not feeling themselves obliged to submit to
local union rules (Shefter 1986: 215). The overall less auspicious social and
market context for union organization was reflected in much lower rates of
organization in the United States than in Britain. In the last three decades of
the nineteenth century, unionization rates among industrial workers in the
United States remained below 10% (Ulman 1955: 19). In metalworking

31 For a review of the literature on the “artisan origins of the American working class” see
Wilentz (1981).

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specifically, whereas Britain’s ASE and related unions organized around

50% of engineers (mostly skilled fitters and turners) at century’s end, only
about 11% of American machinists were organized in the main engineering
union (International Association of Machinists, IAM) at this time (Haydu
1988: 86–7).
Given the more limited resources of American unions – both financial
and organizational – the goal of exercising control over craft labor markets
was always daunting and mostly elusive. But if the prospects in the market-
place looked especially bleak in the United States in the mid-nineteenth
century, the early enfranchisement of the male working class offered an
alternative avenue for pursuing craft control strategies. In the 1870s unions
in several states pressed their legislatures for regulation of apprenticeship
and in a few cases (Massachusetts, Illinois, and New York) they succeeded
in obtaining legislation to regulate in-plant training (Douglas 1921: 67–8).
A law passed in New York in 1871, for example, required written indentures
signed by both trainee and company. Under the terms of such indentures
the period of apprenticeship would have to be set between three years
(minimum) and five years (maximum), and employers committed them-
selves to providing the apprentice with “suitable board, lodging and medi-
cal attention” as well as training in “every branch of his or their business”
(Douglas 1921: 68). On completion of the apprenticeship, the trainee re-
ceived a certificate and penalties were established for both apprentices and
employers who broke the contract.32 Such regulations were notoriously
hard to apply, however, Enforcement depended on one of the parties bring-
ing suit, but apprentices did not have the resources to take employers to
court, nor assets against which a firm would be interested in proceeding if
it were the apprentice who broke the contract. Moreover, as was so often
the pattern in U.S. labor history, narrow court rulings quickly rendered
existing legislation “dead letters” (Douglas 1921: 68–9).33

32 “If the apprentice would not try to learn his trade or serve faithfully, he was to forfeit his
back pay and the indenture would be cancelled. If he ran away before his term of service
expired, he was liable to a jail sentence. . . . [For his part] if the employer did not care for
the apprentice suitably according to the terms of the indenture and the provisions of the
law, he could be sued by the apprentice or by his parents. If it could be shown that the
employer had neglected his duty, the court was to cancel the indenture and impose a fine of
not less than $100 and not more than $1000, which was to be paid to the apprentice or to
his parent or guardian” (Douglas 1921: 67).
33 On the role of the courts in the United States in undermining pro-union legislation, see
also Hattam (1992).

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Despite these obstacles, unions of skilled workers in the United States,

no less than their counterparts in Britain, continued to recruit (and attempt
to restrict membership to) “competent” journeymen and to try to influ-
ence the number of apprentices trained and the terms of their employment
(Kelly 1920: 55–8; Motley 1907: passim). Thus, the American counterpart
to Britain’s ASE (the International Association of Machinists, IAM) took ad-
vantage of relative skill scarcities in the late nineteenth century to press for
agreements with specific employers concerning both working conditions
for their members and apprenticeship training.34 The issue of apprentice
regulation figured prominently in the first joint agreement that the IAM was
able to reach with an employer (in 1892, with Atchison, Topeka and Santa
Fe Railroad Company). The agreement established a ratio of one appren-
tice to every five machinists (one to every four in the case of boilermakers
and blacksmiths) (Perlman 1961: 247).
In those (few) cases where relatively stable joint agreements on appren-
ticeship could be reached – but also in a more informal way on a somewhat
broader scale – unions played an important role in underwriting commit-
ments between training firms and trainees, by ensuring that firms provided
apprentices with all-round training and by imposing penalties on appren-
tices who broke off their training prematurely.35 The first of these tasks –
holding employers to all-round rather than narrow training – could be
accomplished directly, since in most cases apprentices acquired their skills
from journeymen who were themselves union members. Unions also sought
to ensure that the trainee held up his end of the deal, among other things,
staying with the firm for the full training period. Craft unions cared deeply
about the “runaway” problem, which from their perspective carried the risk
of flooding the trade with “half-way” journeymen. The trade journals put
out by craft unions often featured a “runaway column” which disseminated
information about apprentices who broke off their training prematurely
(Motley 1907: 86–7). Through such means unions attempted to prevent
apprentices from leaving early and posing as fully skilled workers (to earn
the skilled rate) in other districts.
As in Britain, union attempts to regulate apprenticeship were riven with
problems of uneven levels of influence across regions, and thus also bound
up in broader control strategies that brought the unions into direct conflict

34 For a comprehensive history of the IAM, see Perlman (1961).

35 The logic and practice of joint regulation of apprenticeship through unions is spelled out
nicely in Motley (1907: Chapter III).

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with employers over issues of managerial prerogative. The much later tim-
ing of craft union development in the United States (the IAM, for example,
was founded in 1888) relative to the drastic expansion of product markets
and to technological changes in the metalworking industries in the last two
decades of the nineteenth century meant that overall, joint regulation of ap-
prenticeship through collective agreement with unions was always shakier
than in Britain (Ulman 1955: 121, 311). Motley reports that of the 70 or so
unions that by his reckoning attempted to enforce apprenticeship as a pre-
requisite to membership in 1904, only 19 actually succeeded (Motley 1907:
58–60). He notes that in the case of the IAM the official rules regarding
apprenticeships were “hardly more than the recorded expression of opinion
of what should be the rule” (Motley 1907: 70).36

Implications for Industry

In Germany, early industrial enterprises were able to draw on the skills
of the artisanal sector and adapt these to their needs; in Britain employers
could tap into “accumulations of skilled labor supplies in industrial districts”
(Lazonick and O’Sullivan 1997: 498). By contrast, in the United States the
lack of any skill producing and certifying infrastructure – along with high
labor mobility (both inter-regional and inter-occupational) – “rendered
skilled labor scarce throughout the nineteenth century” (Lazonick and
O’Sullivan 1997: 498). American employers thus faced skill shortages on a
scale most similar in many ways to their Japanese counterparts. However,
whereas the Japanese state became deeply involved in skill formation and
vocational training in the closing years of the nineteenth century, in the
United States government efforts to enhance education and training were
directed almost exclusively at the college-bound middle classes, not training
for manual workers.37
If this posed special problems for American employers, it also suggested
special solutions to the problems (Ulman 1955: 7–16). The character and
especially the size of the domestic market in the United States opened
possibilities for employers to innovate in ways that reduced their overall
reliance on skill by moving to the mass production of standardized goods

36 The IAM’s British counterpart, ASE, had by this time also long abandoned apprenticeship
as an explicit condition of membership, though they required that prospective members
should have worked in the trade five years, and be able to command the district rate.
37 The reasons for this have been analyzed especially thoroughly by Hansen (1997).

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(Hansen [1997: 196–212] has an especially good discussion). As Lazonick

and O’Sullivan point out, the scarcity of skilled labor provided a powerful
motivation for American manufacturers to look to skill-displacing technol-
ogy from very early on (Lazonick and O’Sullivan 1997: 498).38 The move
toward standardization and skill-displacing technological change picked up
more steam over the course of the nineteenth century, spurred forward by
the development of a national railroad network that opened new and bigger
markets even as it encouraged even greater labor mobility.
The development of an integrated national market had the effect of
exposing firms to low-cost strategies elsewhere, at the same time increas-
ing immensely the advantages of scale economies (Hansen 1997: 197–8).
These factors became highly salient in the depression of 1873 and led to
major shakeouts in a number of industries. In 1869 the average American
factory was a family owned firm or partnership, and employed only about
eight workers (Shefter 1986: 234). Beginning in the 1870s there was a trend
toward “the absorption of small firms by stronger ones during the depres-
sions and recessions of the period, the spread of the corporate form of busi-
ness organization, and the emergence of a class of professional managers
[that] destroyed the organizational base upon which personal relations be-
tween employers and employees had been grounded” (Shefter 1986: 235).
In consequence and as Jacoby notes, “after 1890, the center of gravity in
American industry shifted to giant corporations serving national markets.
Between 1904 and 1923, the proportion of the manufacturing work force
employed in very large establishments (over 1,000 workers) doubled, rising
from 12 to 25 percent” (quote from S. Jacoby 1991: 108; see also Brody
1980: 7–8).
Developments in the labor market reinforced the trend toward the large-
scale enterprise in the United States and the associated shift to mass pro-
duction of standardized goods. One key factor was the changing character
of immigration, which after the 1890s brought huge numbers of unskilled
workers, mostly peasants from southern and eastern Europe (Brody 1980:
15–17). Thus, whereas skilled labor continued to be extremely dear, un-
skilled labor in the United States at century’s end was relatively “cheap and
abundant” ( Jacoby 1985: 133). As Hansen notes, it was no coincidence that
“mass production reached full flower in its classic Fordist form” when and
where it did (Hansen 1997: 196, 214).

38 They note, for example, that the textile industry around Lowell, Massachusetts, was already
more highly capitalized than in other countries in the early nineteenth century.

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There were significant limits to the process of rationalization, standard-

ization, and task simplification, particularly in some skill-intensive indus-
tries such as machine making.39 The different strategies of various firms
are analyzed below. This diversity sustained different approaches to skill
formation but the weight and interests of large manufacturers of standard-
ized goods, along with the conflicts with labor across virtually all types of
firms, worked strongly against the stabilization and expansion of the more
collectivist strategies for skill formation developed (especially in the 1910s)
by specialized producers in some cities and regions.

Union and Employer Strategies in the Metalworking Industry

before World War I
The evolving strategies of employers in industries such as machine building
and metalworking must be understood against these general developments.
In Britain, apprenticeship was caught up in ongoing struggles between craft
unions and managers who sought to assert managerial control over this and
other issues. In the United States, as well, traditional training arrange-
ments relying on skilled craftsmen increasingly ran afoul of employers’
efforts to rationalize production and reorganize work on the shop floor.
In the United States, however, the move to rationalize production so as
to reduce dependence on skill went much further than in Britain, setting
the stage for a somewhat different alignment of interests and trajectory of
development.
From about 1850 until at least the 1880s skill-intensive industries such as
machine building and metalworking relied heavily on immigrant craftsmen
and employed quite traditional methods of skill formation. In these indus-
tries the “factory was often no more than a congeries of artisanal workshops
which had been mechanized and enlarged” and in which skilled workers
presided over a highly decentralized production system and could exer-
cise significant autonomy and control (Montgomery 1989: passim; Jacoby
1985: 14). American employers looked to craftsmen not just to organize and
manage production but also to serve as intermediaries in the labor market,
recruiting skilled workers and presiding over the training of apprentices.

39 There is a large literature dealing with the diversity of the American political economy and
with the role of specialized producers in it. See, for example, Scranton (1997), Sabel and
Zeitlin (1997), Hounshell (1984), Nelson (1992), Zeitlin (2000).

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What precise form these arrangements took, as Jacoby points out, varied
across different firms and segments of the industry, from explicit subcon-
tracting arrangements in which independent craftsmen were contracted to
perform specific jobs for which they employed their own workers (similar
to Japanese oyakata), to a more egalitarian “gang system” in which groups
of skilled craftsmen were directly employed by the firm but organized the
work among themselves (similar to craft unions in Britain) ( Jacoby 1985:
14–15).40 Both these systems served important functions for employers
in the early industrial period, and each was attached to specific training
arrangements.
One prominent strategy for securing skills and providing for training
embraced by a significant number of firms in the metalworking industries
in the early industrial period was internal contracting. As in the oyakata
system described for Japan, machine and metalworking firms negotiated
contracts with highly skilled workers for specific jobs in the plant. These
craftsmen then hired and supervised their own skilled work crew, who of-
ten themselves employed unskilled helpers (Brody 1980: 9–10; Rorabaugh
1986: 65; Jacoby 1985: Chapter 1 and especially 14–16). Inside contracting
was widely practiced as early as the 1820s in the Lowell machinery industry
(Rorabaugh 1986: 65), and it was common in the iron, steel, metalworking
and machinery industries throughout the late nineteenth century and (in
smaller companies) even into the early twentieth century (Clawson 1980:
28, 75–76; Buttrick 1952: 216; Nelson 1975: 37; Patten 1968: 18). Among
the companies using this system were such giants as Lowell (one of the 70
largest machine shops), Pratt and Whitney, and Whitin. As Clawson notes,
“those establishments which are known to have used inside contracting are
among the leaders of the U.S. industry of 1860 or 1880. Not only were they
among the largest companies of their time, but they were also the techno-
logical leaders of their day” (Clawson 1980: 76–7). In the machine industry
generally “inside contracting had spread between 1860 and 1890 to such
an extent that a government study found it ‘practically universal in New
England’ and commonplace elsewhere” (Montgomery 1989: 187).
For firms in skill-intensive industries, inside contracting offered a num-
ber of advantages. Above all, and in light of the severe skilled labor short-
ages throughout the nineteenth century, managers found it more efficient

40 The different models also coexisted and in many cases shaded into each other in practice. For
example, skilled workers who served as contractors for one job might later find themselves
working for another foreman on the next job (Clawson 1980: 107–8).

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and inexpensive to leave the recruitment of labor and even the day-to-day
management of production to autonomous (often foreign-speaking) crafts-
men (Soffer 1960: 144). Inside contractors performed vital functions in skill
formation, since these craftsmen employed and trained their own helper-
apprentices. By controlling work organization and job assignments, they
were essentially able to determine who acquired skills and of what sort. “At
a time when work experience was a far more important qualification than
education, the contractor could decide which employees should be trained
as skilled workers and which should do routine work” (Clawson 1980: 104;
Rorabaugh 1986: 65). Through their role as intermediaries in skilled labor
markets, inside contractors also served the function of “certifying” the skills
of specific workers. They could directly vouch for the specific job experi-
ence and training of the workers they had trained and help connect them
to jobs in the industry.
Such were also exactly the functions performed by unions of skilled work-
ers in the early industrial period, and as Soffer has pointed out, in some cases
the autonomous craftsmen of the subcontracting system formed the core
of early American Federation of Labor (AFL) unions (Soffer 1960). Where
skilled workers were well organized, employers sometimes found unions
extremely helpful as intermediaries as they navigated tight labor markets.
Employers turned to unions to help them recruit skilled labor, and (through
their role in apprentice training) vouch for (therefore, “certify”) the skills of
the workers they organized, thus reducing information costs to employers.
Unions also ensured that employers provided apprentices with all-round
training in the trade (important to the union to maintain high wage stan-
dards). A large number of historical studies have pointed to a high degree of
autonomy exercised by skilled workers in many nineteenth century factories
(for example, Montgomery 1989; Brody 1980). Even where employers did
not formally recognize unions, in some regions and industries they came
“to tolerate a high degree of control by unionized skilled workers in the
labor process and the labor market” (Klug 1993: 668–70; Haydu 1988: 28).
As in Britain, the stability of such arrangements was highly contingent
on local market conditions. Where local differences in the strength of craft
controls interfered with competition among firms in product markets em-
ployers vigorously resisted. In a way the exceptional case – that proves
the rule – was the stove foundry industry where unions and employers
reached a relatively enduring settlement in the late nineteenth century be-
cause the unusually well organized International Molders Union (IMU) was
able to aid employers in escaping a vicious cycle of cutthroat competition
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and falling profits by enforcing uniform standards across the industry.41

The conditions that made this accommodation possible, however, and con-
tinued to stabilize it for some time, were rather restrictive, including: the
lack of major technological innovations in the period, the fact that labor
accounted for a large proportion of total production costs, the extremely
high degree of organization achieved by the IMU (in 1891, a full 75% of
stove plate molders), and a degree of centralization and internal discipline
on the union side extraordinary for the time (Klug 1993: 482–501).
Such were not, however, the conditions prevailing through most of the
rest of the metalworking and machine industry at century’s end. As in Britain
so too in the United States, technological and organizational changes in the
closing decades of the nineteenth century led to more intense competition
in product markets throughout the engineering industry – particularly as
technological changes made it possible for companies to increase produc-
tivity and reduce labor costs through rationalization. These developments
heightened tensions between skilled craftsmen and employers, as the un-
even enforcement of craft controls (more pronounced in the United States
than in Britain) only increased distortions in product market competition
among firms.
In the case of firms relying on subcontracting arrangements, heightened
product market competition resulted in intense new strains on autonomous
craftsmen that completely undermined their role in training apprentices.
Particularly after the depression of the 1890s, managers passed cost pres-
sures directly onto inside contractors; putting “relentless pressure on [them]
for cheaper output” (quote from Montgomery 1989: 210; Buttrick 1952:
219–20). The inside contracting system had always (by its very structure
and logic) given contractors a “monetary interest in maximizing the output
of a group of his workmates” (Montgomery 1989: 187; also Nelson 1975:
37), and they were therefore very receptive to technological and organiza-
tional changes that would generate higher profits. At the same time, their
participation in such labor-saving (and especially skilled labor-saving) mea-
sures undermined the original source of their power as intermediaries in
skilled labor markets and trainers of skilled workers.
These new technology- and product market-based pressures had a sim-
ilarly corrosive effect on skill formation regimes rooted in associations of
skilled workers. Skilled unions in many industries traditionally had allowed

41 The most exhaustive study of this fascinating case can be found in Klug (1993: especially
482–501). But see also Motley (1907: Chapter IV, 42–52) for a contemporary account.

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their members to employ apprentices as “helpers.” At century’s end, how-

ever, and particularly with the growth of piecework pay in this period,
craftsmen faced incentives to increase their own output and earnings by
subdividing the work, cutting corners on training, and using apprentices
as cheap extra hands. As Motley put it, “both employers and employing
journeymen found it profitable to engage the services of many apprentices”
(Motley 1907: 24). The “helper system” (a.k.a. the “Berkshire” or “buck”
system, depending on the industry) set in motion dynamics that were self-
reinforcing and deeply disruptive to training. The problem – as described
by Klug for the molding industry – was that: “so long as even a few trades-
men used helpers, and a company set molding prices in accordance with
their rate of production, then all molders (even those opposed to the helper
system) were forced to go along in order to make decent earnings” (Klug
1993: 441–2; see also Motley 1907: 22–4). Thus in this period one sees
union leaders, with varying degrees of success, appealing for controls on
the use of helpers based on the argument that the dynamics this would
unleash could only lead to a general deterioration of the position of skilled
workers within the trade.42
The dominant theme of this period in the United States, as in Britain,
however, was heightened tensions between craft unions and employers over
the right to manage production. The last two decades of the nineteenth cen-
tury had seen a sharp increase in unionization among skilled workers, as
well as the founding of key unions including the American counterpart to
the British ASE, the International Association of Machinists (IAM, founded
in 1888). In some industries, employers experimented with collective bar-
gaining as a way to manage relations with their workers and to organize
competition among themselves. As Swenson notes, in the period between
1895 and 1905, “about 19 employers’ associations and 16 unions had ne-
gotiated no fewer than 26 national or large district agreements” including
in 1899 and 1900 agreements in the engineering industry “where foundries
and machine shops produced metal goods and machinery for America’s ex-
panding farming, manufacturing and consuming economy” (Swenson 2002:
49). These agreements spun into crisis, however (as in Britain), in the face
of continuing disputes between labor and capital over “control” issues and
the apparent inability of union leaders to rein in militant locals (Brody
1980: 24–5).

42 It is no coincidence that the IMU stands out among organizations of metal craftsmen at
century’s end in banning the use of bucks (helpers) by its members.

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The resulting conflicts (similar in form and also in timing to the Great
Lockout in the British engineering industry described in Chapter 3) cul-
minated in the United States in a more concerted and, from management’s
perspective, overall more successful effort to eliminate union influence in
plant decision making – the “open shop” movement.43 Given their rela-
tively late emergence and weaker presence than in Britain, unions in the
United States were mostly deemed by employers to be too unevenly or-
ganized and insufficiently disciplined to be of use to them in regulating
competition among themselves and were seen as more likely than not to
introduce disruptive distortions. In addition, the development of mass mar-
kets, combined with technological changes

made union restrictions more irksome to U.S. employers and simultaneously re-
duced their reliance on craft unionists to get the work done. [Members of the
employers association for the metalworking industries (National Metal Trades As-
sociation, or NMTA)] thus had both greater interest and greater resources to attack
craft standards. Because the erosion of craft control was under way before the IAM’s
consolidation, U.S. employers had another advantage: relatively feeble union op-
position. The NMTA faced a union much weaker than the ASE. (Haydu 1988: 86;
see also Klug 1993: 334)44

Employers were most radical in their anti-unionism in precisely those bas-

tions of craft-union strength (for example, Detroit) where unions could
impose standards, for these were the employers who found themselves at
a competitive disadvantage in national product markets. As a measure of
the determinedness of employers and the fragility of unions, even in such
“union” cities, it took only a few years for employers to marginalize orga-
nized labor and impose the open shop (Klug 1993).
The strategies that firms in skill-dependent industries pursued to con-
solidate their victory over craft unions varied. One of the most important
differences was between large and small firms. Large employers often co-
opted individual skilled workers into the plant hierarchy, thus transform-
ing them into agents in a so-called “drive” system that relied on increas-
ing output through task simplification (and associated increased reliance
on semi-skilled labor), combined with worker intimidation and bullying

43 On the “open shop” movement in the United States, see, among others, Brody (1980),
Montgomery (1989), Klug (1993).
44 Union presence, it should be noted, was highly uneven. In some localities, for example,
Detroit and Philadelphia, the IAM had established a significant presence among machinists
(Klug 1993: 668).

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( Jacoby 1985). For example, in the aftermath of a crushing defeat of the

unions at Carnegie Steel Works, managers devised a new structure in which
they “grafted” the top craftsmen (among them, the blowers, melters, and
rollers) onto the firm’s management structure, making them low-level su-
pervisors (Montgomery 1989: 41). At Winchester Repeating Arms Com-
pany, similar policies were pursued; managers eased the transition of for-
merly independent craftsmen to company foremen through the use of a
bonus system (replacing former contract-based profits) and by allowing the
foremen to exercise discretion in recruitment of workers (Buttrick 1952:
219–20). The more general pattern was to pay salaried foremen a fixed rate,
in effect reversing the previous system of payment and incentives. Where
previously independent contractors were paid by the job and in turn paid
their own workers by the hour, now the foremen were hired at fixed pay
and the workers were put on piece rates (Clawson 1980: 169).
Foremen under the drive system exercised wide discretion within their
own departments and performed their newly acquired management func-
tions with gusto. As Jacoby puts it, these were “arrogant, proud, conser-
vative men, mindful of the position to which their skill and knowledge
had elevated them. Often they wore white shirts to work and seated them-
selves at raised desks in the middle of the shop floor. But despite their
former status as skilled workers, most foremen were strenuously anti-
union. They were well aware that their authority depended on sever-
ing ties to their pasts. As one observer noted, ‘they spurn the rungs by
which they did ascend’ ” ( Jacoby 1985: 16). Important for present pur-
poses, these craftsmen cum foremen were specifically not attached to any
new system of skill formation. Very unlike their counterparts in Japan,
U.S. managers in many of these companies sought to deal with the “skill
problem” through an overall shift toward standardized production based
on semi-skilled labor and increased output through “drive” and incentive
wages.
Small and medium-sized firms with no or few managerial layers and
fewer opportunities to engage in extensive rationalization pursued some-
what different policies. Small machine shops were not in a position to en-
gage in extensive rationalization measures because of the nature of their
product, and an internalization of skill formation was not an option be-
cause of their size (Hansen 1997: 477; Jacoby 1985: 69). Their continuing
higher dependence on skills rendered them more exposed to craft control
strategies, which often fueled a strong anti-union sentiment. Such firms

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were represented in national political debates by the National Association

of Manufacturers (NAM) which intensely opposed organized labor. These
small skill-dependent firms (through and with NAM) sought to replace their
reliance on craft unions through employer coordination (Harris 1991) and
lobbied for publicly funded vocational education where the curriculum of
local trade schools, it was hoped, would be “geared to the specific needs of
local employers” ( Jacoby 1985: 69; see also Hansen 1997: 476–8, 630).
A degree of coordination was achieved in certain localities, for exam-
ple, among metal manufacturers in Philadelphia.45 After the failure of the
national agreement with unions in the metalworking industry, the Metal
Manufacturers Association (MMA) of Philadelphia set up its own labor
bureau to provide job placement services for local skilled metal crafts-
men, aiming to break the union’s “stranglehold” on the local labor mar-
ket (Harris 1991: 125) and also attempting to mitigate poaching among
firms through coordination: “To the extent that they hired through the bu-
reau, [association members] were inhibited from hiring skilled men from
one another, a practice which, in rush times, gave scarce manpower a real
advantage. . . . [Through coordination among themselves, the firms] were
creating an association-wide approximation to an internal labor market for
the benefit of members who could not possibly have built their own at the
level of the individual firm” (Harris 1991: 126).
To facilitate and encourage such coordination, the MMA published la-
bor market data designed to counteract the ability of workers to whipsaw
employers – among other things by exposing member firms who paid above
the going rate in times of labor scarcity (Harris 1991: 127–8).46 In addition,

45 This account draws on an excellent study by Harris (1991). Philadelphia is not the only case,
however; Cincinnati is another (see Haydu in progress), also Minneapolis (Millikan 2001).
In general, the smaller, more specialized machinery producers worried a lot about skills and
formed the backbone of an NAM campaign to encourage public vocational schools. Anxious
commentaries on the decline of apprenticeship that appeared in trade journals like American
Machinist and Iron Age in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries reflect the
concerns of these small skill-intensive producers. Cincinnati later made significant strides
in some aspects of training, working closely with educators such as Herman Schneider who
sought to bolster links between technical and practical training. I thank Jeffrey Haydu for
emphasizing the fact that there were a variety of local efforts along such lines.
46 In the 1920s firms that did not belong to the association also began to supply the MMA
with data on their own operations, and even large firms joined the small-firm-dominated
MMA in order to gain access to this information. It was extremely useful as an orientation
point in setting their own (above market) wages, to secure the top workers in the local labor
pool.

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the employment records the MMA maintained for individual workers

served a kind of certification function:

With the breakdown of traditional apprenticeship, and given the inadequacy of

formal training provision, this imperfect labor market for skilled men even served
as a way of organizing the process of ‘picking up a trade.’ . . . A man’s employment
record with the MMA turned into a sort of certificate of competence, or at least
proof of experience. An employer did not have to rely entirely on trying the man
out – an expensive, chancy business. (Harris 1991: 126)

Although relatively successful in its day, this type of coordination was

ultimately vulnerable to the same kinds of problems as afflicted region-
ally based craft labor market control through unions. As in Britain, the
stimulus for employer organization and the glue that held the association
together was the “labor challenge,” and as in Britain such coordination was
always vulnerable to prevailing conditions in product markets (where the
incentives to cheat in times of labor shortages were intense) and the lim-
ited “reach” of the association (in this case encompassing only the local
labor market), which left it vulnerable to disruption by firms outside the
association.
The other strand of the strategy was the movement for publicly funded
vocational training. This campaign, spearheaded initially by the NAM, drew
inspiration from the apparently highly successful German system (Hansen
1997: 476–8, 630–1). NAM representatives never tired of drawing invidious
comparisons between Germany and public schooling in the United States,
which – under the influence at the local level of civic minded middle-class
activists and at the national level of professional educators – emphasized
pre-professional training for middle-class youth to the virtual exclusion
of any vocational element (on this subject see especially Hansen 1997:
Chapters 6–8). The political lobbying for vocational training did not bear
much fruit, however, not least because of lackluster support from larger
corporations and the impossibility of any kind of a coalition with the most
likely ally, organized labor.
Labor leaders such as Samuel Gompers shared NAM’s critique of the
American educational system as overly bookish and organized too exclu-
sively around the needs and interests of college bound middle-class chil-
dren (Hansen 1997: 479–83). Labor unions complained that the system
bypassed the needs of blue-collar children. Given NAM’s deep and vocal
anti-union bias, however, organized labor was justifiably worried that pub-
licly funded trade schools would be dominated by employers and put to
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use as “scab hatcheries,” that is, “merely a method by which the employ-
ers could train swarms of boys, inculcate them with anti-union doctrines,
and then bring them into factories to undermine wages and deprive union
men of employment” (quote from Douglas 1921: 315; see also Kelly 1920:
76; Hansen 1997: 480). Organized labor’s experiences with private trade
schools in the decades between about 1880 to 1910 did nothing to allay
their concerns. Even if “open hostility to the unions was practiced by only
a few schools . . . most of the schools were distinctly unsympathetic towards
collective bargaining and their covert influence was anti-union” (Douglas
1921: 316). When push came to shove, organized labor was more inclined to
oppose a separate vocational track that was susceptible to employer capture
than to stick to the current (albeit middle-class-oriented, overly academic)
system of public schooling, convinced as they were that “dedicated trade
and industrial schools, whether private or public, posed more of a threat
to labor market stability than vocational tracks within educator-dominated
public schools” (Hansen 1997: 482).47
By about 1910, organized labor had come around to a much more pos-
itive attitude toward public vocational schools (Cremin 1964: 50–7), and
the AFL wound up endorsing a proposal similar to NAM’s, though there
was no cooperation between the two.48 Overall, though, ongoing conflicts
between organized labor and employers over control issues subverted any
kind of coalition forming around a vocational alternative within the public
school realm, despite the fact that both sides saw (different) merits to such
a system (Douglas 1921: 328–9; Hansen 1997: 478, 483). The entire dis-
cussion over vocational education, therefore, produced only one piece of
(mostly ineffectual) national legislation, the 1917 National Vocational Ed-
ucation Act (Smith Hughes Act), which funded some state programs, but
which never managed to forge a strong link between school-based training
and the economy (for a full analysis, see Hansen 1997: Chapters 6–7). As
Kelly noted in 1920: “The chief fault of continuation education is that no
plan has been devised for combining civic and general academic studies with
technical or shopwork designed to help the pupil to make progress in his
employment . . . For these reasons [lack of a link to the economy and com-
pany needs] the teaching is strongly academic and children attend because

47 See for example, the statement by the president of the United Textile Workers of New York
City in 1909, worrying about the extent to which public and private trade schools would
be used to produce “half-baked journeymen” (in Kelly 1920: 76).
48 I thank Jeff Haydu for emphasizing this to me.

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they are compelled to, not because they hope to profit by the opportunity”
(Kelly 1920: 73).

The Wisconsin Model

An important – and for present purposes instructive – exception to this
pattern emerged in Wisconsin in the 1910s, specifically in the area around
Milwaukee, which was an important center for the American machine in-
dustry.49 As in Philadelphia, machine firms in the Milwaukee area were
looking for ways to replace union-dominated apprenticeship with other
organizational forms in order to preserve the supply of skilled labor
on which they relied. Facing increased pressures of skilled labor short-
ages and (related) high labor mobility and wage competition in the first
decade of the twentieth century, officers of leading machine makers such as
Allis-Chalmers and Kearney & Trecker took the lead in organizing local
machine manufacturers around the goal of systematizing apprentice train-
ing in the region (Parker 1996: 16–17). But whereas similar efforts in other
urban areas (for example, Chicago) foundered on the weaknesses of vol-
untarism in the face of highly competitive product markets, the Wisconsin
system was substantially shored up by active state sponsorship. The vic-
tory in 1910 of a socialist mayor set the stage for the founding of a system
of jointly (union-employer) administered apprenticeship training that was
brokered and sustained by the active intervention of the state (Parker 1996:
19–21). The political turn to the left eliminated the option of employers
instituting a system against organized labor and provided unions with the re-
assurances (elsewhere lacking) that training initiatives would not be used to
glut the market with skilled labor and drive down wages (Hansen 1997: 483,
566).
The contours of the “Wisconsin system” can be briefly described as fol-
lows (Cooley 1915; Parker 1996). A state law passed in 1911 and amended
and extended in 1915 established a framework for the registration, moni-
toring, and certification of apprentice training. Every apprentice contract
was to be made formally, in writing, with a copy filed with the state in-
dustrial commission. Employers were required to grant their apprentices

49 On the Wisconsin “model” see especially Parker (1996) and Hansen (1997: Chapter 6),
and for a contemporary characterization see the article by R. L Cooley (superintendent
in charge of Milwaukee’s continuation schools) in the Bulletin of the National Association for
Corporation Schools, April 1914 (Cooley 1914).

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a minimum of five hours per week of paid time off to attend classes in the
local continuation schools, to submit to the regulation of trainees’ hours
and wages, and to adhere to a specification of the particular processes to
be taught the workmen and the approximate time to be spent on each.
The entire system was placed under the supervision of a state industrial
commission, which was granted powers to classify trades and industries, to
construct and supervise apprentice contracts, and to essentially underwrite
such contracts by acting as a mediator in the case of violations by, or dif-
ferences between, apprentices and employers (Douglas 1921: 78–9; Kelly
1920: 141). This commission established a “state apprenticeship board”
composed of representatives of employers, unions, and state continuation
schools, which was charged with administering the act and given certifica-
tion and oversight powers.
The system as it was developed in the 1910s in Wisconsin mimicked
some aspects of the German model, an outcome closely related to the
German roots of a number of prominent machine manufacturers, them-
selves immigrant skilled craftsmen or their descendants (Hansen 1997:
566). It proved possible – at least for a time – to institutionalize a fairly
well-articulated system of apprentice training that established transpar-
ent and uniform training standards for firms and instituted the kind of
certification process that made investment in training attractive as well
for youth. Backed up by legal and parapublic oversight, apprenticeship
thrived in the Wisconsin metalworking industries in the pre-World War I
period.50
The weakness of the Wisconsin experiment – and at the root of its demise
which began in the 1920s – was its limited scope. One big problem was
poaching externalities that made training increasingly expensive for firms,
as employers in neighboring cities (especially in northern Illinois) lured
skilled workers away with the prospect of higher wages (sustainable since
they were not bearing training costs) (Parker 1996; Hansen 1997: 655). The
disincentives to train were made stronger by concurrent trends, especially
stagnant employment in the 1920s that relieved some of the pressure in
skilled labor markets and made unskilled labor cheaper and more attrac-
tive. The most “committed” firms stayed in the Wisconsin system, but the
interest in training waned for many other employers (Parker 1996: 24–5),
and the 1920s saw Wisconsin’s metalworking firms turning increasingly

50 Douglas (1921: 79) reports an increase in the number of apprentice contracts signed be-
ginning in 1912 after the first legislation was passed (see also Morris 1921: 292).

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to the same rationalization strategies that had taken hold in other regions
(Hansen 1997: 651–2).51

The Corporation School Movement in the United States

If ongoing conflict between craft unions and employers in most regions
and industries undermined the prospect for achieving a stable (national)
framework for apprentice training, there also existed possibilities, for large
firms at least, to turn to a more segmentalist solution to skill formation.
As Swenson has noted, the period before the First World War had seen
the emergence of an alternative strategy, “a kinder, gentler war against or-
ganized labor” than that being waged by the NAM (Swenson 2002: 54).
Broadly, the idea behind the alternative approach of “welfare capitalism”
was for firms to “inoculate themselves from the disease of radical union-
ism” through generous company-based social policies (Swenson 2002: 54
and Chapter 3 passim; Montgomery 1989; Jacoby 1985; Brody 1980). To
this end, prominent welfare capitalists like Westinghouse, Du Pont, Gen-
eral Electric, Goodyear, National Cash Register, and many others, offered
their workers higher wages, more vacation time, and various company-
based insurance benefits (Swenson 2002: 55). Such policies were often
associated with moves to render company personnel policy more system-
atic and “rational” through centralization, thus “relieving” foremen of
some of their personnel functions (Kelly 1920: 118–19). Welfare capitalists
found that the drive system, with its arbitrary and abusive foremen, often
contributed to labor unrest and high labor mobility, and they sought to curb
these tendencies by bringing foremen under the closer supervision of per-
sonnel departments that were attuned to the “human relations” aspects of
management ( Jacoby 1985: Chapter 2; also Kelly 1920: 74; Buttrick 1952:
218).
Welfare capitalists also often stood at the forefront of innovations in the
area of in-plant vocational training. Skill development was seen as crucial

51 As Parker points out there is some irony in the fact that even as their (coordinated, multi-
employer) apprentice system began to thrive, firms in the Wisconsin system (including
even leaders such as Falk) were pursuing rationalization policies and introducing mass
production techniques designed to reduce their reliance on skilled labor (Parker 1996: 4,
32). Whereas apprentice registrations had risen steadily between 1914 and 1925, from 21
to a peak of 821, they dropped steadily after 1925, to a mere 46 registrants in 1933. The
system as a whole was “pushed into oblivion by the economic crisis of the early 1930s”
(Hansen 1997: 650–1; Parker 1996).

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to the cultivation of a loyal and dedicated workforce.52 Thus, promi-

nent welfare capitalists were outspoken proponents and practitioners of
company-based training as an alternative to union apprenticeship programs
(Jacoby 1985: 69). Managers were also motivated by the apparent limits of
the drive system, since foremen who were under pressure to increase pro-
duction were disinclined to devote resources to training young workers.
In an essay called “Reasons for the shortage of skilled mechanics and how
manufacturers can overcome the deficiency,” A. F. Barwell of the Yale and
Towne Manufacturing Company (Connecticut) noted that often foremen
“had not the time, patience or liking for inexperienced young men” (NACS
1913: 121; see also Park 1914: 13–14). Magnus Alexander of General Elec-
tric articulated a similar critique in a 1916 address to the Iron and Steel
Electrical Engineers, arguing that foremen were not well suited to train-
ing and that in his experience they mostly saw apprentices as an unwanted
burden (Alexander 1921: 235, 243).
The firms that founded corporation schools in the United States before
World War I included many of the best known manufacturers in the en-
gineering industry, including Brown and Sharpe, Ford, General Electric,
and Westinghouse, among others (Parker 1996; Morris 1921). Hoe and
Company, manufacturer of printing press equipment, was the first large
American company to open a company-based school for training appren-
tices and workmen (in 1872) (Douglas 1921: 213); Westinghouse Com-
pany followed suit in 1888 (Morris 1921: 2–17; Hansen 1997: 267). In 1896
Brown and Sharpe began employing a supervisor dedicated to the task of
training the firm’s (at that time) 70 apprentices, a measure followed up in
1908 by “the establishment of a formal apprentice school that taught ma-
chine drafting, math, business English, and foremanship” for what had by
then grown to over 140 apprentices (Hansen 1997: 268). The movement
to introduce company training schools picked up steam in the early 1900s,
in the immediate aftermath of the control struggles with unions mentioned
above and the failure of national collective bargaining in these industries.53

52 See, for example, the article by E. J. Mehren, who characterized corporation schools as “A
Factor in Alleviating Industrial Unrest” (Mehren 1914).
53 The pages of the Bulletin for corporation school pioneers hint at how firms were hoping,
through new training practices, to redirect the loyalties of young workers away from other
workers in their trade, and toward the company. They are full of testimony and tips for
employers on how to reduce “unhealthy” influences on young trainees. For example a
manager of one machinery company reported on his company’s policy: “The policy of the
shop school of the Shoe Machinery Company is to keep the boys away from the journeymen

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Major companies such as General Electric and International Harvester

inaugurated their own programs for in-plant training, in connection with
a broader range of company-based welfare measures designed to cultivate
a docile and loyal workforce.54
The programs of the most prominent companies (detailed in Morris
1921) are similar in some ways to those being inaugurated around the
same time in Germany, Japan, and Britain, combining more systematic
on-the-job training with significant theoretical instruction. In addition to
participating in the in-plant component, some of Westinghouse’s “more se-
rious students” attended classes at the local Technical High School, which,
although formally independent, received substantial funding (a third of its
budget) from the company (Morris 1921: 10–11).55 These firms also sought
to replace ad hoc on-the-job instruction with more systematic and uniform
procedures. “Firms like Hoe & Co., Brown & Sharpe, and Pratt & Whitney
began to systematize training for all their apprentices, reinstituted formal
indentures of four years duration, paid a wage supplemented by a substantial
bonus upon completion of the program, and required their apprentices to
take formal instruction in mechanical drawing and mathematics, either in
a company night school or some other type of formal instruction” (Hansen
1997: 267–8).
In 1913, the leading U.S. firms with company-based training founded
the National Association of Corporation Schools (NACS), which shared
some superficial similarities to DATSCH, and was designed to be a forum
for the exchange of ideas among companies engaged in training, and more
generally to promote interest in such training programs (Douglas 1921:
214–15; NACS 1913: 15). Advocates of firm-based training such as Thomas
Donnelly (of R. R. Donnelly and Sons of Chicago) hoped “that a school
for the training of their own mechanics will be established by every large
manufacturing concern in the country, and if the National Association of
Corporation Schools can be instrumental in accomplishing this result, the
question of vocational training in America is settled” (NACS 1913: 136).

while learning for the first year or two” (NACS 1913: 106). A representative of Yale and
Towne Manufacturing Company reported his firm’s similar orientation: “Special emphasis
is placed on the fact that the students are separated for the first three years from the
journeymen while in the shop” (NACS 1913: 114).
54 Douglas (1921: 214) includes a (non-exhaustive) listing of 23 companies that opened cor-
poration training schools between 1905 and 1913. These include many of the leaders of
the metalworking industries, and leaders as well in the corporate welfare movement of the
day. See also Alexander (1921), which discusses the GE program in particular.
55 As in Britain, students paid their own fees, however.

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A significant number of NACS member firms sought to stabilize and

enhance the quality of their programs by requiring formal, contractual in-
dentures.56 Leading companies such as GE, Western Electric, Brown and
Sharpe, and Westinghouse awarded apprentices bonuses of up to $100 on
completion of their programs (Morris 1921: 21 on GE, 40–1 on Western
Electric, 135 on Brown and Sharpe; also NACS 1913); a smaller number
collected a forfeitable deposit from apprentices or their parents at the start
of the program (Morris 1921: 236). In a survey of 31 manufacturers with
corporation schools, a full 27 reported that they paid bonuses to their ap-
prentices on graduation, finding such rewards to be “a good stimulus and
in reality it is practically a deduction from their wages (in lieu of a bond)”
(NACS 1913).
As emphasized in Chapter 1, however, the more effective inducement
for an apprentice to complete his term was some sort of certification that
held value in the labor market. The importance of certification was not lost
on the premier training firms in the United States, and in the absence of
any overarching scheme, many firms issued their own company certificates
on completion of training. GE issued its certificates in pocket-sized leather
cases so that apprentices could carry them around (Commerce 1930: 43).
Morris reports that it was general practice to confer certificates on comple-
tion of training, but he also notes that there existed no collectively defined,
uniform standards for training, so the value of the certificate an apprentice
received “depend[ed] much on the standing of the company conferring it”
(Morris 1921: 237).
For firms that invested in high-quality apprentice training, such repu-
tational effects were not without weight, and these companies experi-
enced significant problems with poaching by other firms (Morris 1921:
30–1, 217). Jacoby reports widespread raiding of newly trained employees
by competitors. “At General Electric’s Lynn plant, less than one-fourth
of its trade apprenticeship graduates remained with the firm, and other
NACS members encountered similar difficulty holding on to their grad-
uates” ( Jacoby 1985: 68). Hansen cites findings reported by the NACS
itself (1914: 408–9), from a survey of member firms, that only 9.1% of
apprentices who started training programs stayed with the firm (Hansen
1997: 280). In short, the premier training companies were the object of in-
tense raiding by other firms, and a prominent advocate of firm-based train-
ing, the economist Paul Douglas, noted with some frustration, “Though it

56 For the practices of the main companies, see Morris (1921).

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would be a benefit to the industry as a whole to have a supply of well-trained

apprentices, to the individual firm it usually spells a loss” (Douglas 1921:
81–2; emphasis in the original).

The Politics of Training during and after World War I

These collective action problems were severe but arguably solvable and
therefore less decisive to the fate of apprenticeship training in the United
States than the class politics that developed during and after World War I.
During this time skilled labor shortages and resurgent unions revived cross-
class conflict over control issues and, in consequence, reinforced employer
strategies of intensified rationalization and union avoidance after the war.
Training efforts were redirected away from vocational skills for manual
workers and toward training foremen in human relations and “people” skills
to make them more effective supervisors of semi-skilled workers. Thus, as
in the other countries examined in this book, developments during and
immediately after the First World War were crucial to the trajectory of
training in the United States.
The exigencies of war production and the resulting labor shortages in the
United States led to a revitalization of craft unions and a resurgence of labor
militancy.57 This was nowhere more true than in the engineering industry,
which was a key sector for the war effort. Membership in the IAM rose dra-
matically, from seventy-two thousand in 1915 to more than three hundred
and five thousand by 1918 (Haydu 1997: 53). Labor unrest and strikes in-
creased exponentially, again particularly in the metal trades, as unions took
advantage of tight labor markets to press for employer concessions – union
recognition, but also a range of other material and control issues. Interven-
ing gingerly in highly charged conflicts, government agencies (the War and
Labor Departments) often brought union leaders into national discussions
aimed at stabilizing industrial relations in key industries. Moreover, even
if government policy did not force companies to bargain collectively with
unions, it generally made it impossible for managers to continue to openly
discriminate against unionists.
What did these rejuvenated craft unions want? They wanted conces-
sions on a range of material benefits – shorter working hours, longer

57 For an excellent account of developments during the war and their implications for post-
war industrial relations, see Haydu (1997). The following paragraphs draw particularly on
Chapter 2 of that book.

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vacation times, and higher wages – that even open shop employers were
prepared to accommodate. But militant unions also used wartime condi-
tions to put forth demands for more thoroughgoing changes. As Haydu
notes, “By early 1918 . . . workers were also pressing issues that more seri-
ously challenged the open shop order – above all, demands for classification,
union rights, and the recognition of union shop committees” (Haydu
1997: 59).
The call for classifications is especially significant in the context of the
present study. From the perspective of workers, the drive system was espe-
cially brutal, as it meant all-powerful and capricious foremen who sponta-
neously meted out highly arbitrary decisions regarding layoffs, promotions,
and wages. Workers looked on as foremen passed over qualified colleagues
in favor of relatives or friends for jobs and choice work assignments, and as
they put untrained workers on machinists’ jobs at lower pay. During the war
unions voiced demands for more systematic and equitable treatment, and
one prominent demand was for the introduction of classification schemes
with a small number of standard categories (each associated with a uniform,
minimum level of pay) ( Jacoby 1985: 151–2). In many cases such demands
were limited to skilled jobs, but in crucial centers of war production such
as Bridgeport and Newark, local unions took them further and requested
“extending proposals for classification to specialists and machine operators”
as well (Haydu 1997: 60).
All such demands struck at the heart of managerial control and employers
resisted them ferociously – and, one must add, very successfully. Where
classification schemes were introduced – through government sponsored
awards, for example – they were designed to curb flagrantly unfair policies
but they typically did not allow unions a role in setting or administering job
standards, nor did they facilitate coordination among workers on a local or
regional level (Haydu 1997: 66).58
Meanwhile, as skilled labor sources from Europe completely dried up
during the war (Commerce 1930: 27) and as pressures for production
mounted, firms abandoned their more elaborate training programs in fa-
vor of rationalization and work reorganization to reduce reliance on skilled

58 Government awards usually suggested that classifications be worked out jointly between
shop committees and management on a plant-by-plant basis, rather than by craft unions
on a local or regional level – which would have established standards and categories that
cut across different firms.

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workers altogether. The focus of training shifted toward narrower measures

aimed at getting newly recruited migrant labor (often, African Americans
from the south and women) up to speed quickly. “Faced with an inade-
quate supply of skilled labor and the supreme need for an unprecedented
volume of output, manufacturers and shipbuilders, assisted by government
departments, turned to vestibule training and other forms of intensive
instruction” (Kelly 1920: 74–5, 134).
“Vestibule training” was designed to accommodate and work around
(rather than confront and overcome) skilled labor shortages; it was a system
that rested on “principles of production management . . . first enunciated by
the leaders of the scientific management movement” (Kelly 1920: 153).59
Unlike traditional apprenticeship (in any of its many incarnations) there was
no pretense of training a worker in a trade, no fixed period of training, and
no legal supervision or indentures (Douglas 1921: 220–1). Rather, vestibule
training was designed to train workers quickly in single, very specialized
operations. One of its practitioners described it as follows:

The vestibule school is to the industrial organization what the vestibule is to the
home. In the home it is a place where the entrant stops, wipes his shoes on the mat,
adjusts his garments, and performs those duties that prepare him to enter the house
proper. In the factory or office it is a place which detains the incoming employee
until he has become adjusted to a new environment and has been prepared to handle
the essential elements of his prospective work. (quoted in Douglas 1921: 220)

The training was very short (in some cases three to ten days), typically in
a single operation. As workers were shifted to new jobs within the company,
they would in some cases be sent back to the vestibule school for additional
training on the new operation (Douglas 1921: 221). Companies like the
Recording and Computing Machines Company of Dayton, Ohio, started a
vestibule school in 1917–1918 in response to skill shortages. In this school,
and in many others like it founded at the time,

no effort was made to train for more than one particular job. The training was not
advertised as general mechanical education, but every pupil understood that she
was being taught in a very short period and that if she came to have any mechanical
skill it would have to be acquired through her work in the shop. In less than ten
days the girls were trained to operate hand-turret lathes on work requiring a high

59 The turn to narrow, specialized training also followed from difficulties firms had during
the war to get apprentices to sign on “at reasonable [wage] rates” (in light of tight labor
markets and thus the prospect of higher wages for semi-skilled work), and the problems of
keeping apprentices in place for the full training term (Kelly 1920: 134).

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degree of precision, and it is claimed by the company that these girls when entering
the shop attacked the work on their machines with vigor and confidence. (Kelly
1920: 156)60

American companies by and large did not abandon such practices when
the hostilities ended. On the contrary, the immediate postwar period re-
vealed just how flimsy was the commitment of even the premier training
firms to high quality all-round apprentice training.61 After a brief surge
in interest during the war (when membership in the National Associa-
tion of Corporation Schools rose from 37 members in September 1913 to
146 members by March 1920 [Douglas 1921: 215],62 the interest of mem-
ber firms completely collapsed when labor markets slackened after the war
ended (Hansen 1997: 570). Even the NACS “began to redirect its attention
from formal, broad based training for skilled and supervisory occupations
to the promotion of informal training schemes on the job” (Hansen 1997:
634). As explained by a representative of the American Management Asso-
ciation (into which the NACS successor organization was folded in 1923):
“Corporation schools as such have pretty much gone out of style. The
newer point of view is that of training on the job’ ” (quoted in Hansen
1997: 635).
The comparison to Germany is probably the most dramatic. Whereas
German engineering firms in the 1920s were making a concerted effort
(though VDMA and DATSCH) to render in-plant skill development for
manual workers more systematic and uniform, their U.S. counterparts
were mostly abandoning their more ambitious training efforts and instead
increasingly emphasizing “the recruitment, selection, and preferment of
personnel, especially of extensively schooled supervisory and white-collar

60 A representative of C. U. Carpenter Company claimed that “We have demonstrated that

strong, healthy women can do work requiring great precision after they are thoroughly
trained quite as well as skilled men mechanics” (quoted in Kelly 1920: 158).
61 Swenson’s work (2002: Chapter 3) goes into a fair amount of detail about the motives behind
the welfare measures adopted by progressive employers both before and after the First
World War. Prominent among the justifications that welfare capitalists cite are the need to
increase worker effort and decrease worker unrest. It is striking, particularly compared to
the Japanese case, how the issue of training and providing for a healthy supply of skills plays
virtually no role in the justifications they cite. There is scarcely a hint that this was of special
concern to them. In smaller companies as well, open shop employers specifically pursued a
variety of “modern” industrial welfare practices (for example, life insurance policies, group
health and accident insurance, paid vacations, loan services, health and safety, rest and
recreation) but specifically and overwhelmingly not apprentice training, which was instead
“found most extensively in closed shops” (NICB 1929: 22).
62 Not all members had company-based schools.

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employees. To the degree that systematic corporation training persisted, it

increasingly became the exclusive preserve of managers, supervisors, and
foremen” (Hansen 1997: 634).63 In short, the trend in the United States
was toward narrow, specialized training for manual workers, combined with
upgraded training for foremen in “human relations” skills and management
techniques (Kelly 1920: 74, Chapter VII passim).
This reorientation must be understood against the backdrop of the devel-
opments during the war described above, and can perhaps best be grasped
in comparative perspective. In Japan, the 1920s saw the consolidation of an
alliance between younger skilled workers and managers in key firms and sec-
tors that presided over the introduction of internal labor markets in which
systematic advancement in the firm (and associated wage increases) were
specifically linked to the ongoing acquisition of skills. In the United States,
personnel departments before the war had been making some progress in
rationalizing and centralizing personnel policies (see, for example, Kelly
1920). After the war, however, top managers looked on the kinds of job
classifications (the basis for internal career ladders) they had been contem-
plating with more concern, worried that such a system would encourage
unionization and promote collective bargaining ( Jacoby 1985: especially
154). The trend after the war, therefore, was if anything toward restoring
some of the powers of foremen within the firm – but also subjecting them
to more rules and investing more resources in their training as supervisors
( Jacoby 1985: especially 193–5).
There continued to be some similarities between the practices imple-
mented in these years by large Japanese firms and American “welfare capi-
talists.” Many of the practices developed in large U.S. corporations before
the war – “above-market” wages, company insurance benefits, and the like –
continued and in some cases were expanded after the war. From the per-
spective of individual workers, these were still attractive employers and
highly desirable places to work. The key contrast to Japan, however, is that
high quality, all-round training, by and large, ceased to be a significant
part of the “efficiency wage” these firms paid to recruit and retain the best
manual workers. Moreover, although these firms were certainly cultivat-
ing worker loyalty and strengthening internal labor markets, in contrast to
Japan, American welfare capitalists were not typically institutionalizing a

63 Such was the case, for example, at GE, where the company had three hundred college
graduates as apprentices in 1921 (Douglas 1921: 219).

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system in which advancement in company-based job ladders was system-

atically and transparently linked to ongoing investment in worker skills
( Jacoby 1985: 154–7). On the contrary: wages continued to be attached to
jobs not workers, and managers shied away from formalized job classifica-
tion schemes and well-defined seniority-based bidding rights because they
worried that these would encourage unionization and collective bargain-
ing, and thus interfere with management’s unfettered right to determine
advancement on the basis of their own assessments of individual worker
merit and effort.
Despite stronger internal labor markets and more concern with reducing
turnover, therefore, promotion decisions continued to be quite decentral-
ized (Jacoby 1985). Firms varied in the extent to which they placed limits on
foreman discretion in this area, with more progressive firms imposing more
rules and subjecting their decisions to more scrutiny. In general, however,
promotion decisions were meant to be based on “merit,” and as very few
firms had formal rating systems in place, the assessment of merit continued
to rely heavily on “personal observation” (Gemmill 1924: 240; Jacoby 1985:
194).64 Practically speaking, the foreman continued to play a crucial role
in determining which workers advanced, “since, as a rule, he has first-hand
knowledge of the abilities of those working under him” (Gemmill 1924:
244; also Schatz 1977: 134).65
The residual powers that foremen continued to command – “to recom-
mend workers for layoff, transfer or firing, the power to distribute oppor-
tunities to work overtime, and the power to issue piecework assignments” –
were extremely important (Schatz 1977: 134). A worker’s earnings in the
United States were very much attached to the job. Despite some exper-
imentation with alternative wage systems, firms after the war tended to
stick to or revert back to traditional piecework. Based on a 1922 survey

64 Gemmill (1924) surveyed 150 firms, and found that 81 relied solely on recommendations
by foremen and supervisors. Formal procedures for job analysis and eligibility lists were
not widespread. A survey conducted in 1929 (cited in Jacoby 1985: 194) found that the
vast majority of firms (85%) still “used no formal system to rate workers for promotion
but rather relied on ‘personal observations’, which can be translated to mean that workers
were promoted at the foreman’s discretion. One semiskilled worker said that the personnel
department at his firm was ‘a joke’ and that workers got their promotions through ‘pull’ ”
( Jacoby 1985: 194).
65 For this reason, too, Gemmill’s (1924) study still discusses as a potential problem the practice
of “retardation” – where foremen hold back rather than promote their best workers, because
these workers are most valuable to the department for output.

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of 50 firms who sent representatives to a convention on personnel policy,

Gemmill noted the
continued popularity of the piece work system of wage payment. The newer wage
systems, about which so much has been written, and which were originally expected
to bring about revolutionary changes in industrial life, have apparently not lived up
to expectations, and have yet to prove their superiority, at least as applied to industry
as a whole. The present study . . . tends to show that the older wage systems, and
especially straight piece work, are in no immediate danger of being superseded by
the more modern and complicated systems. (Gemmill 1922: 208; also Gemmill
1924: 240)

In this system, a foreman’s powers with respect to job assignments were

absolutely crucial to a worker’s wage, because exertion and earnings varied
so much from one job to another (Schatz 1977: 68). Workers even in the
most progressive firms in the 1920s continued to complain bitterly that
foremen used their powers to reward their friends and workers who kow-
towed to them; “in many cases, personnel decisions also depended on the
workers’ race, religion, nationality, lodge membership, and his willingness
to bribe his foreman or perform personal favors for him” (Schatz 1977:
116, 135).66
As Jacoby in particular has emphasized, despite important changes in
personnel policy in the 1920s to ameliorate some of the worst aspects of
the pre-war drive system, foremen were by no means completely divested
of their powers and if anything there was a move to restore to them some of
the powers that personnel departments had previously taken over ( Jacoby
1985: 193, passim). Even in progressive firms like GE and Westinghouse,
workers in the 1920s in America “lived in a half-way house between arbi-
trary rule and systematic policy” (Schatz 1977: 69). Promotion decisions in
particular were not based on systematic job analysis or eligibility lists, but
rather continued to rely a great deal on the seat-of-the-pants judgment of
foremen and supervisors. The continuing decentralization of many aspects
of personnel policy made it difficult to implement the kinds of internal pro-
motion plans that were emerging in the large-firm sector in Japan ( Jacoby
1985: 194). Whatever lines of promotion were operating in these firms, the
criteria through which a worker could hope to advance were, by design, not

66 The same thing applied to layoffs. A survey of large firms published in 1930 found that
in two-thirds of firms, the layoff decisions taken in the downturn of 1929 were made by
foremen and line managers alone; other studies found that the proportion of firms that
involved personnel departments in layoff decisions declined from 36% in 1918 to 24% in
1929 ( Jacoby 1985: 193–4).

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made transparent to him but based on vague and arbitrary “mental lists”
that managers carried around with them, as in “so and so is a good man,
and ought to be shoved along” (Gemmill 1924: 241, 247).67
What are the implications of this for training? From Chapter 1, we recall
that systems of training emphasizing company-specific skills are based on
a sharing of the costs between workers and the firm. In Japan in the 1920s,
for example, workers’ wages began to be tied increasingly to the worker
(and specifically associated with seniority). This provided incentives for the
firm to continue to invest in a worker’s skills, among other reasons to justify
ongoing increases in a worker’s wage. Such a system also made it “safe”
for a worker to invest in company specific skills, knowing that the ongoing
acquisition of such skills would lead to ongoing advancement in the firm’s
internal labor market. In the United States, by contrast, piecework wage
systems meant that a worker’s earnings were determined mostly by the job
he was doing, and not by any characteristic of the worker himself. Moreover,
advancement in the firm hierarchy was not transparently linked to ongoing
acquisition of skills, and indeed continued to reflect arbitrary assessments
on the part of foremen. Despite the fact that many firms reported paying
closer attention to a worker’s length of tenure in transfer and promotion
decisions, seniority was only one consideration among many in the full
range of personnel decisions (Schatz 1977: 116). Reporting the results of
a survey in 1924, Gemmill reports that “in only two instances [out of 150]
can seniority be said to have attained first-rate importance” (Gemmill 1924:
238).68 The link between advancement and training was especially tenuous,
it appears, as evidenced in Gemmill’s off-hand remark that an analysis of the
training systems that existed in some of the firms he studied was “scarcely
essential to a study of industrial promotions” (Gemmill 1924: 244).
The same difference applied not just to movement from production job
to production job, but also to promotion to low-level supervisory posi-
tions. In Japan, the workers who were likely to be promoted to foremen
were the most skilled and experienced of the blue-collar workers. In the
United States, by contrast, workers selected for foremen jobs were more
likely to be simply the fastest: “Other things being equal, a fast worker is

67 According to Gemmill, 108 of 150 firms responded “no” to the question of whether they
had definite lines of promotion known to employees; one firm said that it did have definite
promotion lines but that these were known only to executives and supervisors (Gemmill
1924: 241).
68 It is interesting that these systems existed “by agreement with employees” in two large
railway companies.

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usually preferred for a foremanship, since he is likely to try to speed up the

productivity of all under him to the high pitch which he himself has at-
tained” (Gemmill 1924: 240). The very different conceptions that Japanese
and American employers held of the role of the foreman is clear from these
differences. In Japan, by the 1920s internal promotions of manual work-
ers to supervisory and white-collar positions was beginning to lead to a
blurring of the line between management and union that subsequently be-
came a distinctive feature of the Japanese shop floor regime (Dore 1973:
169–70, Chapter 9 passim).69 In the United States, managers in this same
period began relying much more heavily on recruitment of supervisory and
white-collar personnel from outside the firm, and in particular from among
young persons who had opted against a vocational track of any variety and
instead stayed on for more academic training in high school and beyond.
This too had important implications for the development of vocational
training in the United States. Pre-war lobbying, as noted above, had pro-
duced legislation (the Smith Hughes Act) that provided some government
support for public vocational schools. These schools remained disconnected
from the economy, however, and as firms turned to recruitment from public
high schools and colleges for higher level managerial staff, the benefits to
youth of attending them was not apparent (see especially Hansen 1997).
Again, referring to Becker (1993), any youth who opted to acquire his
training in secondary school (whether vocational track or not) was in effect
bearing the full cost of such training (in the form of fees, but even in the
absence of fees, forgone wages). This being the case, no youth who had a
choice would choose vocational schooling over regular high school and a
possible college track, since vocational schooling did not lead seamlessly to
company jobs and indeed foreclosed options to enter industry in a man-
agerial capacity. U.S. youth responded to these trends and the incentives
they brought with them, and increasingly turned their backs on vocational
training in favor of completing high school, which they began to do in
increasing numbers over the interwar period. The 1920s saw a massive
increase in high school enrollments for 14- to 17-year-olds. Outside the
south (a special case), the number of youth in this age group enrolled in
high school rose dramatically between 1910 and 1935 from 20 to nearly
80% (Hansen 1997: 660).

69 Although there was some retrogression of Japanese practices as well after the labor scarcity
and unrest of World War I had abated. For an analysis that stresses the parallels between
Japan and the United States more see Jacoby (1993).

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The incentives in the U.S. system led to a kind of negative selection,

in which weaker not stronger youth found their way into the vocational
track, with the predictable effect that these schools became stigmatized as
“lyceums for losers” (Hansen 1997: 538).70 This being the case, employ-
ers became less inclined to tap these schools for recruits, and less inclined
generally to support the expansion and improvement of vocationally ori-
ented public schooling. Against the backdrop of Becker’s (1993) thesis,
it is no coincidence that the collapse of in-plant training and the failure
of all efforts, public and private, to rejuvenate vocational training were
closely associated with the flourishing of high school education for the
masses.
Developments in the 1930s and beyond built on the logic of the sys-
tem created over the previous decades (see especially Jacoby 1985). Once
the Depression had ended and companies again faced labor shortages, it
was but a small step for them to figure out how to deal with the problem
through further standardization and advancement for workers in increas-
ingly elongated and finely gradated career ladders. As Jacoby points out, a
“standard solution” to labor shortages that emerged in 1936 was “a pro-
cess that combined manpower planning, job simplification, and training
by progression from one simplified job to another” ( Jacoby 1985: 262–3).
These trends were pushed forward by developments in the 1930s affecting
unions, in particular the Wagner Act which gave unions collective bargain-
ing rights and a 1937 National Apprentice Law that provided a structure for
union participation in the regulation of apprenticeship (U.S. Department
of Labor 1991: 16–18).
The continuing inequities of decentralized decision making on a range
of key issues including wage and promotions “gave unions a potent orga-
nizing issue” in the 1930s (Jacoby 1985: 195). Especially after the Great
Depression, “the worker’s stake in predictable, rule-bound treatment grew
enormously” (Brody 1993: 188) and, under the umbrella of the Wagner Act,
workers flocked to unions to provide this. Responding to the continued ar-
bitrariness of many aspects of plant personnel policy, seniority figured very
prominently in the demands of American unions. They pushed length of
service as a principle in layoffs, transfers, promotions, and so on (Schatz
1977: 116–39). American unions rebuilt themselves, however, in a context

70 For an excellent account of the process through which this occurred, see Hansen (1997:
537–40).

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in which work had been thoroughly bureaucratized and rationalized.71

When organized labor in the United States sought and achieved control of
the internal labor markets of large firms, they found themselves pressing
for seniority-based bidding to allow workers to advance within a plant hi-
erarchy defined by simplified, standardized, and rigidly defined jobs, thus
embracing demands that as Brody notes arose “out of the logic of the mass-
production enterprise itself” (Brody 1993: 188).

Comparisons and Conclusions

The U.S. case offers especially fruitful comparisons to Britain and Japan.
As in Britain, issues of apprenticeship and training were deeply implicated
in broader conflicts between skilled unions and employers in key industries
such as metalworking. As Motley put it in 1907 in the immediate after-
math of the devastating struggles over “managerial control” that had swept
across a number of industries and decimated skilled unions in the United
States, “the mere fact that the union alone assumed the right to control
apprenticeship regulations, especially to limit the number received, caused
the employers to oppose them and to prevent their enforcement when-
ever possible. . . . Under such circumstances, it was impossible for either
side, acting independently, to maintain an adequate apprenticeship system”
(Motley 1907: 41).
But if the character of such struggles was broadly similar to Britain, the
outcome was different in that U.S. manufacturers went much further than
their British counterparts in the pre- and inter-war period to marginalize
unions and to reorganize production so as to reduce their dependence on
skills. As Brody has pointed out, the battle between the British ASE and
the EEF in 1897–98 was “remarkably similar” to struggles in the U.S. ma-
chine and metalworking industries at the turn of the century. However,
“in England this did not lead to a major reorganization of the workshop.
Instead, the victorious British employers chose to exert their power within
the existing system of craft production. . . . In the American metal trades,
industrial warfare developed into a life-and-death struggle over control of
the shop floor; in England, it took the form of endless skirmishing over the

71 Government policies in the war encouraged the trend. “In 1940 the WMC [War Manpower
Commission] set up the Training Within Industry program, which offered training courses
to foremen. One of these courses, Job Methods, taught almost a quarter of a million foremen
how to perform job simplification analyses” and assisted employers in setting up job ladders
that led from one simple job to another (Jacoby 1985: 263–4).

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price of work” (Brody 1993: 185–6). In Britain, shop stewards reemerged in

the aftermath of titanic struggles over managerial control and found a role
in negotiating collective piece rates with management (Zeitlin 1980). In
the United States the reorganization of production and technical rational-
ization were “unrelenting,” and the activities of American unions through
most of the 1920s and into the 1930s were confined to “marginal and covert
forms” (Brody 1993: 187). Even where a congruence of interests on voca-
tional training could be detected – as, for example, in debates over the
reform of public schools in the United States, where organized labor and
employers in skill-dependent industries shared a very similar critique of the
overly bookish, college-prep orientation of American elementary and sec-
ondary education, agreement was rendered impossible because of unsettled
struggles over who would control publicly funded vocational training and
to which uses it would be put (Hansen 1997: 483).
If ongoing struggles between skilled unions and employers over the or-
ganization and control of vocational training interfered with the institu-
tionalization of a national system for skill formation and certification, there
still existed the “Japanese” option of ongoing skill formation in strong in-
ternal labor markets. This was the more likely path, especially for large
companies in skill-intensive industries, who (very much like their Japanese
counterparts) strove to deal with skilled labor shortages through the ex-
tensive use of subcontracting in the early industrial period and, later, by
founding their own corporation schools. But if the overall trajectory to-
ward a “segmentalist” or “autarkic” training regime appeared similar, the
political coalitions on which it was based in the two countries were quite
different, with important implications for in-plant training. In Japan, the
1920s saw the emergence of a plant-based coalition between firm managers
and (non-control seeking) unions against the power of the independent
oyakata bosses. A system of ongoing training began to coalesce. Spurred
on by union demands and the threat of unionization, large Japanese firms
specifically linked training to ongoing advancement – up to and including
supervisory positions – within the plant hierarchy.
The same period in the United States saw the consolidation of a differ-
ent approach, in which employers worked hand-in-hand with loyal foremen
against (control-seeking) unions. Even progressive firms in the 1920s moved
to restore the powers of foremen in order to fill the regulatory vacuum that
during World War I unions again had sought to occupy. Pre-war training
efforts were redirected away from vocational skills for manual workers and
toward “people skills” for foremen who were now expected to act less like
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drill sergeants and more like human relations specialists – in the interests
of forestalling labor unrest and unionization. Although welfare capitalist
firms in the United States continued to support various policies that made
them attractive places to work, a crucial difference is that continuing de-
centralization of key aspects of personnel policy – including wage setting,
promotions, and layoffs – meant that workers could not be sure that any
investment they made in company skills would be rewarded through system-
atic advancement. Moreover, to the extent that they existed, career ladders
often had a rather low and concrete ceiling, since American employers were
much more likely than their Japanese colleagues to turn to college grad-
uates to staff even lower level managerial positions. In sharp contrast to
Japan, the line between workers and management hardened dramatically in
the United States in this period. And for this reason, too, ambitious youth
faced strong incentives to avoid vocational training (of all varieties) like the
plague in favor of an academically oriented education that opened many
more and more diverse opportunities for advancement in the labor market
generally.

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Evolution and Change in the German

System of Vocational Training

Previous chapters have focused primarily on explaining variations across

the four countries that are the subject of this study, and have traced the
roots of important differences in vocational training institutions back to
the political dynamics and coalitions that were forged around the turn of
the century and into the 1920s. This chapter takes up the German case again
and tracks its further development through National Socialism and into the
post-World War II period. This involves a shift in focus, away from the
origins of cross-national differences to variations over time within a single
country. This shift allows us to address a related but distinct set of questions
and theoretical issues concerning institutional stability and change.
As discussed in Chapter 1, the most commonly invoked metaphor for
institutional change is the punctuated equilibrium model as it was adapted
from the work of evolutionary biologists and interpreted for politics by
Krasner in 1988 (Krasner 1988). This model emphasizes long stretches of
institutional “stasis” periodically punctuated by episodes of relatively rapid
innovation. In most treatments, innovation occurs as a result of some kind
of exogenous shock that disrupts the stable reproduction of institutions
and provides an opening for substantial institutional reconfiguration. This
view of political and institutional change is pervasive, finding expression in a
good deal of the literature on “critical junctures” as well as some treatments
of path dependence.1 This kind of model captures one important mode of
change in political life.

1 Some but not all. Some of the literature on “institutional choices” in the transitions to
democracy and capitalism in Eastern Europe appears to embrace such a view (for exam-
ple, Crawford and Lijphart 1995). Collier and Collier (1991), however, adopt a definition
of “critical juncture” that does not necessarily (or automatically) imply that institutional
innovation occurs in short episodes or “moments” of openness. Their definition also does

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As we have already seen, however, and as this chapter continues to doc-

ument, one of the most interesting features of political development is
that institutional arrangements often turn out to be incredibly resilient in
the face of huge exogenous shocks that we might well expect to disrupt
previous patterns and give rise to dramatic institutional innovation. One
thinks, for example, of the resiliency of various “statist” institutions and
practices in France that can be traced to the absolutist period, and that
thus apparently have survived numerous social and political upheavals. In
the case at hand, a striking feature of the German story is the resilience of
core elements of the vocational training system through a series of rather
big “break points” in the twentieth century – defeat in two world wars,
foreign occupation, and several regime changes including into and out of
fascism.2
Conversely and equally intriguing is the effect of ongoing but often very
subtle changes in institutional arrangements that, over time, can cumu-
late into significant institutional transformation. Think of the American
Supreme Court or the British House of Lords, neither of which has suf-
fered a “breakdown” but both of which have been substantially reconfigured
through the ongoing renegotiation of their roles and functions in political
life. In the case of German vocational training institutions, if one took a
snapshot of the system in 1897 and again in 1997, one could not help but
see the deep irony in how a set of institutions originally designed against la-
bor could have been transformed into a pillar of social partnership between
labor and capital today.
For many political–economic institutions that persist over long periods,
one is very often struck simultaneously by how little and how much they have
changed.3 These observations are unsettling from the perspective of the
dominant punctuated equilibrium model of institutional change. Against
the idea of alternating periods of stasis and rapid, radical change, there
often seems to be too much continuity through putative “breakpoints” in
history, but also often too much change beneath the surface of apparently
stable formal institutional arrangements.

not imply a primacy of “agency” and “choice” over structure in critical junctures, as other
treatments sometimes do.
2 Space and time do not permit me to go into the separate story that could be told about
vocational training in East Germany after the Second World War and after unification (but
see Culpepper 2003; Jacoby 2000).
3 I owe this formulation to comments made by Peter Katzenstein at a conference in Cologne,
Germany.

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This chapter picks up the discussion from Chapter 2, and tracks the fur-
ther development of vocational training institutions in Germany from the
1930s to the present. The system not only survived but experienced impor-
tant elements of consolidation and reinforcement in the context of historic
“breakpoints.” Institutional survival was strongly laced with elements of
institutional transformation, however, as the form and functions of these
institutions underwent successive waves of renegotiation to bring them in
line with changed social, political, and economic conditions. A central mes-
sage of this chapter is that “stasis” is a particularly misleading notion when
it comes to explaining institutional stability, for what we find here is that
in order to survive, institutions can rarely just “stand still.” Their survival
is guaranteed not by their “stickiness” but by their ongoing adaptation to
changes in the political and political–economic environment.
This case, therefore, documents how institutions survive and change
through ongoing political renegotiation. A huge literature has documented
the political and political–economic biases of institutions and it is no sur-
prise, therefore, that these institutions are subject to continuous contesta-
tion as actors with different goals struggle over their form and especially
over the functions they serve. Such political contestation produces frequent
revision – sometimes big, sometimes small – as the support coalitions on
which the institutions are based (and the relative power of their supporters)
shifts.
This case provides illustrations of the general modes of change (dis-
cussed in Chapter 1) that ongoing strategic maneuvering and political con-
testation produce. In the 1920s, industry was unable to “break into” the
regulatory structure of the traditional handicraft system, but the machine
industry nonetheless succeeded in constructing voluntary institutions and
practices alongside, and in interaction with, the existing parapublic system.
This “layering” of a new system onto and alongside the old was enormously
consequential. The coexistence and interaction of the two altered the tra-
jectory of skill formation in Germany as a whole – pulling it away from the
decentralization and lack of systematic and uniform regulations character-
istic of the Handwerk model, toward the high degree of standardization
and uniformity now considered hallmarks of the system.
The process of standardization and homogenization advanced signif-
icantly under the Nazi regime. This was partly a matter of government
policy; military interests and war mobilization called for a large number of
skilled workers, and the regime pushed skill standardization so that work-
ers could be deployed flexibly according to military needs and exigencies.
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However, jurisdictional infighting and political contests over vocational

training under the Nazis were also important, as they set the stage for
industry to achieve a degree of unity on the question of vocational train-
ing structures that had been elusive throughout the Weimar years. Thus,
not just the policies but also the politics of vocational training during the
Nazi period were important to the subsequent evolution of the system,
and paved the way for the institutionalization (in the postwar period) of
an overall more unified system premised on self-governance through the
Chambers of Industry and Handwerk. Legislation in 1969 incorporated
and anchored organized labor more firmly into the institutions of employer
self-governance over apprentice training. The inclusion of unions into the
regulatory framework for company-based vocational training completed a
long process of institutional development that, by the end, had effectively
converted a set of institutions originally designed (in the 1890s) to defeat
organized labor into a key pillar of social partnership between labor and
capital in the post-World War II period.
Developments over the past several decades demonstrate that institu-
tional survival often involves elements of institutional reconfiguration and
adaptations of the sort that bring inherited arrangements in line with chang-
ing environmental challenges and political constellations. By extension, the
converse is also true. That is, institutions that are not actively updated and
fitted to changes in the political and market environment can be subject to
a process of erosion through what Jacob Hacker has called “drift” (Hacker
2003). The final section of this chapter turns to an examination of contem-
porary developments in German vocational training and reveals a growing
gap between the political forces that have traditionally shored up the system
and the challenges posed by a changing market and technological environ-
ment. What we now see is that – after surviving several massive historic
breaks – the foundations of the German training system are being un-
dermined through gradual long-term processes affecting both the overall
structure of the economy and the character of international competition in
manufacturing.
Although it would be premature to announce the demise of the German
system of vocational training, its survival and continuing relevance depend
a great deal on the way in which political actors respond to the result-
ing gaps. Hacker argues that drift only brings institutional erosion to the
extent that political actors specifically decline to make the adjustments nec-
essary to adapt inherited institutions to new circumstances and challenges.
In the case of German vocational training, such adjustment is technically
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well within the bounds of the possible. What is less clear, however, is the
political will and especially the collective capacity to reform, particularly
among employers who have historically been the system’s most important
“carriers.” As Baethge has pointed out, we now find a curious role rever-
sal at work, in which unions – long the critics of the system – are now its
main defenders, whereas many key employers appear to have lost inter-
est, as a changed competitive environment has brought them to a deep
reconsideration of their own interests in maintaining it (Baethge 1999: 12).

The Evolution of the System under National Socialism

Vocational training was an important focal point of attention, and the site
of intense interregime bickering, after the Nazi seizure of power.4 Its im-
portance as well as its contestedness had to do with the fact that vocational
training was seen as an important site for ideological indoctrination and as
a key institutional support for the Nazi regime’s military–economic ambi-
tions (Schneider 1999: 364). The National-Socialist regime strove to insti-
tutionalize a system of training that combined the provision of “trade-based
competencies and skills with worldview-ideological indoctrination” to pro-
mote, foster, and elicit those “‘virtues’ that served the regime” (Kaiser and
Loddenkemper 1980: 76). These two strands – trade skills and ideology –
were distinct, however, and this opened the door to furious bickering and
intense turf struggles over the aims and above all jurisdictional claims of
training under the National Socialists.
The kinds of conflicts and tensions that emerged in the area of train-
ing were not unusual, and in some ways fit a broader pattern of politics in
the Nazi period, which as Ullmann notes combined monocratic and poly-
cratic structures in a way that frequently resulted in “internal rivalries [and]
unclear divisions of competencies” (Ullmann 1988: 184–5). Simplifying
greatly,5 training policy was the object of ongoing contestation between

4 On the politics of the Nazi regime toward labor, see, especially Schneider (1999); on the
relationship between business and the state, see especially Berghoff (2001), Hayes (1987;
2001), Ullmann (1988). On Nazi policies in the area of training and education generally
see Heinemann (1980) and on the infighting within the regime over training see Wolsing
(1977: 689–739) and Frese (1991: 251–332).
5 There were many actors making claims in this area, and beyond the main line of cleavage
I go into below, there were other conflicts and rivalries, for instance between the German
Labor Front and the Hitler Jugend. These conflicts were important but less directly related
to the outcomes I am interested in here.

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two main opponents. One was the German Labor Front (Deutscher
Arbeitsfront, or DAF) under the leadership of Robert Ley, a man whom
Timothy Mason once described as “Hitler’s most slavish follower” (Mason
1966:114). The other was the Economics Ministry, particularly under
Hjalmar Schacht, working alongside and mostly very much in the inter-
ests of Germany’s organized business elite.6
Training policy was important to the new regime both as a component of
its youth activities and as a means for fighting youth unemployment which
had skyrocketed after 1929 (Pätzold 1989: 278). The elimination of the
unions in 1933 allowed the old (Weimar) debate over the character of the
apprentice contract to be resolved, as apprentice contracts were declared
unequivocally to constitute an educational rather than an employment re-
lationship (Wolsing 1977: 245). When implemented under the National
Socialists, however, this measure took on a different meaning, and opened
the door for the Nazi organizations (and in particular the DAF) to claim for
itself a more central role in this area (Hansen 1997: 606).7 Ley immediately
recognized the importance of training policy and became active in this area
from the very start.8 Similar (ironically) to the Social Democratic program
of the 1920s, the DAF called for the guaranteed right of all youth to training,
and urged every employer to do his part (Seubert 1977: 100).
Vocational training was also extremely important to the Nazi regime
on very practical grounds, as a key institutional support for rearmament
and later war making. The reality here was that the National Socialist state
relied on the expertise and connections of the old business elite, and thus
needed to preserve elements of the old social structure to keep the economy
going and particularly to gear up for war (Berghoff 2001: 95). The result was
a close alliance between the Economics Ministry and organized economic
interests, which took on a “Janus-faced” character, serving simultaneously
as agents of the state but also as lobbying organizations for business interests
within it (Ullmann 1988: 197, 226).9 What industry mostly lobbied for, and

6 A number of important works explore the relationship between industry and state in the
Nazi era. See, for example, Hayes (1987), Gall and Pohl (1998), Hayes (2001), Ullmann
(1988), Berghoff (2001).
7 On the struggle over the role of politics in education policy, see Kaiser and Loddenkemper
(1980: passim).
8 A comprehensive treatment of labor policy in Nazi Germany, and of the activities of the
German Labor Front, can be found in Schneider (1999).
9 There was, therefore, a great deal of continuity in the economic elite between the Weimar
period and the Nazi era. About one-half of the managing directors and about a third of the
heads of the Reichsgruppe Industrie (RGI) and its various subunits (Gliederungen) were people

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not unsuccessfully, was to minimize the influence of “outsiders” (in training

policy, including and above all DAF) in their affairs. The important effect of
these conflicts – never fully resolved during the Nazi period – was that their
shared aversion to DAF “interference” in plant-based training helped forge
a unity of interests among firms and across industries that broke through
the deadlock that had characterized the Weimar years.
The next section begins with a brief overview of the policies with regard
to training under the Nazi regime, documenting a huge upswing in overall
training effort, the upgrading of apprenticeship in the industrial sector, and
the massive moves toward standardization and uniformity in training in
both the handicraft and the industry sectors. The following section returns
to the politics under the Nazis that produced these outcomes, as well as the
way in which both the policies and the politics set the scene, organizationally
speaking, for the post-war period as well.

Training and Skills under National Socialism

The years of National Socialism had a dramatic impact on vocational train-
ing in Germany. The Nazi state presided over a massive expansion of train-
ing, as well as the development of instruments to render such training
more uniform across the economy. Among other innovations, industry and
trade chambers acquired prerogatives equivalent to those of the Handwerk
chambers to preside over the administration and certification of training
for skilled industrial workers (Facharbeiter), and Handwerk training was
brought under more centralized control than ever before.
The expansion of training in the first two years of the regime was con-
nected to other measures to combat unemployment but starting in 1935
the goals shifted to rearmament and mobilization for war, which required
large numbers of skilled workers who could be deployed flexibly to meet
the demands of military production. State policy in this area included vari-
ous incentives to encourage and also directly subsidize training. In a move
that the free unions had once advocated but that no Weimar government
had ever seriously considered, the National Socialist state required firms in

who had occupied similar positions before 1933 (Ullmann 1988: 197). Even if they were
ambivalent about the National Socialists, many industry leaders (VDMA vice chairman Otto
Sack was one) concluded that it was better to get involved in the new corporatist structures
being set up, and took up positions in the new order either out of narrow self-interest or
because they saw this as a way to protect their associations from domination by state and
party (Weber 1991: 122–4).

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the iron, metal, and construction industries employing ten or more work-
ers to train apprentices (Hansen 1997: 607; Wolsing 1977: 160; Schneider
1999: 370).
State promotion of apprenticeship training produced a dramatic rise in
the overall number of youth in training. “In 1933 about 45 percent of in-
dustrial workers were skilled, another 20 percent semi-skilled and 35 per-
cent unskilled. After 1938 about 90 percent of all boys leaving grammar
school, together with increasing numbers of those who had left earlier, en-
tered three-year apprenticeships in industry, artisanship (Handwerk), com-
merce, or agriculture” (Gillingham 1985: 428). The state mandate to train
(in some industries) and subsidies (more generally) were important to these
outcomes. One should also note, however, that, with unions out of the
picture and with wages more or less frozen starting in 1932, the political–
economic context during the subsequent economic recovery would have
encouraged increased investment in skills even by a strict economic logic
(Herrigel 1996b: 139). A large number of firms trained their workers ei-
ther in production itself, or in “training corners” in close proximity to it.
An increasing number of firms created in-house training centers as well.
The number of such training workshops increased between 1933 and 1940
from 167 to 3,304. Whereas in 1933, only 16,222 workers had received
training in such workshops, the number rose to 244,250 by 1940 (Kipp and
Miller-Kipp 1990: 34; Pätzold 1989: 278).
An important focus of attention under the Nazi regime was training in
industry, which would obviously be of crucial importance to the military.
With the economic recovery, skill shortages hampered the regime’s military
build-up and set in motion disruptive poaching among firms (Mason 1966:
128). Thus, beginning in 1935, a number of measures were undertaken to
upgrade and clarify the status of industrial apprenticeship, with the goal of
redirecting labor out of Handwerk and into industry (particularly the metal-
working industries). The voluntary arrangements developed in the Weimar
years allowing industrial apprentices to be examined under the auspices of
the Handwerk chambers (with representation by the IHK) were dispensed
with and the industry and trade chambers were granted powers equivalent
to the HWK to certify training in industry. Against opposition and foot-
dragging by Handwerk, the industrial Facharbeiter exam was accorded the
same recognition and status that the journeyman’s exam in the craft sec-
tor had long enjoyed, including the right of a certified Facharbeiter to be
admitted to the Master exam (Pätzold 1989: 276: Greinert, 1994: 45).

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Table 5.1. Numbers of apprentices taking the

Facharbeiter examination

Apprentices taking
Year Facharbeiter Exam Percent change
1935 2,801
1936 7,748 +176.6
1937 23,832 +407.6
1938 46,682 +95.8
1939 110,810 +137.4
1940 85,466 −22.9
1941 99,321 +16.2
1942 121,653 +22.5
Source: Wolsing 1977: 357fn3.

These measures brought about an immediate increase in the number of

IHK-based testing offices – from 31 in 1935 to 89 in the spring of 1937
(Wolsing 1977: 346–7; Kipp 1990: 235). They were also accompanied by a
dramatic increase in the number of apprentices taking Facharbeiter exams,
as Table 5.1 shows.
The other aspect of vocational training policy, skill standardization, was
similarly designed to facilitate the war effort. Broad-based, standardized
training generated a supply of skilled workers who could be deployed flexi-
bly to deal with increased production demands and with continuous changes
in production as increasing numbers of men were called up and as produc-
tion sites were dispersed to shield them from attack. A model “apprentice
contract” was introduced in 1935; it laid out conditions governing the terms
of both a trainee’s employment and his or her training (Wolsing 1977: 254–
60). The contract established some baseline minima for apprentices, includ-
ing a monthly educational stipend (for Handwerk apprentices, sometimes
replacing fees that they paid to the master artisan), and minimum vacation
time (Pätzold 1989: 270).
Perhaps even more important, training was to be based on skill pro-
files and regulatory instruments (Ausbildungsordnungen) developed by the
German Committee for Technical Education (Deutscher Ausschuß für
Technisches Schulwesen, or DATSCH), which, as we saw in Chapter 2,
had been involved in developing training materials for the metal and ma-
chine industries throughout the 1920s. The innovation under the Nazi
regime was to obligate firms to adopt and employ DATSCH guidelines

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and methods, thus ensuring that they would be widely diffused throughout
the economy (Abel 1963: 58–9; Stratmann 1990: 47–9). The training ordi-
nances DATSCH developed – and that after 1937 were officially recognized
through the Reich Minister for Economics (Kipp 1990: 229; Münch 1991:
34; Pätzold 1989: 274–5) – specified the important features of training in
a particular trade, including: the occupational title, job description (what
specific skills had to be mastered for certification in the trade), the dura-
tion of the training program, and the structure of the training (DATSCH
1937).10 These ordinances established a set of uniform rules as to what was
expected both of training firms and of the apprentices.
Apprentices could only be trained in recognized occupations and on
the basis of standardized training materials worked out and disseminated
nationally. These measures imposed a much higher degree of uniformity
across sectors than ever before, ensuring that anyone certified as a “skilled
mechanic” (for example) possessed the same technical skills and theoretical
knowledge irrespective of the firm or sector in which he received his train-
ing. Moreover, and also starting in 1937, apprentices who completed their
training programs – whether in Handwerk or in industry – were required
to take the journeyman (Handwerk) or Facharbeiter (industry) examination.
“This compelled masters and training firms to present their apprentices
for evaluation and served as much to monitor the quality of the training
apprentices received as to certify their skills” (Hansen 1997: 608).
Training ordinances were worked out not just for industry but for
Handwerk as well. This was important because, as we have seen, in the 1920s
the Handwerk sector had lagged behind industry in establishing uniform
guidelines for training. After the legislation of 1937, however, Handwerk
firms too were forced into greater systematization by an exam system that
was “increasingly based, as in industry, on standardized occupational def-
initions, training procedures, and competence benchmarks that masters
were not free to ignore” (Hansen 1997: 618, italics mine; Pätzold 1989:
275). Later, DATSCH also began to work out guidelines for semi-skilled
occupations as well, which also rendered training for these jobs more sys-
tematic and uniform across firms (Rathschlag 1972: 22, 24). By the end of
the war DATSCH (by this time subsumed into the state and converted into
the National Institute for Vocational Training (or Reichsinstitut für Berufs-
ausbildung in Handel und Gewerbe) had developed training materials for

10 In 1937, 121 industrial trades were officially recognized by the state, a number that increased
steadily over the next years (Kipp 1990: 229).

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almost a thousand skilled and semi-skilled occupations (Münch 1991: 34;

Wolsing 1977: 278–9).
An increase in standardization was reflected as well in changes that made
the first year of apprenticeship more uniform across firms, providing a
broad “foundational” basis on which apprentices could build and become
more specialized in subsequent years (Wolsing 1977: 329–31). DATSCH
was also given responsibility for creating stronger links between in-plant
and school-based components of vocational training (Pätzold 1989: 274).
After years of controversy over the issue, a law was passed in 1938 re-
quiring all school leavers throughout the empire, including young women,
to attend at least three years of continuation school beyond the comple-
tion of the common school (Pätzold 1989: 283–4).11 Starting in 1939, uni-
form (nation-wide) educational plans for trade schools were put into ef-
fect (Stratmann 1990: 48–9). The trade school curricula were specifically
organized around the trade profiles that DATSCH had worked out for
in-plant training (Kipp 1990: 228), thus clearly signaling the primacy of
the firm-based component, for which the theoretical school-based compo-
nent was seen mostly as complementary (Stratmann and Schlösser 1990:
Chapter 3).12
The capacity to monitor in-plant training was also enhanced in the years
of National Socialism. In 1933, the regime introduced a national register
of all apprentice contracts. Handwerk had maintained such a register since
the turn of the century, but no such instrument had existed for industrial
apprentices (Kipp 1990: 227). The 1933 law obliged all firms employing ap-
prentices to register their indentures with the local chamber (either the craft
chamber or the chamber of industry and commerce). The chamber was then
charged with responsibility for making sure that the contract conformed to

11 The Weimar constitution had called for compulsory schooling until age 18, but this was
never really implemented nationwide, enforcement being left to the states where there was
great variety in whether and to what extent trade school attendance was obligatory (Pätzold
1989: 280–1). Moreover, the trade school system experienced a crisis in the late years of
the Weimar Republic, due to the depression. Notably and characteristically for the time,
budget cuts proposed in 1931 were opposed by DATSCH as well as by the unions, and
very much approved by Handwerk and segments of industry that relied less heavily on
skills than DATSCH’s main constituency among machine firms (Pätzold 1989: 281–2). See
Chapter 2, on the coalitions of the Weimar period.
12 Although the Nazi regime introduced compulsory trade school attendance on a national
level, the schools were subsequently left to languish as the war effort geared up and as
training came to be more narrowly focused on specific, and highly pragmatic, military
needs.

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the “recognized” occupations and to the uniform apprenticeship contract

guidelines set by the state.
In addition to maintaining a roster of apprentices the chambers were
also charged with recording the results of apprentices’ certification exams.
Such provisions were useful for the National Socialists’ policy of vocational
guidance (or “steering”: Berufslenkung), but they also allowed authorities
and chambers to keep close tabs on plant-based training, tracking not just
which firms were training apprentices and in what occupations, but also
the exam scores so they could assess the quality of training (Wolsing 1977:
265–9, especially 268–9; Kipp 1990: 227). Since registration was necessary
for apprentices to be admitted to journeymen’s exams, the IHK quickly es-
tablished “considerable influence” over youth guidance (Nachwuchslenkung)
and especially over the content of training. The IHK collected all sorts of
information about firms involved in training, including the number of ap-
prentices they were taking, the types of training facilities they used, and
so on (Frese 1991: 271). Companies with repeated bad exam results could
bring sanctions on themselves. For example, the chambers might refuse
to register more apprentices to them. In general, however, firms sought to
achieve good results for the sake of their “image” as well as their ability to
recruit promising young workers (Frese 1991: 302).
Monitoring the content and quality of training was also accomplished
through complementary institutions and practices. In 1934 DAF orga-
nized the first annual skills competition (Reichsberufswettkampf ) involving
hundreds of thousands of apprentices in every craft, trade, and profession
(Mason 1966: 124). The competition consisted of a set of tests, in both vo-
cational skills and “political reliability” (Mason 1966: 124). Contests were
held at the local, district, and regional level, producing about four hundred
winners each year (Gillingham 1985: 425). The number of firms involved
in the competition was high, not least because, as Mason points out, it was
“difficult not to take part” (Mason 1966: 124).13 The annual competition
created strong incentives for firms to train specifically to national standards,
while also giving the DAF and the Hitler Youth some insights into the rel-
ative quality of training across various firms and sectors (von Rauschenplat

13 The number of participants involved in these competitions rose between 1934 and
1939 from five hundred thousand to over three million according to one source (von
Rauschenplat 1945: 25), and one million in 1936 to 3.6 million in 1939, according to
another (Mason 1966: 124).

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1945: 26).14 As the head of the competition, Artur Axmann, put it, the event
operated like an “X-ray for vocational training” which could be used to re-
veal not just technical but also ideological deficits in training (Kipp 1990:
254; Pätzold 1989: 275).
These measures all served to guide youth into the “appropriate” training
slots, which is to say into occupations that served the state and its military
interests. A previous (1927) law had put the Imperial Institute for Labor Ex-
change and Unemployment Insurance (Reichsanstalt für Arbeitsvermittlung
and Arbeitslosenversicherung) in charge of vocational counseling and match-
ing youths to apprenticeship slots, but these services had not been compul-
sory on either side. In 1935 the Nazi government gave the Reichsanstalt en-
hanced powers, both as a provider of vocational counseling and as a central
clearing house for matching apprentices to training slots (Kipp 1990: 221).
The government made all youth subject to obligatory vocational coun-
seling, attempting thus to steer them into the proper vocational channels
(Kaiser and Loddenkemper 1980: 79). Whereas in 1926–27, 31% of all
14-year-olds received vocational guidance and in 1931–32 this was up to
67%, the number reached 90% in 1941 (von Rauschenplat 1945: 22). These
functions were backed up by the 1938 school law which, in addition to
rendering vocational education compulsory for all school leavers, required
them to report to their local employment office within two weeks of leaving
school (Kipp 1990: 222; Gillingham 1985: 426; Greinert 1994: 56).

The Politics of Vocational Training under National Socialism

The National-Socialist era represented a mixture of consolidation and in-
novation in vocational training. The consolidation was achieved through
measures to institutionalize a national system of skill formation built on
components inherited from the pre-World War I period for Handwerk
and further developed on a voluntary basis for industry in the 1920s (see
Chapter 2). But consolidation came packaged with elements of innovation
that overcame some of the political obstacles that had frustrated attempts in
the Weimar period to arrive at a unitary and comprehensive national system

14 As this was a DAF program, there was also a strong ideological component to the com-
petition. DAF directly ran the training program at companies like VW, and held it up as
a showcase for its concepts. The Wolfsburg facility came out especially well in the annual
skills competition (Kipp 1990: Chapter 12).

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for skill formation. Some of the previous political obstacles were swept away
through brute repression. The elimination of the unions removed the need
to reach an accommodation with organized labor. Other lines of cleavage,
for example, between Handwerk and industry and between different seg-
ments of industry who advocated radically different models of training (see
Chapter 2) were erased or patched over in the Nazi period. This section
deals with the politics through which this took place.
The National Socialist regime, redefining private-sector training as an
educational relationship, “rendered it a public trust and duty” (Hansen 1997:
615, italics in original; Molitor 1960: 16). This settled a long-standing
conflict between unions and employers in the Weimar period in favor of
the latter. In the Nazi era, however, the reclassification of training became
important mostly because it provided the Nazi party and the DAF with
justification to insert itself into the organization and administration of skill
formation. Employers and their organized representatives resented such
intrusions. From their perspective they replaced unwanted meddling by the
unions with similarly unwelcome meddling by party functionaries. Business
therefore resisted these trends and its interests were represented within the
state apparatus by the Reich Ministry of Economics which had its own
reasons to oppose party influence (Wolsing 1977: 323). In what follows I
return to the main players in the vocational training debates and sketch out
the ways in which their interests were represented, re-thought, and partly
reconfigured in the Nazi era.

Handwerk. The advent of National Socialism initially produced a series

of policies that could only warm the hearts of the Handwerk sector. In
addition to suppressing the unions, the Nazis met some important long-
standing demands of organized artisans (Pätzold 1989: 268). In 1935, the
government signed into law the “major [or comprehensive] certificate of
competence” ( großer Befähigungsnachweis) requiring a master certificate of
anyone wishing to open an artisanal shop and/or to pursue an artisanal
trade independently (von Rauschenplat 1945; Greinert 1994: 45; Berghoff
2001: 81).15 The Nazis also made membership in the artisanal organizations

15 Until this time, a master’s certificate was not required, and only about 30% of self-employed
artisans had one at this time (Berghoff 2001: 81; Lenger 1988: 197). It turns out that those
without the certificate were not actually stripped of their right to practice a handicraft trade.
Instead, most of them were given until the end of 1939 to “make up” the exam, and even
this was relaxed later (though the regulation did affect anyone seeking master status after
this) (Lenger 1988: 197).

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compulsory, another long-standing demand. The previous structure was

one in which regional Handwerk chambers (endowed with parapublic au-
thority and responsibilities) existed alongside traditional (voluntary) guild
associations organized around the various crafts (Weber 1991:112–13). The
Nazi regime reorganized the guilds, linking them more closely to the cham-
bers (through staff sharing, for example), and essentially created a single
comprehensive and unitary organization, a measure that brought the den-
sity ratio of Handwerk associations from 70% to 100% (Weber 1991: 113).
These moves were, however, associated with innovations with which
Handwerk was not enthused.16 The commitment on the part of the party to
guarantee all youth a training spot clashed with the goals of important seg-
ments of Handwerk, which worried about glutting the market with skilled
craftsmen. Some handicraft trades (for example, butchers and bakers) had
been using their prerogatives to set limits on training as a way of protecting
their trade (Pätzold 1989: 267). DAF’s demands with respect to training –
promising all youths a right to training and involving the obligation of firms
to train – were too radical and intrusive for their tastes (Seubert 1977: 100).
Other policies were resented for the higher operating costs they imposed
on Handwerk firms. Innovations in the apprentice contract (for example,
guaranteeing minimum vacation time and other limitations on apprentice
working time) and the introduction of a compulsory trade school com-
ponent to training weighed on master artisans who were used to relying
heavily on apprentices as a source of cheap labor (Pätzold 1989: 270).17
One of the most important changes was that Handwerk lost its monopoly
position to certify skills (Lenger 1988: 199). After the 1935 legislation dis-
cussed above, Handwerk competed with industry for qualified youths, a
contest in which artisans mostly lost out (Berghoff 2001: 82; Wolsing 1980;
Lenger 1988: 199). Handwerk also suffered major cutbacks in the autonomy
it had traditionally enjoyed in the area of apprentice training (Schneider
1999: 371–2). Handwerk chambers had had a great deal of leeway in de-
veloping their own local standards and individual masters had had signifi-
cant autonomy in determining the content and structure of apprenticeship
training in their own shops. There were no “legally binding definitions of
the craft trades, and no specialized regulations on contents to be taught”

16 On the effects of Nazi policies on the Handwerk sector, see especially von Saldern (1979),
see also Schneider (1999: 370–2), Lenger (1988: 195–202).
17 Handwerker also complained about mandatory high contributions to compulsory organi-
zations, as well as to the introduction in 1937 of compulsory accounting (Lenger 1988:
197, 200).

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(Hansen 1997: 617; Greinert 1994: 50). As we have seen, however, many of
the organizational innovations introduced under National Socialism pro-
moted standardization in Handwerk training – something that some but by
no means all handicraft firms welcomed.18
The certification powers that Handwerk chambers had enjoyed since
1897 were now for the first time explicitly married to increased uniformity
in the content of training. The handicraft sector had greeted with great
suspicion the regime’s promotion of DATSCH as its main advisory organ
for vocational training, correctly fearing encroachment on Handwerk au-
tonomy through the increased influence of industry (Wolsing 1977: 430).
Although a comprehensive rationalization of Handwerk training proved
elusive in the Nazi period (because of difficulties in monitoring and en-
forcement), the overall result was to move training in the Handwerk sector
“closer to the organizational principles of industrial vocational training”
(Greinert 1994: 50; see also Schneider 1999: 371–2; Pätzold 1989: 270).
In addition, Handwerk firms were increasingly affected by the war econ-
omy, as the state, over time, took a stronger hand in directing war materials
and skilled labor, with the result that many shops went under for lack of
raw materials (Lenger 1988: 199). The most direct state involvement in this
regard came through the so-called Auskämmeaktionen (or “combing out”
operations) in 1939 and 1943, when large numbers of artisans were forced
to close their shops, without compensation, to free up labor for the army or
for industry (Ullmann 1988: 189; Lenger 1988: 200–1). Lenger reports that
in the second half of 1939, almost two hundred thousand artisanal shops
(mostly the smallest and most traditional one-person shops) were forcibly
closed in this way (Lenger 1988: 200). The Nazi era had widely diverse ef-
fects on the Handwerk sector, proving quite lucrative for those firms able to
participate in the rearmament boom, whereas others, more marginal politi-
cally and economically, were weeded out altogether (Lenger 1988: 198–9).

Industry. Developments in industry were even more complex. Recall that

the Weimar period was marked by considerable diversity in the extent to
which different segments of industry were committed to training, the extent
to which they were open to negotiating with unions on this matter, and

18 These included the introduction of a uniform apprentice contract, guidelines for mas-
ter examinations, the development of technical materials for the apprentice and journey-
men’s examinations, and the introduction in 1938 of a national apprentice roll that sub-
sumed the previous Handwerk rolls (Wolsing 1977: 269–70; Kipp 1990: 224–30; Pätzold
1989: 269–70; Hansen 1997: 594–619, especially 617–19).

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in the different models of training they sought to pursue. The legacy of

the Weimar period was significant advances in skill standardization in key
industries (above all, in machine building and metalworking through the
influence of DATSCH and the VDMA). Other organizations, however,
sought to promote a very different, more autarkic model that emphasized
firm-based and firm-oriented training and company loyalty. This alterna-
tive perspective was represented above all in heavy industry and vigorously
promoted by their German Institute for Technical Training (Deutsches
Institut für Technische Arbeitsschulung, or Dinta). In the absence of an
overarching legal framework for industrial training such as existed in the
Handwerk sector, training in industry in the Weimar years was marked by
great diversity across plants, regions, and sectors.
The Nazi seizure of power clearly changed the political–economic pa-
rameters within which training policy would be decided and with that, the
interests of some of the key actors. The repression of the unions played
to the interests of many segments of industry and eliminated any need to
compromise with labor on skill formation. In addition, those industries (for
example, machine making) that had long sought standardization and sepa-
rate certification of industrial training on a par with the handicraft training
system were much heartened by the National Socialists’ bold moves in that
direction. But an equally important side effect of the training policies pur-
sued by the Nazis was that it recast the debate entirely. The apparatus for
more centralized administration and certification of industrial training be-
came a fact. The question shifted to that of who was going to run it. These
developments pushed industry to a more unified position, as business sought
to occupy the regulatory space opened up by Nazi training policies, and to
defend it, mostly in alliance with the Ministry of Economics (RWM) and
mostly against the ambitions of the German Labor Front (DAF) (Pätzold
1989: 278; Seubert 1977: Chapters 10, 11; see especially Frese 1991: 251–
332 passim; Wolsing 1977: 234–396, and especially 689–739).19
The conflicts over training between the DAF and the Ministry of Eco-
nomics involved some familiar players, among them Dinta and DATSCH,
each of which was subsumed into a different part of the regime (Seubert
1977: Chapters 10, 11). Dinta was incorporated into the DAF, a key party
organ, whereas DATSCH was associated (at first loosely then more closely)

19 The split between the Economic Ministry and the DAF, and the animosity between the
leaders of the two – Hjalmar Schacht and Robert Ley – were legendary and by no means
confined to issues of vocational training (see, for example, Hayes 1987: Chapter 4).

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with the Ministry of Economics. The conflict that unfolded was partly a
pure jurisdictional turf war, but overlaid on this were questions about the
balance between the ideological and the technical aspects of training and
above all the balance between direct state regulation on one hand, and
managerial autonomy and employer self-regulation on the other (Wolsing
1980: 306–8).
Dinta was the creation of heavy industry in the Weimar period and
its longtime leader Carl (later Karl20 ) Arnhold promoted a view of vo-
cational training explicitly designed to provide a more autarkic alterna-
tive to DATSCH’s collectivist ideas. Dinta’s concept since its inception in
1925 was to encourage the development of systems of training that would
be under the exclusive control of the individual firms and that would si-
multaneously promote systematic training and strong company loyalties.21
Dinta’s mission underwent a significant transformation, however, through
its affiliation in the Nazi era with the German Labor Front (DAF), first
(in 1933) as an independent but associated institute known as the German
Institute for National-Socialist Technical Trade Research and Education
(Deutsches Institut für Nationalsozialistische Technische Arbeitsforschung und –
schulung) (Seubert 1977: 96; Kaiser and Loddenkemper 1980: 78; Greinert
1994: 46). A year later it was completely absorbed when Arnhold was named
head of DAF’s Office for Vocational Training and Works Management (Amt
für Berufserziehung und Betriebsführung, AfBB) (Seubert 1977: 98; Greinert
1994: 46; Schneider 1999: 209–10).
DAF’s interest in Dinta emanated from Ley’s ambitions to lay claim to a
large role in training policy. Dinta brought with it years of experience and
expertise in this area (Wolsing 1980: 305). There were also some obvious
affinities between Dinta’s ideology and that of DAF (von Rauschenplat
1945: 14–18).22 Anti-communism, anti-unionism, and the idea of a plant
community resonated strongly with National Socialist ideology; both DAF
and Dinta thought of training not in the narrow sense of technical skills,

20 After 1933, he adopted the more Germanic spelling of his first name (Gillingham 1985:
424).
21 Different, therefore, from DATSCH, which unlike Dinta worked through trade and busi-
ness associations in the interests of skill standardization (therefore also interchangeable
skills and with no particular ambitions to generate company loyalty).
22 Hitler had admired Dinta’s work in the area of training for some time. Arnhold met Hitler
in 1931 and worked discreetly with the National-Socialist Party (Nationalsozialistische
Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, NSDAP) before it took power, though it was only after Dinta
was brought into the German Labor Front that the organization publicly embraced Na-
tional Socialism (Seubert 1977: 92; Kipp and Miller-Kipp 1990: 28; Gillingham 1985: 425).

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but as a vehicle for indoctrination or, as they put it, “training for the ‘whole
person’” (Kaiser and Loddenkemper 1980: 84; Seubert 1977: 90). For Dinta
and Arnhold, the association with DAF also had its attractions. The most
obvious advantage was that it gave Dinta access to the resources of a major
player in the new regime, and Dinta did not want for financial support for
its concepts: “By late 1936 Dinta had vast sums of money at its disposal and
was running 400 apprenticeship training workshops while another 150 were
in preparation. The various Dinta training schools and programs employed
25,000 teachers and had taught 2.5 million workers” (Nolan 1994: 234).
DATSCH, meanwhile, had been incorporated into the state, although
on quite different terms. DATSCH had a longer history of involvement in
vocational training than Dinta, and the work it did on behalf of system-
atic training in the 1920s had earned it widespread recognition and respect
in business and government circles. Even before 1933, the National Eco-
nomics Ministry as well as state ministries referred to DATSCH materials
in their decrees on vocational training (Seubert 1977: 99). In the first years
of National Socialism, DATSCH remained a purely private economic in-
stitute, with a loose affiliation to the Economics ministry, but by 1935 it had
been officially designated as the Ministry’s main advisory organ (Wolsing
1977: 278; Greinert 1994: 46; see also DATSCH 1937). Later (1939), it
was converted into a governmental agency in its own right, the National
Institute for Vocational Training in Trade and Industry (Reichsinstitut für
Berufsausbildung in Handel und Gewerbe), and its jurisdiction expanded to
cover not just industry but Handwerk as well (Wolsing 1977: 278–9; Pätzold
1989: 273).
DATSCH’s approach to vocational training continued to stress the tech-
nical and functional aspects, and the organization remained strongly con-
nected to industrial interests in general and to employers’ chambers in
particular.23 With these economic interests and backed up by the Reich
Ministry of Economics, DATSCH represented a perspective on training
at odds with DAF’s more ideological approach. In the National Socialist
period DATSCH worked in a de facto alliance with the Ministry of Eco-
nomics in the interests of industry and economy, as both sought to keep
the technical and functional aspects of training from being subordinated to
the DAF’s ideological agenda and, more important and more generally, to

23 By contrast, as we have seen, in the Weimar period, Dinta had not fostered close relations
with organized business associations, preferring to organize its work around individual
companies.

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protect firms to the extent possible from direct state or party intrusion into
managerial affairs.

Political Struggles over the Control of Vocational Training

At first, heavy industry looked favorably on Dinta’s absorption by the DAF,
thinking this would anchor their training concept within a key National So-
cialist mass organization (Frese 1991: 255). It soon became clear, however,
that Ley’s ambition to claim “complete authority” to decide on all aspects of
training policy would represent significant encroachments on managerial
autonomy. Developments very early on led industrial giants like Krupp and
GHH to resist these developments, vowing to work to maintain employer
discretion in this area (Frese 1991: 252, 255). Even those firms that had
adopted Dinta training methods before 1933 and continued working with
them after, were more skeptical and distant toward Dinta after its incorpo-
ration into DAF (as the AfBB) in 1935 (Frese 1991: 256). Arnhold watched
as his former clients distanced themselves, unsure as to what extent Arnhold
was operating on their behalf and to what extent as the “long arm of Ley”
(Frese 1991: 257).24 Firms that had traditionally worked closely with Dinta
engineers were now “hesitant” to let them into their plants to advise them
(Frese 1991: 258).
These firms now saw their affairs as better represented by DAF’s main
opponent in the state, the Economics Ministry, which especially under
Hjalmar Schacht was closely allied with organized business interests
(Ullmann 1988: 198). The conflict over vocational training was not the
only area of tension between party and state apparatus, but it was an im-
portant one. DAF jousted with the Economics Ministry over these issues
throughout the 1930s (Kaiser and Loddenkemper 1980: 82; also Greinert
1994: 45–7; see especially Seubert 1977: Chapter 11; Wolsing 1977, part VI:
689–739).25 Ley based his claims to “total authority” in this area on an
October 24, 1934, ordinance issued directly by Hitler on the “nature and
goals of the German Labor Front” (Schneider 1999: 364–5; Frese 1991:
258–64). His efforts to have the AfBB assume the role of Brennlinse (focus

24 Arnhold was in an overall ambiguous position; Ley remained suspicious of Dinta because of
its links to industry, and sometimes accused the organization of putting its ties to industry
above its ties to the DAF (Frese 1991: 253–4).
25 This was part of a general conflict over power and influence within the National Socialist
regime, between the Economics Ministry and DAF (Wolsing 1977: Part VI; Hayes 1987:
Chapter 4).

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or focal point) (Frese 1991: 261) for all aspects of training policy cre-
ated immediate jurisdictional problems in light of the RWM’s competing
claims (exercised mostly through delegation to DATSCH and administered
through organized business interests themselves).
A meeting between DAF and the Economics Ministry in March 1935
produced a vague agreement (the so-called Leipzig Agreement) that pre-
sumably obligated DAF to seek the “prior approval of the Organization
of Industry for any measure affecting the economy” (Seubert 1977: 103–4;
Mason 1966: 124). Specifically, in the area of training, Schacht had appar-
ently been willing to accept a certain division of labor: The DAF would
be responsible for ideological–political training and employers and their
associations would be responsible for technical qualification (Seubert 1977:
107). Ley soon found this too constraining, however, and – invoking a
number of decrees by Hitler – continued to claim competency in the whole
area of vocational training and continuing education. He considered the
private-sector organizations of self-government (for example, chambers)
to be “relics of the old system,” and sought to subordinate them to the
party (quote is from Seubert 1977: 105; see also Wolsing 1977: 241; Mason
1966: 124; Greinert 1994: 45–7).
In the ensuing years, Ley sought to reinforce his claim to authority in
the training area with policies that directly contradicted government pol-
icy, therefore deeply irritating Schacht (Wolsing 1977: 309), but Schacht’s
protests “followed one another into the waste-paper baskets of the Labour
Front [DAF]” (Mason 1966: 124). In 1935, in flat contradiction of the
Leipzig Agreement, Ley’s lieutenants began to set up DAF training courses,
also claiming the exclusive right to award industrial qualifications. Schacht
and industry representatives viewed this as a direct assault on the rights of
the chambers and economic groups (Seubert 1977: 104). The Reichsgruppe
Industrie (RGI) advised firms to stay away from AfBB (as Dinta was by now
called) and DAF, and to work instead to implement the policies of the Eco-
nomics Ministry (Frese 1991: 261, 298 fn143). For his own sake, but also at
the urging of “influential firms” who wanted the situation clarified in their
interest, Schacht issued an official decree that plant-based vocational train-
ing should be based on DATSCH materials, and not the materials produced
by the Office of Vocational Training within DAF (Frese 1991: 297–8; Kipp
1990: 229; Schneider 1999: 365; Seubert 1977: 110).26

26 A further conflict centered on the notebooks in which apprentices were meant to record
their progress in training. DATSCH had originally introduced these materials, but soon

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A number of other such conflicts arose, with actors cleaving along the
same lines. DAF opposed the Economic Ministry’s (1938) introduc-
tion of uniform nationwide apprentice lists (reichseinheitliche gewerbliche
Lehrlingsrolle), preferring instead to maintain its own “lists of occupational
cadres” (Berufsstammrolle), which were more comprehensive and provided
an instrument of control even beyond the exam for skilled industrial work-
ers (Facharbeiterprüfung). This bid was rejected by the Economics Ministry
which forbade the use of DAF’s rolls, a move that was largely successful,
as the vast majority of Facharbeiter did wind up registered with the IHK
(Wolsing 1977: 269–271). In the end, the DAF’s alternative apprentice
lists, as well as their model apprentice contract, were superseded by a sin-
gle uniform list and apprentice contract worked out through the national
economic chambers (Reichswirtschaftskammer) and underwritten by the
Economics Ministry (Wolsing 1977: 270–1; Kipp 1990: 225–8).
There were also furious conflicts over testing procedures. DAF and AfBB
attempted to require that the chambers place DAF representatives on their
examination boards, and DAF at one point even developed its own testing
system. Industry resisted these moves, and was backed up by the Economics
Ministry, which insisted on the sole right to testing through the industry
and trade chambers and which also instructed the chambers not to test ap-
prentices who had not registered with them but rather with the competing
DAF (Frese 1991: 272, 301–2; Schneider 1999: 364–5). Organized busi-
ness (through the Reichsgruppe Industrie, or RGI) offered Schacht “massive
support” and warned its members not to put their own role in testing in
jeopardy by adopting DAF materials (Frese 1991: 272–3).
Through all these jurisdictional conflicts, industry rallied behind the
Economics Ministry under Schacht, which consistently represented the in-
terests of organized business and sought to protect the rights of the cham-
bers to administer key aspects of the training system (Frese 1991: 259,
262). These conflicts were never fully resolved with a clear and unambigu-
ous delegation of authority (Wolsing 1980: 308). Moreover, industry lost
its most reliable ally when Schacht left at the end of 1937. In any case,
his position had been weakened by the establishment of a separate “Four
Year Plan” Office under Hermann Göring (Ullmann 1988: 187). Schacht’s

after, Dinta introduced its own version. The DAF intervened on the side of Dinta, at-
tempting to force firms to adopt its materials with the argument that DATSCH’s behavior
was interfering with DAF’s ability to pursue the mission assigned to it by order of the
Führer (Wolsing 1977: 308–9).

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successor adopted the same general policies, however, and over time the
DAF’s position in training policy was weakened by the firms themselves
(which engaged in a great deal of shirking and foot-dragging) and the onset
of war, which encouraged the regime to adopt an increasingly pragmatic
and very instrumental approach to training. As the war economy geared up,
“ ‘duplication of work’ in the area of vocational training was increasingly
dismantled to the benefit of the Reich Ministry of Economics” (Greinert
1994: 46; see also Kipp and Miller-Kipp 1990: 34). In May 1941, the DAF’s
Office for Vocational Training and Plant Management was merged into
the (DATSCH successor) Reichsinstitut für Berufsausbildung, thus becoming
formally subordinate to the Economics Ministry (Stratmann and Schlösser
1990: 47–9; Greinert 1994: 47).
Especially important in the present context was the effect these ongoing
conflicts had in promoting among business interests greater unity on the
issue of training than had prevailed before the war. Heavy industry – having
always embraced a more autarkic and resolutely firm-centered approach to
training – had not been enthusiastic about registering their apprentices with
the IHK, with the imposition of a model apprentice contract, or with the
review of apprentice contracts through the IHK. Over time, however, and
in light of the threat posed by DAF to sideline organized business interests
altogether, these firms came around. As Frese puts it, “the activities of the
DAF [in this area] . . . strongly encouraged firms to change their attitude”
(Frese 1991: 272).

The Impact of National Socialism on Vocational Training

What was the net impact of National Socialism on vocational training in
Germany?27 The balance sheet is mixed, and a lot depends on what dimen-
sion one is looking at. Undeniably, the years of National Socialism forged
a unified and much more standardized system for vocational training in
Handwerk and industry, albeit one, as Hansen has emphasized, constructed
largely out of pieces inherited from the Weimar period (Hansen 1997:
603). Industry had achieved some uniformity in training in the Weimar
years but lacked certification powers; Handwerk had certification powers
but no particular provision for strong standardization in training. What

27 There is a long-standing debate in German historiography on whether the Nazi period had
an overall modernizing or reactionary impact on German society and economic institutions.
(For a very useful review and argument, see Berghoff 2001.)

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the National Socialist regime did was to bring these two strands decisively
together. The regime granted industrial training the same rights and status
as Handwerk training, backed up by state recognition of uniform industrial
profiles and strong promotion of standardized training. Handwerk training
became more systematic as a result of the application (under state auspices)
of uniform occupational profiles and standardized training ordinances of the
sort pioneered in industry (Hansen 1997: 617). Taken together, these mea-
sures gave a tremendous boost to both the numbers of apprentices trained
in Germany and standardization in the training they received.
Over time, however, the exigencies of war and the chaotic administrative
apparatus often produced stopgaps and shortcuts that were very detrimen-
tal to training. As the war continued, training times were shortened in
some trades, against the protests of some segments of industry, worried
about declining quality in skills and not happy about the prospect of paying
17-year-olds skilled worker wages (Frese 1991: 285–7). The regime also fre-
quently had to reverse course in ways that produced confusion and conflict.
For example, the policies put in place in 1935 to draw youth into skilled oc-
cupations were overall rather too successful, and led to serious shortages of
semi-skilled operators in many industries (Frese 1991: 279–80; Gillingham
1985: 424, 427; Hansen 1997: 609–10; Rathschlag 1972: 17). A great many
of the jobs involved in mobilizing for war could easily be learned in less than
two years and some employers (particularly in the iron and steel industry)
complained about the discrepancy between the training policies they were
required to pursue and their actual production needs. Having elevated the
status and attractiveness of industrial training, however, and having com-
mitted itself to the right to training for every youth, the National Socialist
state had to search for ways to attract youth to the “correct” (in this case, in-
creasingly, semi-skilled) occupations. This is the background to the efforts
to upgrade semi-skilled training by having DATSCH work out training
materials and secure official state recognition for these occupations as well
(Rathschlag 1972: 17, 24; Gillingham 1985: 429).28

28 Semi-skilled occupations had been an issue in the Weimar years as well. In the earlier
period the point was to draw sharper distinctions between skilled trades and semi-skilled
occupations (to prevent abuse by firms of skilled apprenticeship), but now the idea was to
upgrade the training of semi-skilled occupations to increase their attractiveness, making
their training more not less like that of the skilled trades (Rathschlag 1972: 17, 29–31, 42). In
addition, as Rathschlag points out, there were somewhat different types of occupations at
stake. It was not so much, as in the 1920s, a matter of traditionally semi-skilled occupations
so defined when an increase in the division of labor split skilled work categories. At stake

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More generally, the strains of war production led to the deterioration

of apprenticeship training in the regime’s waning years. The school-based
component had never been strong, partly as result of a shortage of teachers –
something the National Socialists had brought on themselves with massive
firings of left-leaning teachers. The result was the relative (and over time,
growing) neglect of the school-based component in favor of training in
plants, administered by the party and its affiliated organizations (Kipp and
Miller-Kipp 1990: 44; Stratmann and Schlösser 1990: Chapter 3). The
number of plant-based trade schools (in companies but under government
school supervision) rose from 95 at the end of World War I to 126 in 1929
but declined from 1929 to 1938, first as a result of the depression but also
as more and more resources were poured into rearmament and then war
(Kipp 1990: 240–1). Once the war broke out, vocational school training was
“cut back significantly” (Pätzold 1989: 284). In-plant training, too, suffered
under the relentless demands of war, as apprentices found themselves more
and more doing production work in the regime’s final years.
In sum, the National Socialists presided over the institutionalization of
a more unified national system for apprenticeship training with roots in the
handicraft system but also incorporating the technical/organizational in-
novations developed in the 1920s on a voluntary basis by industry, above all
by the machine industry. Nazi training policy can be seen as an instance of a
broader class of events in which the “dictatorship parasitically made use of
existing social structures” but redirecting them to somewhat different ends
(Berghoff 2001: 99).29 This consolidation involved an element of innovation
to the extent that the effect was only possible through the forced extension
of a model that had by no means emerged as hegemonic in the Weimar
years. The Nazi legacy that was produced through the “generalization of
preferred solutions” and the “homogenization of sectoral arrangements”
(Streeck 2001: 22, 26) was partly a matter of direct design. Its stabilization,
however, was a consequence of political realignments (in this case, espe-
cially, a new-found unity of business interests on training) that were, as
Berghoff has argued in another context, only “indirectly and unwittingly
caused by Nazism” (Berghoff 2001: 100). The conflicts described above,

were quite specialized “niche” occupations that were simply not able to recruit sufficient
numbers of apprentices (Rathschlag 1972: 28–9).
29 At least in the case of Handwerk, it seems plausible to argue that Nazi policies resulted
in its overall modernization, eliminating the marginal producers and imposing new con-
ditions (for example, accounting, more standardized training) on those artisanal firms that
remained.

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played out between DAF and RWM, ultimately spoke to broader issues
concerning business autonomy and self-governance. The balance between
these two principles – corporate self-governance and state control – again
became an issue, though in a completely different form, in the post-World
War II period, to which I now turn.

Vocational Training in Postwar Germany

The West German vocational training system was reconstructed after the
Second World War along lines that built directly on pre-war institutions
and practices (Crusius 1982: 89).30 As Pätzold notes, there were no dramatic
departures from the pre-existing system, either during the occupation or
in the 1950s.31 This continuity can be partly explained by the more or less
spontaneous re-emergence of previous practices under conditions of high
uncertainty about the future of the German economy in the immediate
postwar years, and in a context in which the plant-based component of
apprentice training was not a major focal point of public debate (Pätzold
1991: 1; Taylor 1981: 103). Against the backdrop of a strong punctuated
equilibrium model, the lack of change seems surprising. What this case
clearly demonstrates, however, is that actors, when faced with great turbu-
lence and uncertainty, do not necessarily seize this as an opportunity for
creative experimentation, but rather, hold tight (to the extent possible) to
familiar institutional forms and routines.
The role of foreign occupation was similarly less decisive than one might
think. The occupying governments did seek changes in the German educa-
tion system, but the Allies were interested above all in the school-based com-
ponent of training, the main goal being to expose German youth to a cur-
riculum that included heavier doses of civic responsibility and democratic
values. With respect to the plant-based component of training a relative legal
vacuum existed, in which traditional structures and practices re-emerged
largely on the initiative of employers and with the implicit or explicit ap-
proval of the Allies. War casualties had produced a highly skewed age profile
among the working population and employers had a double interest in ap-
prenticeship, both to replenish the stock of skills lost in the war and as

30 East Germany is another story, one that cannot be told here; but see Jacoby (2000),
Culpepper (2003).
31 As he put it, “a new beginning was not attempted” (ein Neubeginn wurde nicht versucht)
(Pätzold 1991: 1).

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a source of productive labor. For the occupying powers, apprenticeship

offered a welcome solution to the problem of high youth unemployment
and thus addressed worries about political volatility if German youth were
left to drift. Thus, by the time the Federal Republic was founded in 1949,
many of the previous elements of the system of self-government through
the handicraft and industry and trade chambers were, de facto if not yet
entirely de jure, back in place.
The reconstruction period (1950s) mostly saw the consolidation and le-
galization of developments in vocational education that had emerged on an
informal basis under the occupation. In particular, legislation of 1953 and
1956 extended formal recognition to the chambers of Handwerk and of
industry and commerce, and authorized them to exercise parapublic func-
tions in the administration and oversight of plant-based vocational training
under a modified form of self-governance. The tasks of producing training
materials and ordinances, updating occupational profiles, and disseminat-
ing standardized training guidelines and materials – previously performed
by DATSCH and its Nazi-era successor – were taken over by the recon-
stituted chambers. National-level coordination was achieved for industry
through the founding (1947) by the chambers of industry and commerce
of an overarching office for vocational training (Arbeitsstelle für Berufs-
erziehung des Deutschen Industrie- und Handelstages), and for the craft sec-
tor through the national organization of Handicraft chambers in collab-
oration with the Crafts Institute at the University of Cologne (Pätzold
1991: 5).
Germany’s unions objected to locating these important regulatory and
oversight functions in the (employer-dominated) chambers but political
developments placed important constraints on the more significant changes
organized labor was proposing. The Federal Republic’s first election, in
1949, brought to power a conservative government skeptical of the need
for deep reform and particularly unreceptive to union calls for greater state
involvement. Instead of more dramatic change, the laws of 1953 and 1956
required the employer chambers to allow union representatives (or elected
representatives of workers) to participate in their internal deliberations on
training (Streeck et al. 1987: 9, 18). This gave unions a voice in these issues
but within the context of the system of employer self-government.
Unions continued to press for more democratic accountability in the
area of vocational training (through state oversight and expanded code-
termination rights), and in 1969 a Grand Coalition government of Social
Democrats and the conservative Christian Democratic party finally passed
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the overarching national legislation that unions had been calling for since
1919. This law created a new oversight structure for plant-based vocational
training consisting of tripartite boards at the national and state levels. This
was a significant innovation in that it created a comprehensive public frame-
work “above” the chamber system in which unions are full (parity) partici-
pants. There are also strong continuities, however, above all in that the most
important aspects of administration and supervision of plant-based train-
ing are still accomplished in the chambers. As Faulstich puts it, the 1969
law for the first time unified the rules governing apprentice training, but
did so “only in a way that legalized and therefore reinforced the previously
prevailing practice” (Faulstich 1977: 171).
The next three sections analyze the most important developments –
during the occupation, in the reconstruction period, and finally surround-
ing the 1969 Vocational Training Act – that, overall, exhibit a pattern of
reinforcement through bounded innovation. A final section considers the
extent to which contemporary changes in the political and market context
are undermining the deeper foundations on which the system has tradition-
ally rested.

The Occupation
Education policy in the three Western zones differed in the extent to which
the French, American, and British occupying forces tried to impose reforms.
In all three zones, however, the military governments were above all con-
cerned with basic education, so that in the area of vocational training, the
attention was mostly on vocational schools rather than in-plant training. All
the occupying powers moved swiftly to reopen public schools in Germany
after the surrender of May 1945, a move hampered by a lack of suitable
space and a dearth of (politically acceptable) teachers (Taylor 1981: 39–40).
It is quite striking how soon vocational schools were back in operation.
In the British zone, for example, by June 1946, 1,071 part-time vocational
schools were operating for 356,179 of an eligible total of 481,703 young
men and women (Taylor 1981: 43). The time frame was broadly similar in
the other zones, though the reopening of vocational schools in more remote
rural areas in the U.S. zone lagged somewhat behind (Taylor 1981: 56).
The policies of the French, British, and Americans shared some fea-
tures, above all, an almost exclusive emphasis on the school-based por-
tion of training, and within this emphasis, on denazification and civic re-
education. There was variation in the extent to which the occupying forces
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sought to shape the structure and content of school-based education, with

the French and the Americans taking an overall more active stand than the
British.32 As Taylor points out (Taylor 1981: 85, 101), however, most of
the major structural reforms discussed at that time did not lead to real
changes. Adjustments were made, for example, to enhance the civic com-
ponent of the school-based part of vocational training, but deeper structural
reforms that would have revised the German “dual” system in more signif-
icant ways were subtly but effectively resisted by the German authorities
who took charge of education policy in 1947 and 1949 (Taylor 1981: 64–5,
105–8).
Employers were singularly unenthusiastic about any initiative that
pointed toward greater reliance on school-based vocational training, since
firms at this time relied heavily on the productive labor of apprentices.
A 1952 report by an American advisor to the U.S. High Commissioner
on Germany (George W. Ware in the so-called Ware report) noted that
“in a very real sense the three-year apprenticeship system, particularly the
productive work in the last year, is one of low-cost labor and in toto con-
stitutes a substantial part (more than 10%) of the whole German labor
force” (quoted in Taylor 1981: 132; Ware 1952). For this reason, as Ware
remarked, “strong economic pressures persist against decreasing the work-
ing hours and increasing the schooling for apprentices” (Ware 1952; see
also Stratmann 1999; quoted in Taylor 1981: 132), even though the de-
fense of the traditional system was framed in terms of the proven value of
“praxis-oriented” vocational training (Pätzold 1991: 3; Taylor 1981: 103).
Spokesmen for Handwerk would later note with undisguised satisfaction
that all efforts on the part of occupying forces to implement “alien political–
economic experiments” (wesensfremde wirtschaftspolitische Experimente) in
vocational training had failed (Walle 1963: 216).
The most important single innovation in the structure of German ed-
ucation was that responsibility for public education – including vocational

32 For a comprehensive account of the policies of the three Western occupying powers, see
Taylor (1981: Chapters 2–5). The French retained direct control over the education system
for the longest period (until 1949, with the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany).
The British and Americans handed responsibility over to German authorities earlier, at the
beginning of 1947 (Taylor 1981: 44–5, 101–2). The British were inclined to encourage the
Germans to take on responsibility themselves as early as possible, whereas the French and
Americans submitted rather detailed reform proposals, in the American case to merge sec-
ondary and full-time vocational schools, and in the French case to revamp the curriculum,
especially in German and European history.

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schools – was vested in the state governments rather than the national gov-
ernment (see, for example, Faulstich 1977: 147–8). This reform reflected
an interest among all the occupying powers in promoting a dispersion of
power.33 The German version of federalism, however, allowed for signifi-
cant coordination among the states, and in the area of education such coor-
dination was institutionalized through the formation in 1948 of a Standing
Conference of the [state-level] Ministries of Culture (Kultusministerkon-
ferenz, or KMK) across the three Western zones (Faulstich 1977: 152–3).
In 1950 the KMK turned its attention to the question of possible reforms
of the vocational school system, and appointed a committee to review this
issue. The committee – on which employer interests were especially well
represented34 – issued a report that mostly endorsed the basic structure of
the existing “dual” system, and did not see vocational schools as any kind
of acceptable substitute for enterprise-based training (Engel and Rosenthal
1970: 11; Abel 1968: 26; Bundesrepublik 1952: 264–6; Taylor 1981: 105–6,
141, 146–8; Stratmann and Schlösser 1990: 64).
Less attention was devoted to a serious consideration of reforms to the
system of firm-based training during the occupation period. Plant-based
apprenticeship more or less spontaneously re-surfaced after the war, recom-
mencing most quickly and thoroughly in the craft sector, as early as 1945
(Taylor 1981: 131). Given the widespread destruction of major industrial
areas, apprentices who had been employed there were advised to figure out
for themselves how to finish their training. In many cases this meant turning
to the craft sector, since handicraft firms were flush with orders connected
with reconstruction work of all varieties (Pätzold 1991: 2–3). Industry, too,
contributed to the revival of enterprise-based training as soon as feasible,
and plant-based training was re-instituted more or less “automatically,” un-
der the auspices of individual firms and their employer organizations and
chambers (Crusius 1982: 90).
One important reason why in-plant training was swiftly reopened with-
out much fundamental debate stemmed from widespread concerns about
youth unemployment in the immediate post-war years. The working pop-
ulation in Germany just after the war was overall on the older side due to

33 For the same reasons, state governments were also put in charge of radio and television, as
well as police (Katzenstein 1987).
34 The committee included six employer representatives, three education specialists, one rep-
resentative from the Ministry of Labor, one from the union confederation DGB, and one
member of the KMK, along with an academic chairperson (Taylor 1981: 141).

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war casualties. Very soon after the war, however, large numbers of youth
(the fruits of the Nazi population policy) were entering the labor markets.35
Apprenticeship provided a structure for German youth, and thus addressed
concerns on the part of the Western Allies, especially as the Cold War be-
gan, that hopelessness and disillusionment would make them susceptible to
the influence of political movements not just on the right but on the left as
well (Taylor 1981: 30).
German business, in this period always looking for ways to rehabilitate
its tarnished reputation, could bill itself as making efforts to deal with this
problem by re-establishing apprentice training programs quickly and un-
bureaucratically (BDI 1950; Crusius 1982: 90–1; Pätzold 1991: 2; Rohlfing
1949: 3–4).36 In October 1950 the Ministry of Labor reported 1,011,805
registered apprentices (in industry and Handwerk) (Arbeit 1950: 30). At
end of 1954, the Deutscher Industrie- und Handelskammertag (DIHT) re-
ported that about 660,000 apprentices were in training for various skilled
and semi-skilled occupations in industry, and that in the five years between
1949 and 1954, about 870,000 had already completed their training and
taken their exams (Stemme 1955: 7).
Apprenticeship brought with it the issue of regulation and oversight, and
here again employer and handicraft associations re-emerged and assumed
their traditional roles somewhat organically, as Abel puts it, “in the absence
of the state” (Abel 1968: 32; Crusius 1982: 89–91). All three occupying
powers had their doubts about the separation of technical and vocational
education from general education, and also about having the former un-
der the control and dominance of employers. The Allies were also united,
however, in their desire to break up concentrated powers of the state and to
establish decentralized nodes of authority. The re-establishment of business
self-government looked like a viable alternative. As Herrigel has pointed
out, employer representatives emphasized wherever possible the ways in

35 In 1948 the number of school leavers was six hundred thousand; a year later this was up
to seven hundred fifty thousand. The trend was expected to continue for the next several
years, and to peak in 1955 at eight hundred eighty thousand (Taylor 1981: 126). See also
the assessment of the system by the state governments in Bundesrepublik (1952: 259).
36 The rhetoric – if not the reality – was altruistic bordering on selfless. For example, in an
appeal to firms, the President of the Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie, Fritz Berg,
asserted that “only serious and meaningful work can save people from despair and political
agitation [Verhetzung]” (BDI 1950: 144), and “[German youth] can and must be helped
through training and work. Firms and managers feel a deep moral responsibility toward
the next generation” (BDI 1950: 145).

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which their interests resonated with the values of the occupying powers
(particularly the Americans), underscoring the role that private capital and
employer self-government could play in limiting state power and guard-
ing against a return of authoritarianism (Herrigel 2000: 377). The head of
the DIHT department for vocational training, Adolf Kieslinger (who had
occupied basically the same position in the Weimar and the Nazi periods)
never tired of insisting that “vocational training is not the task of the state”
(die Berufsausbildung ist nicht Staatsaufgabe) (Kieslinger 1950: 146).37
The occupying forces did not stand in the way of the chambers resuming
a leading role in these areas; in many ways they promoted this development
(Greinert 1994: 50). The National Socialist regime had folded together
chambers of industry and commerce and the handicraft chambers, to form
more encompassing national economic chambers (Reichswirtschaftkammer).
After 1945 the Allies undid this forced integration, so that separate cham-
bers for the handicraft and industrial sectors were reconstituted. The
main questions under the occupation concerned official recognition of the
chambers and compulsory membership, as well as their precise responsibil-
ities with respect to training. In the British and French zones, the chambers
were reconstituted as institutions under public law, but the Americans – less
enthusiastic about compulsory membership – allowed them to be recon-
stituted as voluntary associations under private law (Kieslinger 1966: 12;
Walle 1963: 206–7).38
Handwerk faced the interesting challenge of wanting very much to
preserve some of the gains (for example, the major certificate of compe-
tency) that they had sought for decades but only achieved under the Nazis
(Ullmann 1988: 255–6). This involved convincing the occupying powers

37 Kieslinger had been active in vocational training issues through three regimes. In 1929 he
was employed in the Weimar labor department offices dealing with vocational training and
labor market politics. In 1937 he became head of the vocational training department of
the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Industrie- und Handelskammern in der Reichswirtschaftskammer
(the Nazi era successor to the DIHT). After the war he became the head of the department
for vocational training at the IHK in Munich, before taking up the position (in 1950) of head
of the Department of Vocational Training and Labor Supply Questions [Berufsausbildung
und Arbeitskräftefragen] of the re-founded DIHT, a job he held until his retirement in
1965. I am grateful to the DIHT for providing this biographic information.
38 An exception is Berlin, where the chambers were forbidden entirely, and where the state
itself stepped in – though in consultation with economic organizations – to administer
vocational training. This is one reason why Berlin was the first to have explicit legislation on
vocational education (in 1951) of a scope and form (with significant union representation,
for example) that was not achieved elsewhere in Germany until 1969 (see, for example,
Crusius 1982: 91).

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that these practices were based on a long Handwerk tradition rather than
National Socialist principles, an argument that proved mostly successful.
Thus, in the fall of 1945 the HWK were still working in accordance with
National Socialist Handwerk law, and by November 1946 (French zone)
and December 1946 (British), the military governments passed decrees for
the Handwerk sector that put the chambers back in charge of regulating
apprentice training, under essentially the same terms as the Handwerk laws
of 1934 and 1935 (Rohlfing 1949: 4; Richter 1950: 53; Ullmann 1988: 256–
7).39 The same was true in practice for the American zone, though without
the explicit legal basis (Ullmann 1988: 256–7). There, a 1948 ordinance
stripped the guilds and Handwerk chambers of their official responsibil-
ities, but it allowed them to continue their previous functions as private
voluntary associations. As Richter notes, this was of no practical conse-
quence and was “hardly noticeable,” since the functions of the chambers
were recognized and followed anyway (Richter 1950: 53).
In industry, as well, the Allies generally did not interfere with the rather
rapid reconstitution of the chambers and indeed they had an interest in
their “quick reactivation” since they needed them to act as intermediaries
between the military administration and companies in rationing measures
(Ullmann 1988: 238). In the British and French zones the industry and
trade chambers were up and running in 1945 and officially reconstituted
along old lines (that is, along the lines of pre-1933 law) in 1946 and 1947
(Ullmann 1988: 238). In the American zone the chambers were civil pri-
vate institutions with voluntary membership and without any official para-
public responsibilities; the latter provision was almost immediately mod-
ified, however, to allow the chambers to resume traditional functions in
the area of apprentice training (Richter 1950: 55–6; Ullmann 1988: 238).

39 Thus, the chambers were again charged with promoting apprenticeship, regulating ap-
prenticeship according to the terms of the HWK, monitoring in-plant training, conduct-
ing journeymen exams, and so on. Anyone wishing to take an apprentice needed the
approval of the Labor Office (Arbeitsamt) but the handicraft guilds played a key role in
vetting such applications, making judgments about the quality of particular firms as train-
ing institutions (based on rankings from “very good” to “good” to “satisfactory” to “not
satisfactory”). No application from a firm designated as unsatisfactory would be accepted
by the Labor Office (Rohlfing 1949: 5). The right to revoke a Handwerker’s right to
train (on the basis of infractions against rules, exploitation of apprentices, and so on)
was also delegated to the handicraft chambers, either de jure (British zone) or de facto
(French and American zones) (Rohlfing 1949: 12). See also, Richter (1950: 45) on the more
or less spontaneous re-establishment of apprentice examinations through the Handwerk
chambers.

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As summarized by a contemporary observer, as soon as the chambers were

reconstituted

they immediately took up again their functions – even if under a different set of
legal conditions in the American zone, and among other things began conducting
apprentice exams in the previously common way without any problem and with the
tacit tolerance (stillschweigende Duldung) of the military and state governments –
and this despite the fact that the chambers had no legal authority to actually do this.
(Richter 1950: 45)

The lack of specific legal grounding for chamber activities in the area
of vocational training reflected the ambiguities of the immediate post-war
legal environment. In 1949 and 1950, publications sponsored by cham-
bers and individual firms appeared that summarized and attempted to clar-
ify for employers the legal status on which apprenticeship now rested.
These documents invoked a wide range of ordinances stretching back to
the Gewerbeordnung of 1869 and the Handelsgesetzbuch of 1897, but com-
plemented and revised by subsequent legislation of other periods including
under the Nazis, to produce a mosaic obviously not entirely transparent
to contemporaries (see, for example, Rohlfing 1949; Richter 1950). These
legal ambiguities did not stop chambers from resuming their previous func-
tions. As early as 1945, the Düsseldorf IHK began again to register and ex-
amine apprentices, using the materials previously developed by DATSCH.
This chamber’s leaders wrote to all other IHKs in the British zone encour-
aging them to work together to counteract tendencies introduced under the
Nazis (for example, shortening of apprentice training time) to rejuvenate
apprenticeship (Düsseldorf 1945: 129). Beginning in 1949 the chambers of
industry and commerce began publishing data on the number of appren-
tices being trained in particular trades, as well as the aggregate results of
apprentice examinations (Stemme 1955: 5).40
Employer initiative in the absence of clear and uniform legal foundations
became an important part of the employer rhetoric in subsequent conflicts
with unions over regulation of firm-based training. The DIHT would later
(1955) refer back to post-war initiatives and stress that these first years after
the war showed “how even without a sufficient legal foundation, valuable
work can be accomplished not just for the country and the economy, but
also for individual citizens” (quote is from Stemme 1955: 7; see also Richter

40 The results were also published in yearly reports, 1947–49 together, then each year through
1954; the publication cited here (Stemme 1955) is a compilation of all of these.

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1950: 45). For the DIHT, the events of this period were taken as evidence of
the viability and value of employer self-governance (through the chamber
system) in the area of apprentice training (Stemme 1955: 7).41
Equally important, the first chambers of industry and commerce to
become operational after the war took the initiative to found overarch-
ing offices for coordinating vocational training at the national level, one
for industry (in operation starting July 1, 1947, in Dortmund) the other
for commerce (commencing operations a few months later, from a base
in Munich). After the formal refounding of the German Congress of In-
dustry and Trade (Deutscher Industrie- und Handelskammertag, or DIHT)42
these two offices were combined (in 1951), to form a unified Office for
Vocational Training of the Association of German Chambers of Indus-
try and Commerce (Arbeitsstelle für Berufserziehung des Deutschen Industrie-
und Handelstages) with headquarters in the capital city of Bonn. This en-
tire structure was subsequently (1953) put under the joint sponsorship
of all three of the principal employer associations (that is, incorporating
the Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie (BDI) and Bundesvereinigung der
Deutschen Arbeitgeberverbände (BDA), although the day-to-day administra-
tion and legal oversight stayed with DIHT), at which point it was re-
named the Office for Enterprise-Based Vocational Training (Arbeitsstelle für
betriebliche Berufsausbildung or ABB) (Berufsausbildung 1958: 7–8; Greinert
1994: 50).
From its inception, and in its earliest post-war incarnations the ABB saw
its role as a direct continuation of the work of DATSCH and its successor,
the Reichsinstitut für Berufsausbildung. Pre-existing training profiles and
guidelines continued to be used, and the chambers only accepted apprentice
contracts based on such “recognized” skilled and semi-skilled occupations
(Pätzold 1991: 7–8).43 As early as 1947 the Arbeitsstelle resumed the work
of defining and updating occupational profiles for industry, establishing
guidelines for training for the various trades, providing materials regarding

41 Employers would continue through the 1950s to appeal to the principle of subsidiarity in
this area, pointing out (misleadingly, as the present analysis shows) that the strong and highly
successful system of enterprise-based training was something that employers historically
had created without the help of the state (ohne dass der Staat mitgewirkt hat) (Kieslinger
1950: 146).
42 In 1949, after the founding of the Federal Republic.
43 In Handwerk, too, a 1949 publication notes that the Fachlichen Vorschriften zur Regelung
des Lehrlingswesens are the “authoritative” materials governing the conduct of training
(Rohlfing 1949: 27).

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how training should be structured, and the like (Berufsausbildung 1958,

passim). A 1955 ABB publication provides a complete index of all recog-
nized occupations in industry (ABB 1955); and the DIHT was also active in
publishing training ordinances and materials for use by firms (six volumes
covering a total of 674 occupations) (DIHT 1955). In 1954 (with authoriza-
tion from the Economics Ministry) the ABB struck 137 occupations from
the list of “recognized” trades. The vast majority of these (all but 34) were
semi-skilled occupations, so this action was partly designed to move back
to the status quo ante, counteracting the big build-up of recognized semi-
skilled occupations that had occurred in the Nazi period (Stemme 1955:
163–6).
The level of national coordination was much higher after the war than it
had been during the Weimar years, when DATSCH’s influence was less well
established and the organization lacked the explicit backing of the DIHT
and AfB (see Chapter 2). Thus, “the development of the regulations for in-
plant training proceeded on a more uniform basis” after the war than it had
been before, and was more standardized even than the curriculum for voca-
tional schooling, which was a matter for regulation at the state level (Bunk
1979: 102; Greinert 1994: 50). The activities of the chambers throughout
this period were guided by foundational principles that hark back to the
goals traditionally articulated by DATSCH, including (1) homogeneous
training for all apprentices in the same vocation regardless of which firm
or sector trained them, (2) uniformity in training and education conditions
across and within enterprises, (3) equivalence of certificates with the same
qualification, and (4) adaptation of apprentice training (both occupational
profiles and the content of training) to ongoing market and technological
developments (Kieslinger 1960: 52–3).
Enhanced coordination and centralization were legacies of the Nazi pe-
riod, with the difference after the war that the chambers rather than the state
assumed the key coordinating role.44 After 1945, the chambers exercised

44 See also Kieslinger (1960: 45–56) for a complete elaboration of the precise role of the
chambers in all aspects of apprentice training, which includes among others (a) developing
new training professions as these are made necessary by market or technological changes,
(b) imposing uniform conditions on the terms of apprentice contract for particular oc-
cupations, (c) keeping apprentice rolls and monitoring firm training (including deny-
ing apprentice registration to firms deemed unqualified or unsuited to such training),
(d) assisting and promoting enterprise-based training through the supply of training mate-
rials and other supports, and (e) presiding over examination of apprentices by appointing
the relevant committees and monitoring results.

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all the important regulatory functions, even though official recognition for
the ordinances they produced required approval by the Federal minister
in charge of the economic area in question – for industry, commerce, and
the crafts this was the Ministry of Economics and for occupations in agri-
culture, it was the Federal Minister of Food, Agriculture, and Forestry
(Münch 1991: 35). Union representatives were for the first time explicitly
and formally allowed to participate in the review of training ordinances
prior to their official adoption through the Ministry.45 It should be noted
however, that the role of both state and union in this process was largely pro
forma, and there is really no particular evidence that the influence of either
mattered significantly with respect to the substance of these ordinances.

Reconstruction
By the time of the founding of the Federal Republic (1949) and the instal-
lation of its first government under the conservative Chancellor Konrad
Adenauer, the enterprise-based part of the dual system had been re-
established on the basis of employer self-governance, with distant support-
ing roles assigned to both the state and the unions. Occupational profiles
and training materials developed before the war were picked up again as the
basis for in-plant training, and the chambers took up the role traditionally
played by DATSCH and the Reichsinstitut für Berufsausbildung in updating,
rationalizing, and disseminating training materials and guidelines. With
good reason, Pätzold refers to developments in the reconstruction pe-
riod as a “re-anchoring of traditional training structures” (Neubefestigung
traditioneller Ausbildungsstrukturen) (Pätzold 1991: 2).
The main debates of the 1950s and 1960s regarding plant-based train-
ing all turned on the same basic line of cleavage. Employers and their
political allies defended the principle of employer self-governance (and the

45 This innovation goes back to policies introduced by the British military government. In
1946, the British representative for vocational training in the Central Office for the Econ-
omy (Zentralamt für Wirtschaft) issued a directive for the “necessary uniformity in vo-
cational training for youth in industry.” According to this decree, recognition, changes,
or elimination of skilled and semi-skilled occupations, as well as approval of occupational
profiles, training establishments, and plants, had to be submitted for review to the legal
representatives of the trades (this would have been the ABB or the craft chambers) and
the unions. These rules were transferred to the unified (British-American) economic zone
in 1948 and adopted and applied generally after the founding of the Federal Republic of
Germany (FRG) (Pätzold 1991: 7).

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subsidiarity principle46 ) as the only viable way to prevent bureaucratization

and to preserve the “elasticity” of the system in the face of changing mar-
ket and technical conditions (see especially Kieslinger 1966: 57–61; also
Baethge 1970: 178–83). They also pointed out that since firms them-
selves bore the costs of training and would be the ones held responsible
for the quality of such training, it was both practical and justified to vest
the important regulatory powers in the chambers which were “in constant
active collaboration” with their member firms (Richter 1950: 49). Unions
and their political allies, by contrast, defined vocational training as a “pub-
lic task” which therefore required more democratic control and increased
participation rights for employee representatives.47 The unions questioned
the appropriateness of putting private industry in charge of the education
of a large number of 16- to 18-year-olds, and criticized the class biases in-
volved in such a strict separation of general and vocational training tracks
(Crusius 1970: 115, 127; Baethge 1970: 98–100).
Other debates revolved around the nature of the training contract –
whether defined more as an educational relationship or as a work relation-
ship, a long-standing issue as we have seen (see especially Molitor 1960:
passim).48 As in the past, the unions lobbied for considering apprentice
contracts to be work contracts so they could represent trainees’ material
interests. Employers, and particularly craft employers, were adamant about
having training contracts defined as educational relationships and prevent-
ing the “training allowance” from being considered a wage ( Kieslinger
1966: 23–5; Rohlfing 1949: 20). Industrial employers were overall less wor-
ried than craft masters about the costs, but they too resisted having the
training contract “dragged into the conflictual realm of wage disputes”
(quote is from Kieslinger 1966: 23; see also Molitor 1960).
These conflicts overlapped and intersected with ongoing jurisdictional
disputes (again, nothing new), this time between the Ministries of Eco-
nomics and Labor, with business strongly supporting the continued ju-
risdiction of the Economics Ministry and unions siding with the more

46 The idea being that the state could only intervene when business and its self-government
institutions were not fulfilling their tasks satisfactorily (Lipsmeier 1998: 450).
47 For a discussion of the positions taken by employers and unions in debates on vocational
training, see Faulstich (1977: 108–43), Taylor (1981: 130–40), Kell (1970).
48 As seen in Chapter 2, this is something never fully clarified in the Weimar years, though
in the late 1920s court decisions specifically allowed apprentice compensation to be dealt
with in collective bargaining – without, however, really mandating this. Under the Nazi
regime, apprenticeship was defined as a pure educational relationship.

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reform-oriented Labor Ministry (see, for example, Taylor 1981: 134–7).49

In 1955 the latter made a bid to have the portfolio for vocational training
shifted from the Economics to the Labor Ministry (Kieslinger 1966: 54).
The proposal was vigorously resisted by the DIHT, however, and com-
pletely quashed by the Economics Ministry, at the time under the forceful
leadership of Ludwig Erhard, who very much supported the status quo
(Taylor 1981: 133, 137).50 Erhard defended his Ministry’s jurisdiction and
warned against any legal initiatives that would “hamper the flexibility, adapt-
ability, and humanity which characterised the present system and which
were indispensable to vocational education in a constantly changing and
developing economy” (Taylor 1981: 140).
What is in many ways as striking as the areas of conflict are the many
areas of agreement, noticeable above all in what was not controversial. One
feature that stands out, for example, is organized labor’s continued sup-
port for the basic framework of the dual system, including the continuing
strong plant-based component. Such consensus should not be taken for
granted. The 1952 Ware report, for example, specifically criticized the
German training system as overly grounded in an economic rather than
an educational logic, noting that German business appeared to rely rather
heavily on the “cheap” productive labor of apprentices and pointing out
that “apprentices are really substantially workers and not pupils” (quote in
Stratmann and Schlösser 1990: 64; Ware 1952: 45–47). Far from picking up
on such critiques, however, German unions if anything joined with industry
and Handwerk representatives in the rather spirited defense of the value of
plant-based training, warning against an overly “bookish” approach to vo-
cational education (Verschulung) (Stratmann and Schlösser 1990: Chapter 4;
Abel 1968: 21–3, 33; Baethge 1970: 170–3; Crusius 1982: 91–3).51
To the limited extent that the Ware report was discussed at all, the dis-
cussion took place in an informal circle of experts convened initially by a
Free Democratic MP, Dr. Paul Luchtenberg, that included educationalists,

49 The Labor Ministry had jurisdiction over occupational counseling for youth and labor
exchange functions including matching apprentices to apprentice slots, but responsibility
for enterprise-based training lay with the Economics Ministry (Taylor 1981: 134).
50 For the DIHT position, see Kieslinger (1950: 146–7).
51 The unions were calling for changes, but their demands for a vocational training law and
increased state oversight were pitched at the level of governance and regulation, not the
core framework of plant-based training itself. As Crusius notes, unions may have held back
from demands for more significant changes in the 1940s and early 1950s due to acute
apprenticeship gaps. They only began pressing these points later when full employment
was restored (Crusius 1982: 115).

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entrepreneurs, union representatives, politicians, and others involved

in vocational training.52 This so-called Central Office for Research
and Promotion of Vocational Education (Zentralstelle zur Erforschung und
Förderung der Berufserziehung) – which met irregularly between 1951 and
1960 – provided a forum for a “non-binding” exchange of opinions among
experts on vocational training from a wide range of organizations involved
in this area (Abel 1968: 23, 27). At its second meeting (1953) the group con-
sidered the question “Is the system of vocational training grounded in the
firm the appropriate form for Germany?” The two key speeches, by Herbert
Studders of the National Confederation of German Industry (Bundesverband
der Deutschen Industrie) and by Josef Leimig from the German Trade Union
Confederation (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB), both answered in the
affirmative. Speaking on behalf of the unions, Leimig underscored the im-
portance of trade school classes and advocated an overall increase in com-
pulsory attendance from eight to ten hours. However, he also, in no un-
certain terms, embraced the strong plant orientation of German vocational
training with the argument that this system was in line with the “mentality
of Germans” (Stratmann and Schlösser 1990: 61–2).
Crusius explains organized labor’s acceptance of many aspects of the
German training system in part with reference to the background of the
unions’ post-war leadership. Leimig (and most other union functionaries
having responsibilities in the area of vocational training) had a “traditional
understanding” of the concept of a skilled vocation (Beruf ) and of vocational
training, in many cases having earned their own skill credentials within this
system (Crusius 1982: 89). Leimig was active in the British zone during the
occupation, working hand-in-hand with employers on an informal basis in
the interests of re-activating plant-based apprenticeship training (Crusius
1982: 90). Thus, although the unions sought significant reforms in the
regulatory structure of the vocational training system, they continued to
support key aspects of the dual system – including and above all, the merits of
in-plant training (Abel 1968: 33; Crusius 1982: 91–5; Baethge 1970: 170–3).
As Leimig put it at a 1953 union conference on the subject, “After the war,
the unions were actively engaged in rebuilding the system of vocational
education. They have a very positive attitude toward vocational training.

52 The managing director was Erwin Krause, head of the Office for Vocational Education of
the German Industry and Trade Congress (Arbeitsstelle für Berufserziehung des Deutschen
Industrie- und Handelstages). The number of members in the group grew over time from 16
to 40. On this whole episode, see especially Abel (1968: 23–4) and Stratmann and Schlösser
(1990: 61–2), on which I draw here.

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That is independent, however, of their often pointed criticism of how such

training is carried out” (quoted in Crusius 1982: 92).53
Germany’s unions did not seek a complete overhaul of the country’s
training system, and instead returned to demands they had first articulated
in 1919, fixing their hopes on legislation to guarantee organized labor full
parity rights within the system (Crusius 1982: 90). In the case of Handwerk,
this position did not interfere with, and in some ways promoted, the reas-
signment of regulatory functions to the reconstituted Handwerk chambers.
This is where unions saw more of a chance to exercise codetermination
rights (Crusius 1982: 110). Beyond Handwerk, unions were very much ori-
ented toward large firms, and – in the early 1950s – were deeply involved
with an effort to secure codetermination rights in the coal and steel indus-
tries (1951) and with the debates surrounding the Works Constitution Act
of 1952. The unions placed their bets on national legislation that would
guarantee them full codetermination rights in vocational training as well,
and while they waited and lobbied for such overarching legislation, the
system of in-plant training under chamber auspices was simply rebuilt.
Even if the unions had been mobilized around this issue – which they
were not54 – the political climate in the 1950s was not auspicious for the
chances of full codetermination rights for labor in vocational training at
the national level. The conservative government was singularly unrecep-
tive to the idea of significant change in training policy. Adenauer was not
inclined to undertake any major reforms and certainly not in the direction
of increased government involvement. In his first government statement
of September 1949 the new chancellor commented on the decline in tech-
nical training under the Nazis and asserted that the traditional strength of
the German economy was due to the skills of the German worker (Crusius
1982: 117).
Thus, the policies of the conservative government of the 1950s endorsed,
consolidated, and confirmed the principle of employer self-governance

53 A 1961 statement by the Handwerk committee of the metalworkers union (IG Metall)
similarly makes a number of suggestions for improving Handwerk training, but all are
completely within the logic of the existing system – calling, for example, for greater coop-
eration between the Handwerk chambers, the unions, the trade schools and other parties,
and arguing against Handwerk’s proposals to increase the training periods for apprentices
to make up for time lost because of the compliance of firms with the new Youth Protection
Law (Pätzold 1991: 106).
54 As Crusius emphasizes, vocational training in particular was not a major focal point for the
unions in the early postwar years. The subject did not come up at all at the DGB’s founding
congress in 1949 (Crusius 1982: 90, 95).

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in vocational training, assigning responsibility for oversight and admin-

istration of apprenticeship to the employer chambers. It amended this,
however, to mandate employee representation and participation in cham-
ber deliberations and decision making on these issues. The legislation of
this period defined the activities of the chambers in vocational training as
“public” and official and therefore subject to some state supervision, to
the extent that training ordinances were given the force of law when rec-
ognized by the relevant minister (Richter 1968: 29; Engel and Rosenthal
1970: 4).55 Key legislation of this period included the 1953 Handicraft Law
(Handwerksordnung, or HwO, amended 1965) and the 1956 Law for
the Provisional Regulation of the Rights of the Industry and Trade
Chambers (Gesetz zur vorläufigen Regelung des Rechts der Industrie- und
Handelskammern, IHKG). In both cases, the chambers were defined as the
“competent authorities” in the area of vocational training, though operat-
ing under some state supervision and with a mandate to allow employee
participation.
The HwO of 1953 re-established explicit legal foundations for the ex-
istence of the handicraft chambers and their role in administering and
overseeing training in the handicraft sector.56 The law recognized re-
gional chambers of artisans (spanning all handicraft trades in a region)
as public law institutions with compulsory membership, in addition to 65
trade-specific guild associations (also public law institutions, and subject
to legal control by the chambers) (Streeck 1992a: 116–20).57 The cham-
bers fulfilled the full range of responsibilities with respect to training –
establishing occupational profiles and training guidelines for handicraft
trades, monitoring training in handicraft firms, and overseeing the exami-
nation and certification of journeymen and master craftsmen.58 Handwerk
chambers also assumed responsibility for keeping training lists and reg-
istering apprentice contracts, important roles in monitoring firm-based
training.

55 On certification procedures see Walle (1963: 220–2), Berufsausbildung (1958: 11–13).

56 The most important excerpts can be found in Pätzold (1991: 42–52).
57 Membership in the latter, however, is voluntary rather than compulsory, a fact made nec-
essary by the country’s constitution (Basic Law) in order that they be able to negotiate with
unions.
58 As noted above, training regulations were made official through a ministerial decree
and national-level coordination was accomplished through the German Association of
Chambers of Artisans (Deutscher Handwerkskammertag, or DHKT) (Engel and Rosenthal
1970: 74).

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On the issue of employee participation, the HwO stipulated that one-

third of the members of the general assembly, the executive board, and
the committees of a chamber must be elected delegates of journeymen
(Walle 1963: 212).59 In the case of the vocational training committee, the
requirements for employee representation were higher, calling for an equal
number of representatives of employers and journeymen. Seats were also as-
signed to vocational school teachers appointed by the government (Streeck
1992a: 122). Guilds were required to institutionalize employee participa-
tion through the establishment of a separate committee for journeymen
whose members “participate in deliberations of the executive board on sub-
jects related to training,” and whose approval was required for any action
in this area (quote from Streeck 1992a: 122; Walle 1963: 210–13; Engel
and Rosenthal 1970: 98; Abel 1968: 33). These provisions fell substantially
short of union demands – state supervision being minimal and employee
participation rights very limited – but Crusius argues that the unions did
not push very hard for codetermination in this sector in part in exchange
for Handwerk’s acceptance of the unions’ campaigns (in 1951 and 1952)
for codetermination in the coal and steel industries and for legislation on
works councils (Crusius 1982: 110).
The HwO was amended in 1965, when concerns about the quality of
Handwerk training were brought to public attention through a series of
reports published in the magazine Stern in 1963 and 1964. These reports
were deeply unflattering to Handwerk, exposing cases of poor training and
exploitation of youth as cheap laborers (Taylor 1981: 195–6). The amended
law strengthened state oversight, making it possible for supervisory au-
thorities to revoke a firm’s right to train if an inspection of conditions in
the plant revealed inadequacies. The new law also required a pedagogic
component in the Meister exam (for advancement to the status of master
craftsman). The idea was to ensure that those achieving the master cer-
tificate commanded not just technical expertise, but also basic pedagogic
skills before being allowed to take apprentices (Engel and Rosenthal 1970:
98–9). However, the basic structure of chamber-based administration and
oversight was left in place.
In 1956 the chambers of industry and commerce officially regained
their status as institutions under public law and were also accorded explicit

59 The terms under which artisanal organizations (HWK and Innungen) perform their duties
in the area of vocational training, including journeyman representation, as of 1960, are laid
out in Raspe (1960).

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recognition and legal grounding for the administration and supervision of

vocational training in industry (Hoffmann 1962: 152; Walle 1963: 208–
10). The 1956 Gesetz zur vorläufigen Regelung des Rechts der Industrie- und
Handelskammern (IHKG) put the industry and trade chambers in charge of
keeping the apprentice rolls (an important control instrument) (Engel and
Rosenthal 1970: 97), and the chambers assumed responsibility for working
out training ordinances and regulations governing the various industrial
trades, which were given the force of law through the Ministry of Economics
(Engel and Rosenthal 1970: 74).60 The chambers were also charged with
monitoring plant-based training and making decisions about the suitability
of particular firms to train apprentices.
As regards employee participation, the IHKG called for the establish-
ment of a special committee for vocational training to be set up within the
chambers with 50-50 representation for employers and employees (plus
an employer representative as chair), and endowed with advisory functions
on matters pertaining to enterprise training (Ipsen 1967: 80; Walle 1963:
209–10). As this was the only committee required by the IHKG, it is also
the only place where employee participation rights were required by law
within the system of business self-government (Walle 1963: 210–13; Engel
and Rosenthal 1970: 98; Abel 1968: 33). Exam committees in chambers
of industry and commerce were to be composed of two employer repre-
sentatives, one representative of vocational teachers, and one employee
representative (Engel and Rosenthal 1970: 98).61
In short, the reconstruction period saw some, but really very minimal,
revisions to the system. What was not accomplished was the comprehensive
vocational training law that unions sought, nor did unions achieve the code-
termination rights they demanded. The two key pieces of legislation in this
period mandated employee representation (but not codetermination) and
within the context of the associations of employer self-governance (rather
than under the auspices of an overarching national legislative framework).62

60 The law appears in Pätzold (1991: 172–4).

61 In the crafts, it was a committee head, one staff member of a vocational school, one inde-
pendent craftsman, and one journeyman (Engel and Rosenthal 1970: 98).
62 On the issue of whether apprentice contracts would be considered primarily as educational
or as work contracts, there were mixed results (Molitor 1960: 31–48). The HwO was vague
on this point, an omission that the Handwerk sector sought to exploit by continuing to deal
with the question of pay at the level of the chambers – to the chagrin of some contemporary
observers (Molitor 1960: 36). The IHKG, by contrast, was clear on this point and specifically
denied the chambers of industry and trade the right to represent the political interests of
apprentices or to directly regulate their material interests (Molitor 1960: 34, 48).

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The 1969 Vocational Training Act

The legal framework for vocational training remained a point of contention
after the 1953 and 1956 legislation on chambers, and an issue that the Trade
Union Confederation (DGB) pursued in 1959, producing and circulating
its own proposal for a new vocational training law. The main motives were
familiar – to provide a unified legal basis and enhanced oversight by the state,
and to ensure full codetermination rights to the trade unions (Taylor 1981:
183). The organizations of business self-governance were not mentioned
at all in the draft; rather, all of the relevant administrative, regulatory, and
supervisory functions were to be put under the auspices of a federal commit-
tee for vocational training, supported by state-level and local committees
in charge of implementation. In the DGB proposal the entire system was to
be put under the jurisdiction of the Labor Ministry (Walle 1963: 287–92;
336–43).
These proposals were met with skepticism and opposition. Handwerk
insisted that the codetermination rights that the unions sought were already
covered through the participation of journeymen in both the chambers and
guilds. In defending a system of self-governance against DGB demands for
greater state and union involvement, Handwerk representatives invoked
invidious comparisons to the state-dominated systems of training under
the Nazis, and the ones in place in East Germany (Rohlfing 1949: 26;
Walle 1963: 259, 261).63 Handwerk denounced the idea of increased state
involvement in vocational training as “questionable and dangerous” (Walle
1963: 376).
Industrial employers and their chambers also argued that the provi-
sions in the IHKG for an employee voice in vocational training issues
were already sufficient. DIHT and its affiliates worried less than craft em-
ployers about the sheer costs of training but were adamant about protect-
ing their managerial autonomy. Defense of employer self-government was
couched mostly in terms of minimizing stifling bureaucratic procedures
that would interfere with the system’s proven flexibility and adaptability
(Adam 1979: 163, 170). Employer representatives repeatedly pointed out
how many workers had been trained in both the industrial and handicraft
sectors at absolutely no cost to taxpayers, and that German business was
training more apprentices on a voluntary basis than companies in any other

63 This argument, at least in the version elaborated by Walle, includes repeated references to
bureaucratization and increased rigidity through Gleichschaltung – a highly charged term
in Germany if there ever was one (Walle 1963: 377).

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country (Walle 1963: 376–7).64 Despite slightly different motives, industry

and Handwerk were unified in their opposition to greater state involvement,
and in 1958 the Chambers of Industry and of Handwerk issued a joint decla-
ration insisting that there be “no experiments in vocational training” (Abel
1968: 32).
What kept the issue alive in the 1960s, despite the unreceptiveness of the
conservative government, was partly pressure from the SPD and perhaps
also the Stern reports that continued to keep a spotlight (still dim in this
period, however) on the deficits of the vocational training system. The
window for reform opened in 1966 when the SPD joined the government
for the first time in the postwar period, as part of a “Grand Coalition” with
the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). The SPD made its own formal
proposal for a vocational training law, which forced the CDU to respond
in kind (Lipsmeier 1998: 449) and set in motion a legislative process that
would culminate in a new framing law, the 1969 Vocational Training Law
(Berufsbildungsgesetz. BBiG). This was a compromise that gave the unions
the unified national framing legislation they sought65 but left a great deal
of the previous framework for vocational training intact.
Specifically,66 the 1969 Vocational Training Law provided for national
regulation and oversight through the governing board of a newly cre-
ated Federal Institute for Vocational Training Research (Bundesinstitut für
Berufsbildungsforschung or BBF).67 This board was to be composed of six
representatives each from the unions and from the employers’ associations,
five representatives of states (Länder), three vocational education specialists
and one representative from the institute itself, and was charged with advis-
ing the federal government on all issues relating to vocational training. The
BBF took over the overarching regulatory functions previously handled by
the chambers – the definition of training standards and the preparation of

64 The claims about costs were somewhat exaggerated, since the state subsidizes vocational
training through its support of the mandatory public vocational schools.
65 In this sense and as Stratmann points out, many elements of the unions’ demands from the
1919 Nürnberg congress ultimately made their way into the legislation of 1969 (Stratmann
1990: 40).
66 This is drawn from Ralf and Schlösser (1994: 112–13). But see also Faulstich (1977: 171–4),
Helfert (1970b), or Taylor (1981: 210–13) for a summary of the structure of control and
oversight over vocational training after the 1969 law.
67 Subsequent legislation in 1976 converted this into the current Federal Institute for Voca-
tional Training (Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung, or BIBB).

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official regulations and curricula (establishing the skill content and length
of apprenticeship for particular occupations) – and made recommendations
to the relevant ministries which officially issue the directives that govern
training (Bildungsforschung 1979: 245; Streeck et al. 1987: 13).68 At the
state level, the law provides for the establishment of vocational training
committees composed of equal numbers of representatives from employ-
ers, unions, and the state government. These committees are charged with
coordinating between the school and in-plant components of training, and
collaborating with the other states to ensure uniformity nationwide.
Even under this new regulatory framework, however, some of the most
important functions in the supervision and monitoring of firm-based train-
ing are still accomplished through the chambers. Thus, at the district level,
the law calls for the regulation of vocational training – for example, supervi-
sion of training and administration of exams – through special committees
within the relevant chambers (HWK, IHK). The new law set the com-
position of the committees at six each for employers and employees. Six
representatives of vocational schools sit on these committees, but in an
advisory role only. The committees have to be consulted on regulations
concerning all aspects of in-plant training, although any policy changes
that affect the costs of training have to be ratified by the general assem-
bly of the chamber (where, in industry, unions are not represented).69 In
addition, the chambers (alone) continue to perform many key monitoring
functions, including deciding on the suitability of particular firms to pro-
vide training and considering applications from firms to extend or reduce
training times for particular apprentices (Streeck et al. 1987: 28).
Regarding the issue of portfolios and ministerial jurisdiction, a compli-
cated inter-ministerial compromise was worked out in which the Economics
Ministry remained in charge of approving training ordinances, but its work

68 The ABB was formally disbanded in 1971, after its functions had been assumed by the
BBF under the terms of the 1969 law. Subsequent legislation (in 1976) transferred all these
responsibilities to the current Federal Institute for Vocational Training (Bundesinstitut für
Berufsbildung, or BIBB) (Bunk 1979: 103; Pätzold 1991: 8; Berufsausbildung 1958).
69 In the IHK there is no labor representation at all in the general assembly, in handicraft
chambers a third of the seats are still reserved for journeymen. Craft training remained un-
der the jurisdiction of the HWK. By last minute intervention by the CDU/CSU, Handwerk
training was regulated a bit differently (Adam 1979: 174) and basically the relevant sections
of the HwO were carried over and adapted to the third part of the law (Engel and Rosenthal
1970: 101; Taylor 1981: 295).

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relied on cooperation with the Labor Ministry.70 Further training (that is,
beyond initial apprenticeship) was put under the Labor Ministry but relying
on the Economics Ministry’s consent. The Labor Ministry was given re-
sponsibility for coordinating vocational training matters across ministries
and it also acts as the monitoring agency for the new Federal Institute for
Vocational Education Research (Engel and Rosenthal 1970: 100–3). A few
years later (1972), all these responsibilities were put under the jurisdiction
of the Federal Ministry for Science and Research (Bundesministerium für
Wissenschaft und Forschung).
The 1969 BBiG clearly represented some important changes. Before
the law was passed, training was solely the province of the chambers
(IHK and HWK) and therefore governed through chamber ordinances
(Kammerrecht). An essential element of the reform was to take exclu-
sive control out of the hands of the chambers and vest it instead in the
supervisory committees described above (with parity representation for
unions). The 1969 law thus brought greater unity to the previously dis-
parate legal framework governing apprentice training, and gave unions
a stronger voice in the overarching regulatory functions surrounding
the definition and elaboration of training regulations and occupational
certifications.71
Significant as these changes were, they should not obscure the high de-
gree of continuity in the apparatus for the day-to-day regulation and moni-
toring of firm-based training. Crucial administrative and supervisory func-
tions are still performed by the chambers, which continue to be the key
interface between the federally established guidelines and the training firms
themselves. Although unions enjoy representation rights in the chamber
committees on vocational training, there are limits to the role they play
there – through the provisions that require policy changes affecting financ-
ing to come before the chambers’ full assembly (effectively, an employer
veto point since unions have no representation there), and through the
chambers’ sole and autonomous rights to monitor in-plant training and to
approve as competent firms that wish to train. As Crouch, Finegold, and

70 The sharing of responsibilities worked out between the Economics and Labor Ministries
is extremely complicated. It is explicated in Engel and Rosenthal (1970: 101, fn. 168).
71 The role of the unions in the new system is by far more important than that of the state,
with the latter operating more as a rubber stamp. As Streeck and colleagues point out, the
“federal government makes the overwhelming majority of decisions on vocational training
only after the union and employer representatives in the committees of the BIBB have
given their consent” (Streeck et al. 1987: 13; see also Engel and Rosenthal 1970: 13).

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Sako point out, trade unions in Germany continue to have a rather “limited
formal role,” and to the extent that they can exercise influence, it is infor-
mally and through works councils who can “maintain their own watch on
the quality of training being provided by a firm” (Crouch, Finegold, and
Sako 1999: 144).72
The 1969 legislation introduced important innovations – above all in the
national-level regulatory superstructure for vocational training. As Taylor
points out, however, “by locating the most crucial of all functions in an em-
ployer organisation, the chamber of trade . . . the Federal Parliament had
confirmed its faith in the Wirtschaft’s ability successfully to control voca-
tional training for the benefit of the nation in the future” (Taylor 1981:
213; see also Helfert 1970a: 153; Lipsmeier 1998: 450–1). In light of the
significant retained powers of the chambers, it comes as little surprise that
the DIHT – despite expressed regrets over the “complicated” ministerial
arrangements and the new layers of bureaucracy and committees – was
nonetheless able to see in this legislation a codification of “the structure and
the order of the [existing] system, both of which are the result of decades
of responsible and flexible work on the part of business and its chambers,
and both developed in the law-free space [gesetzesfreien Raum] of business
self-governance” (DIHT 1970: 96).
Organized labor regretted and protested loudly against their limited
codetermination rights (especially at the chamber level), blaming the par-
ticular coalition (CDU/SPD) that presided over the passage of the law.
However, the outcome at some level also reflected the fact that the unions
had consistently articulated their goals in a way that confirmed and built
around (rather than called into question) many of the foundational fea-
tures of the existing system, not least the continued clear subordination of
school-based to plant-based vocational training. Baethge emphasizes the
deeply “pragmatic” nature of union goals in the area of vocational train-
ing. He wonders, even if the unions achieved more of their goals, if this
would do anything more than “minimize the crassest excesses” of the ex-
isting system – a contribution, clearly, but hardly a radical alternative to it
(Baethge 1970: 170–2; see also Helfert 1970a: 154).

72 Some of this was covered in the 1972 Works Constitution Act, and the new (2001) Works
Constitution Act provides additional levers (see discussion below). As Schömann points
out, however, works councils have only information and consultative rights, and the extent
to which this translates into real influence depends very much on the initiative and strength
of the plant labor representatives (Schömann 2001: 17).

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Developments after 1969

The debates over vocational training did not end with the 1969 legisla-
tion. When the Social Democrats took office in 1969 as senior coalition
partner with the Free Democratic Party (F.D.P.) new discussions ensued.73
The government of Willy Brandt focused on a number of education issues.
Among the goals was a concern to integrate vocational and general educa-
tion in order to equalize opportunities for working class youth. Many pro-
posals had to do with relaxing the barriers among the three primary school
tracks in Germany that had long operated to reinforce socio-economic and
class cleavages.74
Other proposals returned directly to issues dealt with in the 1969 Voca-
tional Education Act, addressing again the control issues that continued to
preoccupy the unions. These issues were of interest to a Social Democratic
government concerned with democratic accountability and equality of op-
portunity. In the early 1970s a highly activist and reform-oriented Minister
of Science and Education, Klaus von Dohnanyi, was floating proposals
that represented a very significant threat to chamber self-governance and
would have increased substantially the role of the state.75 These proposals
were furiously resisted by representatives of employers’ associations and
their member firms, the latter threatening to cease training entirely (Taylor
1981: 281–2; see also Stratmann 1999: 419; Crusius 1982: 285). Such threats
carried a great deal of weight, particularly as the debate unfolded in the con-
text of the first oil crisis and ensuing recession, when apprenticeship slots
were hard to come by and youth unemployment was on the rise. The busi-
ness community rallied against all changes that interfered with managerial
prerogative and employer self-governance, and the opposition CDU/CSU
provided political backing. The latter argued that “in times of economic
growth and full employment we can talk about all sorts of reforms” but a
period of economic crisis was no time for experimentation (Görs 1976: 353,
quoting from Frankfurter Rundschau).

73 This account of the reform initiatives (and their fate) under the Social Democratic govern-
ments of the 1970s relies on Taylor (1981: Chapters 10 and especially 11).
74 For example, many proposals in this period sought to reform the three separate tracks
of Hauptschule, Realschule, and Gymnasium, either to eliminate the tracks entirely or to
build bridges across them (zweiter Bildungsweg, for example).
75 Dohnanyi was Minister from 1972–1974. The idea was for state governments to assume ju-
risdiction over all aspects of vocational education, including the control and administration
of in-plant training, accreditation and control of training premises, preparation of training
curricula, and administration of exams (Taylor 1981: 255).

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The combination of economic turmoil and employer opposition was

sufficient to put the entire debate on hold, and the prospect for significant
structural reform was subsequently brought to an end in 1974. Along with
continued economic turbulence, that year brought a change of government,
and both the new Social Democratic chancellor (the pragmatic Helmut
Schmidt) and his liberal (F.D.P.) economics minister Hans Friderichs
(1972–1977) opposed any reforms that might interfere with economic re-
covery. Dohnanyi apparently saw the handwriting on the wall and when he
tendered his resignation (only two years after having taken office) Schmidt
“showed little regret” (Taylor 1981: 265). Dohnanyi’s successor in the
Science Ministry, Helmut Rhode (1974–1978), specifically distanced him-
self from any significant reform agenda, promising instead to pursue more
modest goals (‘kleinere Brötchen backen’) (Crusius 1982: 284–5).
More modest indeed, and mostly within the structure and logic of the tra-
ditional system. The economic crisis had not only quashed all prospects of
significant structural reform; the problem of youth unemployment shifted
the focus of the debate completely – toward measures aimed at extending the
system by increasing the number of training slots. The Apprenticeship Pro-
motion Act of 1976 (Ausbildungsplatzförderungsgesetz) was mainly concerned
with the problem of an insufficient number of apprentice slots in the face of
rising demand due to demographic trends. Among other things, the law
established a National Institute for Vocational Education (Bundesinstitut
für Berufsbildung, BIBB, replacing the BBF), which was charged with pro-
ducing an annual “Vocational Training Report” (Berufsbildungsbericht) with
statistics on national trends in apprenticeship and apprentice training.76
What is significant is that the control issues and conflicts over chamber-
based administration and supervision that had dominated previous debates
were now completely eclipsed. The late 1970s and the 1980s turned out to
be years in which tensions in the vocational training system (mostly pre-
cipitated by economic and demographic trends) were effectively regulated
within the existing institutions of corporatist self-regulation. Probably the
most controversial feature of the 1976 law was a provision that would allow
the government to impose a training levy on firms if the supply of apprentice
slots (nationwide) did not exceed the number of applicants by at least 12.5%
(Baethge 1999: 4; see also Taylor 1981: 271, 274–5).77 These financing

76 The BIBB has a number of other functions; it was charged, for example, with improving
coordination between in-plant training schedules and vocational school curricula.
77 An overhang was deemed necessary to ensure apprentices a choice of trades.

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provisions were strongly opposed by business and the law was struck down
by the Supreme Court in 1980 (on grounds that the Bundesrat also needed
to pass on the legislation (see Taylor 1981: 269–74). The 1981 law that
replaced it no longer contained the controversial financing provision.
More important and more telling than the public debates, after 1975
employers undertook strong efforts on their own initiative to keep the levy
issue at bay.78 In an act of supreme coordination and power on the part of
firms and especially their employers’ associations, industry orchestrated a
voluntary increase in the number of apprentice slots offered.79 As Baethge
notes, “All training areas increased the number of training spots offered
(measured in the number of training contracts signed) continuously and
significantly” in the decade between 1976 and 1986, with industry alone
increasing its apprentice slots by 62%, from 81,734 (in 1975) to 132,560 (in
1985) (Baethge 1999: 4). Clearly employers opposed the idea of levies, but
as Baethge notes, labor leaders, too, were very sensitive to arguments that
levies might be counterproductive and could bring perverse effects – for
example, if training firms reduced apprentice slots in anticipation (Baethge
1999: 6).80
The 1980s saw continued adaptation of the content of vocational training
to changing economic conditions based on a high degree of cooperation
between unions and employers. A good example of this is the complete
revamping of the occupational profiles of the entire metalworking industry
by the union and employers, accomplished in 1984 in a completely con-
sensual manner despite the fact that this took place against the backdrop
of the biggest strike in that industry in the postwar period (Streeck et al.

78 The exception that proves the rule is the construction industry (see Streeck 1983: 46–
53, on which this is based). In this case, the employers’ association – together with the
union – responded to a particularly serious training crisis in the early 1970s by negotiating
a collective agreement (later declared universally binding for the industry as a whole by
the government) that imposed a training levy on all firms in the sector. This solution was
specifically embraced and sold politically as an alternative to the state levy being deliberated
at that time. Both union and employers devised and defended the collectively bargained
levy as a sign of continuing “joint responsibility” and as fully in line with the subsidiarity
principle traditionally invoked to keep the state out (Streeck 1983: 57; also Soskice 1994:
35).
79 My account here draws on Baethge (1999).
80 The prospect of a levy has been raised several times since then, and in fact the current
Red-Green coalition is considering such a measure again. The idea is controversial within
the S.P.D., however, and even its advocates (including Chancellor Schröder) would still
prefer a private-sector solution if possible (Der Spiegel, May 5, 2003: especially 105–6; Welt
am Sonntag, February 15, 2004: 1; Süddeutsche Zeitung, February 14–15, 2004: 1).

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1987: 3–4).81 As Streeck and his colleagues note, the sometimes conflictual
rhetoric should not obscure the deep commitment of both employers and
unions to the vocational training system at that time:

trade unions and employers are far apart when it comes to the question of how train-
ing should be financed and to what extent individual employers providing training
should be subject to external supervision. . . . But the public debate hides the fact
that neither side doubts the principle that each school leaver should have access
to high quality vocational training, and that training profiles should be continually
upgraded and modernized. While both sides find the existing system wanting in
important respects, neither finds it wanting enough to be willing to let it fall into
disuse or decay. (Streeck et al. 1987: 4)

Since the 1970s, corporatist self-regulation and collaborative social part-

nership have helped to shore up the German system of in-plant training
even (and especially) in periods of economic turmoil and recession. Eco-
nomic trends might bring problems but at such points several stabilizing
mechanisms traditionally kick in. The following paragraphs consider how
a number of such mechanisms have operated in the past. This discussion
serves as the backdrop for a subsequent consideration – in the final sec-
tion of this chapter – of the extent to which contemporary trends pose new
challenges that make previous forms of adaptation more difficult.
One important stabilizing mechanism in the German vocational training
system has been the division of labor between large and small firms. As we
saw in Chapter 2, small firms (especially Handwerk firms) traditionally had
very different reasons to train than large firms, and this remains the case
today. Large firms can justify significant training expenditures because they
expect to continue to employ a large number of the apprentices they train.
Small firms do not necessarily keep their trainees on after the apprentice-
ship. Because of the very different structure of training, however, especially

81 The reorganization reduced the number of recognized trades dramatically, to produce over-
all more multifaceted occupations of the sort increasingly called for to deal with new produc-
tion methods. These developments are just one example of a more overarching pattern of
ongoing incremental changes, mostly negotiated by the social partners, to adapt the system
to ongoing changes in the technological and market environment. As Crouch, Finegold,
and Sako note, “In the 1950s a total of 900 occupations had formal VET [vocational ed-
ucation and training] preparations. By 1970 this had been reduced to 500. . . . By 1992 it
was down to 377, including the addition of new occupations in services and high-tech
sectors” (Crouch, Finegold, and Sako 1999: 144). As they also note, most such revisions
and combinations of previously separate trades were undertaken in the interests of overall
broader and more “polyvalent” skills, so that workers could be deployed more flexibly in
new production arrangements, group work, and the like.

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in Handwerk firms (being accomplished on the job and mostly during pro-
duction lulls), the costs of training have in the past been very small, and
often negative, since these firms benefit from the availability of a flexible
extra hand in production (Wagner 1997; see also Soskice 1994; Bellmann
and Neubäumer 2001: 191–2; Alewell and Richter 2001; Wagner 1999).82
For these reasons, as Crouch and colleagues point out, even if large firms
cut back on apprenticeship in periods of economic downturn, Handwerk
firms have traditionally been able to pick up the slack (Crouch, Finegold,
and Sako 1999: 142).
A second mechanism that has traditionally stabilized apprenticeship is
the system for cost sharing in which apprentices bear some of the costs of
training with training firms (see the theoretical discussion in Chapter 1).83
Although unions in Germany negotiate for apprentices they accept that
such wages must be kept low in order to encourage continuing training
(Crouch, Finegold, and Sako 1999: 142; Soskice 1991; Streeck et al. 1987:
23). Soskice notes that the wages of unskilled workers in Germany are
three to four times higher than apprentice wages (Soskice 1994: 35, 41).
Apprentices agree to defer gratification with respect to income during the
apprentice period so long as such training continues to serve as a ticket to
success in the labor market generally, as an entry point to higher-paid and
more secure employment (Soskice 1994: 35, 41, 53–5). Such has tradition-
ally been the case for apprentices, and especially for apprenticeships served
in large and dynamic firms. Drawing on a 1985 sample, Soskice found that
large firms retained a very high proportion of the apprentices they trained,
between 80 and 90% (and for firms employing more than a thousand work-
ers, 87%) (Soskice 1994: 35, 37). This sets in motion a healthy, virtuous
cycle of competition among firms for the most attractive apprentices, which
encourages young people to do their best in school (Soskice 1994: 54–5).
Finally, and not least, the system of corporatism and strong associations,
compulsory chambers and also voluntary trade and employer associations,
has traditionally served as a crucial stabilizing mechanism. As the example

82 The Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung occasionally conducts surveys to determine the costs
of training, including differences in net training costs in Handwerk and industry and by
firm size and other variables (see, for example Noll et al. 1983: iv–v). Soskice argues
that these statistical analyses are likely to overstate the costs of training for small firms.
The calculations on which the statistics are based are accurate for larger companies, but
for small ones they systematically overestimate the costs and underestimate the returns of
apprenticeship (Soskice 1994: 52; see also Richter 2000: 236–7).
83 As does the state, through its funding of public vocational schools.

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by Baethge noted above vividly demonstrates, Germany’s strong employer

associations have traditionally played a very important role in overcom-
ing collective action problems and allowing German employers as a whole
to achieve joint gains through coordination rather than pursuit of nar-
row individual interest (see especially Culpepper 2003; Culpepper 2002).
The system of employers associations has had an enormously important
function in counteracting tendencies by individual firms to deal with re-
cession by cutting back on training (Streeck 1988: 22, 30; Streeck 1989).
Employers’ associations accomplish this end by educating, admonishing,
and cajoling member firms. As Streeck and colleagues point out, however,
beyond pressure and persuasion, self-monitoring through employer asso-
ciations has helped stabilize the system by adjusting standards and treating
training firms with a degree of leniency in periods of economic turbulence.
Unions complain but chamber oversight and monitoring is important be-
cause “particularly in times when apprenticeships are in short supply, it may
be prudent in some firms not to enforce training regulations to the letter”
(Streeck et al. 1987: 31). More generally, and as Soskice has noted, firms
are more willing to submit to monitoring by employer chambers than by
the state (Soskice 1994: 42).

Contemporary Developments in the German Training System:

Erosion through Drift?
Since the 1990s, the situation has shifted somewhat and in ways that pose
new challenges that previous regulatory mechanisms so far have been unable
to counteract, at least not entirely.84 A number of the problems plaguing
the system today can be traced back to long-term trends, many related
to the intensified competitive pressures German firms face in the high-end
markets they long dominated. It used to be that German firms could charge
a price premium because of their reputation for high quality, but this is no
longer true and as a result German firms have had to become more cost-
conscious (Finegold and Wagner 1997: 213; Wagner 1999). This problem
is related to technological changes that involve ongoing rapid innovation
both in products and production methods (Finegold and Wagner 1997;

84 For a very useful and comprehensive analysis of the current situation see especially
Culpepper (2003; 1999; also Green and Sakamoto 2001: 80–5). Culpepper’s analyses paint
a guardedly optimistic picture (on balance, perhaps, more optimistic than mine), also ac-
knowledging, however, the problematic trends cited below. See also Brown, Green, and
Lauder (2001: 148–51) for a discussion of contemporary problems.

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Herrigel 1996a; Pichler 1993), and has been accompanied by a contin-

uing shift away from manufacturing toward the growing importance of
the service sector (Culpepper 1999). The effects of these long-term trends
have also been greatly exacerbated in Germany by the “unification shock”
(Schluchter and Quink 2001) that generated a huge set of problems for the
traditional vocational training system (Brown, Green, and Lauder 2001:
80–5; also, especially Culpepper 2003).
Some of these developments – for instance, accelerated technological
change and production reorganization – play into longstanding “gaps”
in the German vocational training system. Herrigel and others have ar-
gued that the German system produces skilled workers whose qualifica-
tions and identities are rooted in traditional and rigid occupational cat-
egories that have prevented German manufacturing from embracing and
adapting to new innovations and new, more flexible, manufacturing tech-
niques (Herrigel and Sabel 1999). This, they argue, accounts for Germany’s
new vulnerability to high quality Japanese competitors (Herrigel 1996a).
Finegold and Wagner’s comparative research (pump manufacturers) pro-
vides some support for this thesis, finding that in Germany “the lower
the proportion of skilled workers, the more likely the organization was to
adopt a team-based structure,” and noting that skilled workers in some
cases resisted the introduction of multifunctional teams that clashed with a
skill system organized around individual (not group-based) skill acquisition
(Finegold and Wagner 1997: especially 221–2).85
A second, longstanding weakness in the German system is the rela-
tive underdevelopment of continuing vocational education and training,
a weakness that contrasts sharply with the very elaborate and highly ar-
ticulated framework for supervision, oversight, and certification of initial
training (Crouch, Finegold, and Sako 1999: 145–7; Backes-Gellner 1995;
Crouch 1998; Soskice 2003: 12–13). Not only do German firms overall
do less continuing training,86 the system for ongoing skill acquisition is

85 However, Finegold and Wagner draw a conclusion different from that of Herrigel, with
Herrigel arguing that Germany needs to move away from the traditional apprentice system
and Finegold and Wagner arguing that adjustment will require building on the system’s tra-
ditional strengths and “making greater use of the broad base of skills” it provides (Finegold
and Wagner 1997: 229–30).
86 A comparative study of training in Britain, France, and Germany (focusing on the metal-
working industry, conducted in 1992) found that German firms were more heavily involved
in initial apprentice training than French and British firms, but lagged behind the other
two in continuing training (Backes-Gellner 1995: 15).

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mostly laissez faire and very much up to the individual firms to construct
and manage as they like. Most of it is firm-specific (Crouch, Finegold, and
Sako 1999: 146), and when certificates are devised and awarded it is not
clear what they mean (Sauter 1996: 126). The relative underdevelopment
of continuing vocational training is not a new problem, but the effects of
this deficit may be magnified in the current period. Particularly in rapidly
evolving sectors such as information technologies and related industries,
ongoing skill development is simply essential to keep pace with production
technologies. “Initial vocational training alone is no longer a guarantee
of job security, of remaining qualified in one’s occupation or profession,
or of developing one’s abilities. Initial vocational training is becoming the
prerequisite for successful continuing training” (Sauter 1996: 113).
Exacerbating these problems is increased international competition and
long-term economic stagnation in Germany. A growing number of firms
have become extremely cost conscious, leading to an overall reduction in
training (Crouch, Finegold, and Sako 1999: 143; Wagner 1999). Since
the mid-1980s the supply of apprentice slots in Western Germany has
slumped (with the exception of 1989 and 1990). The high point (in 1984)
was 726,786, dropping to a low (in 1996) of 483,165, before recovering
slightly by 1998 to 506,499. Overall, the period between 1980 and 1998
saw a net reduction of apprentice slots by 27% (Alewell and Richter 2001:
144–5, 172 contain the relevant figures and tables). Although many authors
emphasize that there is still an overall balance in the supply of apprentice
slots and demand for them,87 the new equilibrium has settled at a decidedly
lower level. Leaving aside Eastern Germany (where the situation is much
more critical), West German firms are offering a hundred thousand fewer
apprentice places than they did 20 years ago, and two hundred thousand
fewer than they did a decade ago (Culpepper 1999: 49).
Large firms traditionally trained because they expected to keep the great
majority of the apprentices they took, making it economically rational for
them to make the investment in the first place (Soskice 1994). Now, how-
ever, large firms are if anything looking to shrink their workforces, with im-
plications for both their overall training effort and their record for retention.
Longitudinal data are needed here, but if we compare Soskice’s retention

87 Alewell and Richter (2001) and Culpepper (1999) both emphasize this point. A part of
my argument is that apprenticeship may be becoming less attractive to youth (see below),
and thus a decline in both supply and demand would be relevant to the argument I am
constructing here.

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figures based on 1985 data with more recent (1998) data, we find that the
retention rate of large firms, although still high, is significantly lower than
before. Whereas Soskice’s 1985 data suggest an average retention rate of
87% among large (over a thousand employees) firms (Soskice 1994: 37),
Bellmann and Neubäumer’s 1998 survey data reveal an average retention
rate for firms with over two thousand employees of 77.5%, and for firms
with a thousand to two thousand employees of just 71.3% (Bellmann and
Neubäumer 2001: 198). Maybe more tellingly, Bellmann and Neubäumer
record an increase in the propensity of firms to hire former apprentices on
a limited-contract (befristete ) basis (Bellmann and Neubäumer 2001: 200).
This is probably related to some recent collective bargains that require
firms to continue to employ apprentices after completion of their train-
ing (see, especially, Bispinck et al.). But even if so, the short-term nature
of the contracts and the motives (collective contracts and union pressure)
may be as much an indication of a breakdown of traditional self-regulatory
mechanisms as their continued healthy functioning.
Reductions in the number of apprentices taken by large firms in the face
of economic downturn is perfectly in line with past patterns. The differ-
ence is, however, that previous regulatory mechanisms are not “kicking in.”
Wagner (1999) has argued that the German system was “finely balanced”
until 1991, with smaller firms at around the break-even point on the cost
of apprenticeship, and larger firms having other reasons to think that the
costs of training were equal to or outweighed by the benefits. She docu-
ments a number of trends that have led to overall higher costs and there-
fore threaten to upset that balance, not only increased costs due to reduced
working times and increased apprentice wages, but also costs associated with
upgrading and broadening apprenticeship training in recent years.88 Cost
considerations have arguably become more important than ever to small
and medium-sized industrial producers in key industries such as metal-
working, where recent collective bargains have produced wage deals that
large firms can tolerate but that small and medium-sized firms are finding
they cannot afford.89
88 For instance, the reorganization of the metalworking occupations means that companies
have to devote one and a half years to general training, which cuts into the contribution of
apprentices to production in smaller firms. In addition, there has been an overall increase
in vocational school attendance since 1980, fully in line with the increased need for more
theoretical training but also involving additional costs for firms who have to pay the release
time (Wagner 1999).
89 The problem is that large firms, which have traditionally shouldered the burden of industrial
conflict that is sometimes necessary to secure a moderate wage deal, have become conflict

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This phenomenon is related to a crisis within key employers’ associa-

tions, above all, the association of metalworking employers (Gesamtmetall)
which has experienced a hemorrhaging in membership as a growing number
of firms are leaving the association to avoid inclusion in contracts negoti-
ated with the union (Thelen and Kume 1999; Thelen and van Wijnbergen
2003). This declining membership has huge consequences for the viability
of the training system to which business coordination and employer organi-
zations are by all accounts crucial – in advising, monitoring, persuading, and
pressuring members to shore up solidarity and coherent collective action
(Soskice 1994; Culpepper 2003; Streeck et al. 1987). Germany’s employer
associations now organize a smaller proportion of German firms than ever
before, and their authority (moral and other) is deeply compromised.
The problems are particularly acute in collective bargaining, where small
and medium-sized firms in key industries are more or less fed up with the
dominance of large firms and sometimes just going their own way. A break-
down of employer coordination in wage formation would have deleterious
downstream consequences for vocational training. To the extent that these
developments lead to greater wage differentials across firms, the incentives
for companies to continue to invest in general skills should decline. Wage
coordination through encompassing national bargaining is one of the key
mechanisms for reducing poaching among firms and for establishing and
sustaining the labor market imperfections that make it safe and attractive
for firms to invest in general worker skills (Acemoglu and Pischke 1998).90
Another factor that may have a strongly destabilizing effect is the im-
pact of rising standards of training.91 New technologies and new produc-
tion requirements demand ongoing upgrading of training, mostly in the

averse in the extreme. Large firms have off-shored a great deal of production to lower
wage countries abroad and decreased employment domestically. The resulting lower labor
costs have allowed large firms to agree to relatively generous contracts (in the interests of
preserving labor peace), but this has produced a situation in which contracts come closer
than ever before to exhausting the ability of the larger firms to pay – thus squeezing small
and medium-sized producers (Thelen and Kume 1999; Thelen and van Wijnbergen 2003).
90 A viable and perhaps increasingly attractive alternative could be a more segmentalist ap-
proach (see Chapter 1). Although Germany still lags behind other countries in continuing
firm-based training, the number of workers involved in such programs has “soared” over
the last decade (Sauter 1996: 116). German firms appear less inclined than before to take
apprentices on within the context of the traditional system (which requires them to train
in particular ways and to uniform standards), and more inclined to invest in continuing
training, which is not regulated in the same way or to anywhere near the same extent. See
also Crouch, Finegold, and Sako (1999: 146).
91 I am indebted to Wolfgang Streeck for emphasizing the importance of this.

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direction of more general skills and more theoretical training (Soskice 2003;
Brown, Green, and Lauder 2001: 83–4). Some such adaptations have been
undertaken, for example, the trend toward more general occupational pro-
files and the increase in vocational school attendance (see footnotes 81 and
88). In some sectors, the need for more general and more theoretical skills
has also been accompanied by a softening of the line between traditional ap-
prenticeship and higher education (Brown, Green, and Lauder 2001: 82–4).
In the banking sector, for example, Quack and colleagues note a trend
among German banks toward “developing stronger links between the sys-
tem of higher education and the banks, as well as between the universities
and the dual system” (Quack, O’Reilly, and Hildebrandt 1995: 781, 782,
figure 3).
These developments are in some ways powerful testimony to the adapt-
ability of the German system, and there are many good reasons to promote
them further (Culpepper 1999; Brown, Green, and Lauder 2001: 82–5).
It should be clear, however, that this route is fraught with dilemmas and
possible unanticipated and unwanted consequences. At the most basic level,
rising standards and more general occupational profiles, although clearly
necessary, have not come free but have come bundled with increased costs
to firms (Wagner 1999). But more generally, the broader and especially
the more theoretical the educational requirements for new skills become,
the less well suited firms are to do the training. Companies may well, and
understandably, prefer to offload their problems and costs onto the state
or onto apprentices themselves (that is, pointing toward an overall more
“liberal” model very much in line with much of the current rhetoric in
German business circles).
It already appears that firms (even small, medium-sized, and handicraft
firms) are increasingly inclined to recruit new workers from among ap-
plicants holding university degrees (Berger, Brandes, and Walden 2000:
79–91). This is a general trend, especially pronounced in the service sector,
which accounts for an ever-increasing proportion of employment.92 Berger
and colleagues write of increasing competition between job applicants from
the traditional vocational training track and those with technical-college
and university degrees. Although they note that one cannot yet talk of a

92 The service sector has always been a weak spot in the traditional system, since fewer certifi-
cates were offered in services and because it is not clear that training in that sector produces
the same kind of comparative advantage associated with diversified quality production in
manufacturing (Culpepper 1999: 56; Soskice 2003).

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“displacement of workers with plant-based vocational training credentials

by those with degrees from polytechnics,” almost one-third of the large
firms in which they conducted research are considering such substitution
(Berger, Brandes, and Walden 2000: 91). As Baethge notes, one incentive
for firms to look to graduates of technical colleges and universities is that,
in the current context of high unemployment, the costs of recruiting from
among this pool of applicants is not so high as in the past (Baethge 1999: 12).
The downstream implications of this should be obvious. Once it is clear
to young people that there are other avenues to rising in the ranks within
top businesses, they are more likely to be drawn to alternative sources of
skill acquisition. If it appears that apprenticeship is not the only or even the
most direct route to good jobs, then youth will be drawn to other venues
(for example, technical colleges, Fachhochschulen) to acquire training. The
old formula for success (broadly speaking) was apprenticeship plus further
qualification to rise in the ranks. Now a higher-level school certificate allows
young people to enter at a higher level and to climb higher, thus circum-
venting the traditional system. The more this occurs the more this breaks
the virtuous circle described by Soskice, and turns into a vicious circle in
which those youth left in apprenticeship are overall of lower quality, which
fuels a reluctance by firms to use apprentices, which draws the best youth
away from the traditional system, and so on (Crouch, Finegold, and Sako
1999: 143).
Finally, there is the challenge of unification (Culpepper 2003; Jacoby
2000). Culpepper quite rightly suggests that when talking about German
training, one must really distinguish two very different systems, one in the
East and one in the West (Culpepper 1999). The state has played a huge role
in directly supporting training in the East (see also Crouch, Finegold, and
Sako 1999: 143; Konietzka and Lempert 1998: 322; Dobischat, Lipsmeier,
and Drexel 1996). In the first years after unification, for reasons easy to
understand there was massive use of provisions in the Work Promotion
Act to provide training slots to unemployed persons (Sauter 1996: 122 has
figures). As of 1997, 79% of all apprentice slots in the East were wholly
or partly subsidized by the state, 10% of such apprenticeships outside of
firms (in training centers, for example) (Culpepper 1999: 50–1). These
state-based solutions are obviously well intentioned and some see them
as serving a bridging function. These things cut both ways, however, and
there are important interaction effects between developments in the East
and West. In particular, just as Western firms learned from the East that
life outside the collective bargaining system was entirely possible, so too
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could they question (and resent) their investment in worker skills that are
quite portable. In light of heavy subsidies to Eastern firms, Western firms
may well begin to ask themselves why they should continue to bear these
costs ( Jacoby 2000).93
As Baethge notes, the situation since the 1990s shares only a superfi-
cial similarity with previous crises. Whereas the problem of a shortage of
apprenticeships in the 1970s was mostly a problem of an imbalance in the
market for apprenticeship, the problems now may be more structural than
cyclical (Baethge 1999). More important, Baethge makes the point that po-
litically, things have been turned on their head. Whereas in the past unions
were more likely than employers to criticize some aspects of the system, to-
day they are ardent defenders. Meanwhile, a growing number of employers
have become more skeptical, and significant numbers of them are simply
walking away.
Long-time observers of the system have begun to talk of a “serious threat
to the vocational training system” as employers’ interest in it is declining
(Stratmann 1994: 25). As the analysis in this book should have made clear,
employers are absolutely central actors in the history, and therefore also
vital to the future of the German vocational training system – a system
which after all rests on their voluntarily taking apprentices. Since no one
can force German firms to train, there can be no plant-based apprentice
system if employers defect in large numbers. Therefore, when faced with
the prospect of a serious shortfall in apprentice slots, Chancellor Gerhard
Schröder began by exhorting firms to fulfill their “elementary obligation”
to give youth a chance to acquire skills (Der Spiegel, May 5, 2003: 105). His
subsequent resort to the idea of a government-imposed training levy is a
signal of how serious the training problem has become (Welt am Sonntag,
February 15, 2004: 1; Süddeutsche Zeitung, February 14–15, 2004: 1).
It would be premature to announce the demise of Germany’s dual sys-
tem of apprentice training; many authors have done so in the past only
to see the system survive and thrive (Konietzka and Lempert 1998). The
point here is not so much its imminent demise or continuing function; it
is, rather, that for institutions to survive they cannot stand still. They must
be constantly adapted to changes in the social, market, and political en-
vironment.94 The staying power of the German system therefore hinges

93 With thanks to Martin Behrens and Wolfgang Streeck for this insight.
94 As this book goes to press, the Schröder government has just pushed through a significant
reform in the handicraft sector. The reform is part of a broader set of measures, authored

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very much on whether or not the problems and trends identified above are
taken up by the relevant actors, particularly employers, and whether they
can muster the collective capacities to undertake the reforms necessary to
keep individual firms invested (and investing) in the system.

by the Minister of Labor and Economics, Wolfgang Clement, aimed at easing employment
relations to counter continuing high unemployment. The new legislation makes it possible
for skilled journeymen in certain Handwerk trades to open independent businesses with-
out having achieved “master” status – the latter traditionally requiring not just training and
experience beyond the apprenticeship, but also successful completion of the master exam.
Advocates of the reform saw this as an overdue adaptation of the traditional system that
could bolster training by responding to the decline in the number of master exams being
taken (and the associated decline in training slots for apprentices). Opponents (representa-
tives of Handwerk, but also opposition CDU/CSU politicians), by contrast, argued that the
reform would have a deleterious effect on training by reducing incentives for individuals
to acquire additional skills (Hamburger Abendblatt, May 30, 2003; Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung, November 28, 2003). The law passed in a compromise form (fewer trades affected
than originally envisioned) and it remains to be seen what impact any of this will have on
training in the handicraft sector.

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Conclusions, Empirical and Theoretical

This chapter summarizes the main empirical findings of the analysis, both
the cross-national and the longitudinal dimensions, and relates these find-
ings to several major theoretical debates in the literature. The analysis of
cross-national differences in the institutions governing in-plant training and
the over-time analysis tracking the evolution of the German system over
a longer period speak to debates in the political–economic literature on
“varieties of capitalism” concerning institutional origins and institutional
complementarities. Moreover, the analysis here provides insights into a
broader literature in political science concerning issues of institutional re-
production, institutional change, and path dependence in politics.

Cross-National Comparisons: The Origins of Divergent

Skill Regimes
The single variable that mattered most crucially to the divergent trajecto-
ries of skill formation documented here was the behavior and strategies of
leading firms in skill-intensive industries, particularly the machine and met-
alworking industries.1 Around the turn of the century, large machine and
metalworking firms across all four countries shared similar interests and
were pursuing roughly similar strategies with respect to skill formation.
Circa 1895 firms like M.A.N., Mather and Platt, Yokosuka, and General

1 Note well that these firms by no means always got what they initially wanted. As we have
seen, they mostly could not achieve their goals on their own steam. The extent to which
their preferred options prevailed was a matter of the coalitions they did (or did not) forge
with other groups with complementary interests. In many cases, the strategies to which
I refer here are compensatory strategies to deal with failure to achieve a first preferred
option.

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Electric were all engaged in efforts to develop their own in-plant capacities
for skill formation and combining these with various policies designed to
co-opt workers and exclude unions. From then on, however, trajectories di-
verged as these firms adapted their strategies to the particular constellation
of incentives and constraints they faced in their separate countries.
They looked out on very different political and economic landscapes.
Of crucial importance to “modern” industry, it turns out, was the fate
of “traditional” associations of skilled craftsmen, customary guardians of
apprenticeship and holders of the skills these firms needed. In Germany
and Japan, state policy toward the artisanal sector sharpened the line
between independent master artisans and skilled workers in industry. Eco-
nomic and political conditions in Britain and the United States, by con-
trast, if anything contributed to blurring the boundaries between these
two groups (Kocka 1986a: 307–16; Kocka 1986b). These differences were
important in determining whether early unions were drawn to or pre-
vented from organizing around craft-control strategies – and by extension
affecting whether apprenticeship would be contested across the class divide
in industry. The fate of the traditional artisanal sector determined what
sorts of problems (and opportunities) the leading firms in skill-dependent
industries faced, influencing the strategies they developed to deal with
them.
In Germany, the state actively organized the artisanal sector and granted
it monopoly rights to certify skills. This framework for certification and
monitoring stabilized a system of in-plant training that had been sliding to-
ward exploitation of cheap child labor. The stabilization of apprenticeship
in the artisanal sector meant that dominant producers in skill-intensive in-
dustries like machine building could count on a relatively steady stream of
certified skilled workers, since small artisanal shops were not necessarily in-
terested in holding on to the workers they had trained. Over time, however,
and as the deficits of a system not under their own control became apparent,
the large firms most dependent on skill became obsessed with securing the
right to certify skills, a right that the Handwerk sector monopolized.
The situation in Britain was wholly different because here traditional
corporate artisanal associations had been destroyed through liberalization.
Skilled craftsmen still presided over the training of the next generation, but
they did so from a very different base and vantage point – from within craft
unions whose goals with respect to apprenticeship were bound up in broader
strategies to control the market in their trade. In Britain, apprenticeship
was contested not – as in Germany – between an independent artisanal
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Conclusions, Empirical and Theoretical

sector and emerging industrial sector, but rather between craft unions and
employers in skill-dependent industries. Thus, as metalworking firms in
Germany were mobilizing to fight for certification powers for their own in-
plant training programs, their British counterparts were mobilizing around
a quite different project, beating back union controls and reasserting managerial
discretion on the shop floor.
In Japan, state policy in the early industrial period liberalized labor mar-
kets by actively disbanding traditional corporate artisanal associations and
repressing nascent craft unions. Thus neither organized artisans nor craft
unions were in a position to (attempt to) regulate apprenticeship at a corpo-
rate level. Here too traditional artisans played a key role in providing skills
for industry, but in a very different way, as individual entrepreneurs. Firms
in skill-dependent industries used them as subcontractors who brought
their own retinue of skilled workers and trained their own apprentices.
This so-called oyakata system was useful to industry because these inde-
pendent craftsmen performed similar training and certification functions as
the handicraft chambers (Germany) and unions of skilled workers (Britain).
Oyakata were highly mobile, however, so the system was associated with very
high levels of job hopping and poaching. Thus, at the same historical junc-
ture in which machine and metalworking firms in Germany were becoming
adamant about achieving rights to certify skills and in Britain were becom-
ing obsessed with reasserting managerial control, their Japanese counter-
parts were completely consumed with the task of controlling labor mobility
by stabilizing internal labor markets.
In the United States, as in Britain, craft unions emerged among skilled
workers in key trades, which meant that here too apprenticeship would
be substantially contested across the class divide. Craft unions in key in-
dustries like metalworking were, however, much weaker, having emerged
much later than in Britain, and at a time when craft controls had already
been substantially eroded through the introduction of standardized pro-
duction and new technologies. As in Britain, so too in the United States,
there were pitched battles between employers and craft unions at the end
of the nineteenth century, but with the difference that in the wake of their
victories American employers went much further than the British to crush
and marginalize unions and reorganize production. To put the U.S. case
in comparative perspective: Whereas in Germany, metalworking firms at
century’s end were concerned to certify skills, in Britain to reassert man-
agerial control, and in Japan to dampen labor mobility, in the United States

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Cross-National Comparisons

the goal was above all to rationalize production and reduce dependence on
skilled labor altogether through technological change, work reorganization,
and product standardization.

Coalitions and the Further Evolution of the System

In each case, the strategic choices of machine and metalworking firms
around the turn of the century set the scene for coalitions and dynam-
ics in the 1920s that would begin to consolidate different trajectories. In
Germany, social democratic unions organized significant numbers of skilled
workers who had received their credentials in the traditional handicraft
system, so despite the Social Democrats’ opposition to the original 1897
legislation, unions came around to strategies aimed at democratizing and
co-managing, rather than demolishing, that system. In the Weimar years
newly incorporated labor unions thus emerged as potential allies for indus-
try against the Handwerk monopoly and in support of a more expansive
(covering industry) collectivist system for plant-based skill formation. Al-
though a national-level consensus behind reforms along these lines did not
materialize in the 1920s, significant progress was achieved on a voluntary
basis, spearheaded above all by the efforts of key trade associations that
tirelessly advanced the cause of uniform, standardized skills. Collectivism
competed with alternative segmentalist models of skill formation until the
Nazi era, but the development of a solidaristic approach to skill formation
pioneered in the Weimar period preserved a model of plant-based train-
ing with overarching oversight and supervision into which organized labor
could later (1969) be incorporated.
The possibility of a cross-class coalition for some form of collectivist
skill formation also appeared possible in Britain in the early interwar
years. Segments of capital that relied heavily on skill were if anything
more willing to work with unions on this than were their counterparts
in Germany. However, unlike in Germany, the policies of Britain’s craft
unions toward apprenticeship were bound up in broader shop floor con-
trol strategies. A durable accommodation would therefore have required
a much broader settlement across a whole range of knotty control issues.
British apprenticeship survived because British industry remained depen-
dent on skills, but apprenticeship training was fragile because it rested
less on a stable cross-class alliance than it did on a precarious balance
of power between employers and skilled unions that could be (and was)

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Conclusions, Empirical and Theoretical

repeatedly upset by shifting macro-economic and political developments.

Notable advances in training achieved under favorable conditions (peri-
ods of skilled labor shortages or strong government support for training)
were thus repeatedly rolled back when the political and/or market context
shifted.
In Japan, the oyakata system involved massive contradictions from the
perspective of firms in skill-intensive industries, providing necessary skills
but also generating disruptive labor mobility. Firms responded with inten-
sified efforts to reduce their dependence on independent oyakata bosses and
to link internal training to a series of complementary measures (seniority
wages, elaborate internal career ladders, and long-term employment guar-
antees) to stabilize the situation. The growing complexity of the skill needs
of firms in the 1920s, along with the increasing threat of trade union influ-
ence at the plant level, produced a critical realignment (management with
young, company-trained workers against the oyakata) that consolidated and
deepened a segmentalist model of skill formation. Emerging unions, which
had their own reasons to oppose the arbitrary oyakata system, formulated
their goals and strategies within the logic of the system that employers were
constructing, and in so doing helped to consolidate a segmentalist system
for skill formation.
In the United States, industry went further than in Britain to rationalize
production and to marginalize (control-seeking) craft unions around the
turn of the century. However, key branches (especially, metals, machines,
and electrical machinery) still relied on a fair amount of skill. This they
dealt with in much the same way as their Japanese counterparts, through a
system of subcontracting (to independent craftsmen) to handle the recruit-
ment and training of skilled workers. Unlike the system in Japan, however,
these salaried skilled workmen were enlisted in the continuing fight against
organized labor, and together with management presided over the rational-
ization of production designed to reduce dependence on skills. Rather than
serving as intermediaries in skilled labor markets or as trainers of the next
generation of skilled workers, salaried foremen in American firms served
as the “drivers” and supervisors of (increasingly) semi-skilled labor ( Jacoby
1985). By the time American unions were stabilized and collective bargain-
ing rights were secured (1930s and 1940s), organized labor in the United
States was maneuvering in a more thoroughly rationalized shop floor en-
vironment, and as a result their strategies revolved around a narrower
form of job control in highly bureaucratized internal labor markets (Brody
1993).
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Youth and Apprenticeship

All these developments shaped the landscape that youth faced as they
made choices about training. The behavior and strategies of prospective
apprentices was also decisive to the trajectory of vocational training insti-
tutions in these countries. In Germany, where certification and monitoring
were established early on, apprenticeship was a more transparent and at-
tractive option for youth. The motives of handicraft producers in taking
apprentices were clearly not altruistic; they paid them very little (in the
early years, as we have seen, actually received a fee from them), and they
used apprentices as a source of cheap labor. Artisanal producers in Germany,
however, faced incentives to train well because if they did not, they would
lose their license to train and, with it, the cheap extra hand in production.
Going back to the theoretical discussion in the first chapter, certification
helped shore up apprenticeship by mitigating credible commitment prob-
lems between learners and training firms. Apprentices contributed to the
costs of their training through reduced wages, but after three or four years
earned a certificate that had real value in the labor market at large. The
extension of this system of certification to industry stabilized it further,
rendering the content of skills (through standardization) increasingly trans-
parent and because training became a portal to promising careers in top
industrial firms.
Apprenticeship in Britain, by contrast, was entangled in conflicts be-
tween employers and craft unions, and their failure to reach a settlement
left in-plant training utterly lacking in comparable monitoring devices.
Nothing prevented British employers from using apprentices as cheap la-
borers and/or specializing them on particular machines to the detriment
of their training. This generated rampant credible commitment problems,
since training was extremely uncertain in quality and its duration very long
(five to seven years for most). From the perspective of British youth, the
value of formal apprenticeship was dubious to say the least, and even less
attractive since the absence of certification meant that there were many
other avenues through which ambitious youth could advance and achieve
“skilled” status. Firms that trained well subjected themselves to massive
poaching problems, and beyond (mostly unsuccessful) lobbying to socialize
the costs of training through increases in compulsory public school atten-
dance, they quite rationally sought to minimize “irrecoverable” investments
by focusing their efforts on a relatively small number of youth who came to
them with above-average (public) educational backgrounds. We thus see the

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Conclusions, Empirical and Theoretical

beginning of the consolidation of a liberal regime in which (à la Becker 1993)

the costs were shifted increasingly to youth, with firms playing a decidedly
secondary role.
In Japan, training was central to the consolidation of managerial practices
based on strong internal labor markets, complementary personnel policies,
seniority wages, and so-called lifetime employment guarantees. Contrary
to some popular conceptions, however, the logic of advancement in firm-
based career ladders (as early as in the 1920s) was based on the steady
acquisition of skills, not on job tenure per se (Levine and Kawada 1980:
174). Since the best (among other things, most secure) jobs were to be had
in the large firms of the industrial sector, Japanese youth had an incentive
to work hard in school to do well in the initial selection process. Once in
the firm, they found that the structure of incentives encouraged ongoing
investment in skills. The embedding of training in a broader network of
complementary social policies provided incentives for firms to train and for
workers to submit to training that was heavily biased toward the needs of
the company. Firms could count on workers staying on after training (and
on increasing productivity as well, due to ongoing skill acquisition), and
trainees could count on their investment in skills being rewarded through
ongoing advancement in the internal labor markets of the country’s premier
firms.
In the United States, prominent welfare capitalists similarly pursued
strategies to internalize training and stabilize firm-based labor markets even
as they continued to rationalize production and introduce skilled-labor-
saving technologies. But after the First World War, these firms mostly
abandoned the more ambitious broad-based training programs they had
developed for blue collar workers, shifting attention to training for super-
visory staff in “human relations management.” Firms continued to offer
all manner of company-based benefits in order to cultivate worker loyalty
and reduce turnover, but (unlike Japan) wages continued to be attached
to jobs not workers and managers resisted the introduction of transparent
company-wide job classification schemes (and associated career ladders),
concerned that these would encourage unionization and collective bargain-
ing ( Jacoby 1985). Moreover, and again in contrast to Japan, the route to
supervisory positions within the firm was mostly not by rising in the ranks,
since U.S. managers were much more likely to privilege college graduates
for such positions. The incentives facing ambitious young workers were
clear, and led them to avoid vocational training (of all varieties) like the
plague in favor of an academically oriented education that opened many
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Institutional Complementarities

more diverse opportunities for advancement in the labor market (Hansen

1997).

Institutional Complementarities
As pointed out in Chapter 1, the literature on the political economy of
the developed democracies features a view of distinctive “varieties of cap-
italism” that sees political economies as more or less integrated systems
in which various institutional arenas (industrial relations systems, financial
systems, vocational education and training systems, and systems of cor-
porate governance) cohere in important ways, characterized as they are
by what political economists call “institutional complementarities.” Peter
Hall and Daniel Gingerich have provided very compelling evidence of the
existence of such complementarities among a number of realms based on
quantitative data drawn from across the developed democracies (Hall and
Gingerich 2001, 2004).
Other authors have documented synergies and mutually supportive in-
teractions between specific institutional realms, for example, industrial re-
lations and key financial arrangements (Hall 1994; Iversen, Pontusson, and
Soskice 2000). Such studies show that systems that give labor a strong voice
in plant decision making are underwritten by complementary financial ar-
rangements that provide the “patient capital” necessary for firms to take a
longer perspective on personnel policy. Others have drawn attention to the
ways in which the institutions governing industrial relations and/or skill
formation have “elective affinities” to specific social policy regimes (Mares
2000; Estevez-Abe, Iversen, and Soskice 2001; Iversen and Soskice 2001;
Manow 2001; Iversen 2003). So, for instance, skill formation regimes that
encourage long-term investment in skills seem to “go with” systems of un-
employment insurance that support unemployed workers at higher levels
(thus preserving skills by removing the pressure for skilled workers to take
jobs that do not tap and sustain their training) (Mares 2000).
The existence of these kinds of complementarities must be seen as an
historic achievement of considerable significance, since it is clear that the
various institutional arrangements that comprise any national polity or po-
litical economy were not created in a single “big bang.” Individual com-
ponents were forged at different historical junctures, brought into being
through the actions of different political actors and coalitions. There is no
reason to think that the various “pieces” will necessarily fit together into a
coherent, self-reinforcing, let alone functional, whole. Indeed, Karen Orren
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and Stephen Skowronek have argued forcefully that the divergent “tempo-
ral underpinnings” of various institutional arrangements should generate
contradictions and tensions as institutions representing different political
“logics” clash, or as they put it, “collide and abrade” (Orren and Skowronek
2002: 747). These arguments raise important questions about the sources
of apparent complementarities or why it is that the kinds of collisions and
contradictions Orren and Skowronek’s view predicts are not so pervasive
and debilitating as one might suppose.
Historically speaking it would be somewhat empty to argue that the exis-
tence of a particular set of institutions in one realm “increases the returns”
to the existence of a compatible or complementary set of institutions in
neighboring realms. Although in some cases, such formulations provide a
very apt characterization of the current functioning of particular constella-
tions, as causal claims they leave much to be desired. Since typically there
is no real “market” for political institutions, agent-less versions of the ar-
gument that rely on the logic of selection through market competition are
unpersuasive.2 Such arguments can be made compelling, however, when
one embeds them in an historical account that attaches the outcomes to
agents pursuing specific interests. In this more political version, “powerful
actors” (and these must be specified) may be influential in, perhaps even de-
cisive to, the genesis of particular institutional arrangements (say, industrial
relations) and may therefore also have a strong interest and role in creating
complementary institutions in neighboring realms (say, social policy).
This is the gist of Peter Swenson’s account of the construction and elab-
oration of the “Swedish model,” which features highly centralized indus-
trial relations institutions and a universalistic welfare state – institutional
arrangements that turn out to be mutually supportive in important ways.
Swenson (1991, 2002) traced the centralization of collective bargaining
institutions back to a cross-class alliance forged in the 1930s between em-
ployers in industries exposed to international competition and workers in
low-pay sectors. Centralization served the interests of these particular em-
ployers because it brought under control disruptive behavior of employers
and unions in high-pay sectors (for example, construction) that were shel-
tered from international competition. The success with which centralized
bargaining operated in institutionalizing wage restraint had some nasty side
effects, however, above all chronic labor market scarcity, which became

2 Some economists (for example, Aoki 2001) therefore invoke culture as a unifying causal
variable.

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especially severe in times of buoyant demand and growth. Labor scarcity

created new problems – unleashing “disloyal” competition among firms
that existing institutions (governing wages) were unable to control. By the
1950s, therefore, important segments of Swedish capital were quietly ral-
lying behind initiatives for the introduction of comprehensive health in-
surance, generous sick pay, and an active labor market policy since these
provided solutions to the specific pathologies that had developed in the
Swedish labor market.
This kind of interest-based account is important, and it is certainly
congruent with the conventional wisdom that institutions are designed by
strategic actors with their own interests very much in mind. The actions
of “powerful agents” would produce strong complementarities across vari-
ous realms if there were a high degree of continuity in who these powerful
agents are, both across various institutional arenas and over time. One ques-
tion, therefore, would be whether we can, a priori, identify a set of actors
whose interests will systematically prevail over time.
Since we are dealing in this literature with capitalist countries, a prime
suspect would be employers and one of the points that Swenson’s analysis
persuasively makes is that political–economic institutions with any kind of
staying power are precisely those achieved not against capital but in col-
laboration with some segments of capital.3 Swenson’s account of the “fit”
between industrial relations institutions created in the 1930s and social
policy in the 1950s hinges on an argument about how capitalist interests
evolved over time. In the case just discussed, for example, he shows how pre-
vious rounds of institutional innovation (centralization of wage bargaining)
produced effects (labor scarcity) that interacted with changes in the broader
market context in ways that, over time, re-shaped capitalist interests in
other, neighboring realms (social policy) (Swenson 2002 and forthcoming).
Other authors, by contrast, have been more inclined to emphasize the
structural constraints within which capitalists are maneuvering. Hacker and
Pierson, for instance, do not deny the importance of employer interests, but
they insist that in order to understand outcomes it is important to analyze
the structural conditions that establish the menu of options from which actors
(including employers) are forced to choose (Hacker and Pierson 2002).
Invoking insights from studies of agenda setting, they point out that the
crucial issue in most situations is not the final choice between the two or

3 A finding, by the way, confirmed in this study as well (see especially the concluding discussion
in Chapter 5).

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three (or x) specific policy options on the table at any given moment, but
rather the prior question of whose preferred range of options forms the
“choice set” from which the actors are allowed to select (Hacker 2002;
Hacker and Pierson 2002). Hacker and Pierson attach their critique to
an analysis of the genesis of the Social Security Act in the United States,
highlighting the way in which the broader political context had already
removed certain previously viable options (options earlier embraced by
very powerful business interests) from the agenda (Hacker and Pierson
2002: 12).4
Huber and Stephens (Huber and Stephens 2001) also draw attention
to structural and political constraints, emphasizing how previous policies
have powerfully reshaped the distribution of preferences, by which they mean
the universe of actors who are around to express their interests in particular
(later) policy debates. So, for example, while acknowledging (with Swenson)
that some Swedish employers supported universalistic welfare policies in
the 1950s, Huber and Stephens put a different spin on this observation
by drawing attention to the fact that twenty years of uninterrupted Social
Democratic rule had largely eliminated low-wage producers and in so do-
ing eliminated as well an important source of potential opposition to policy
initiatives at that time. Huber and Stephens argue that analyses emphasiz-
ing capitalist interests need to make sure they do not “lose sight” of the way
in which the preferences and strategies of these actors have been shaped
by the prevailing structural and political context (Huber and Stephens
2001: 33).
Whether emphasizing especially the evolving interests of capital
(Swenson) or the structural and political constraints within which em-
ployers define and defend their interests (Hacker and Pierson, Huber and
Stephens), these analyses all highlight the need to situate the interpretation
of specific choice points within a broader temporal framework that takes
account of the feedback effects that have defined the conditions within
which specific policy and institutional choices are being made. They high-
light the way that policies initiated at one point affect which actors are
around to fight the next battle, how they define their interests, and how and

4 Dobbin (Dobbin 1994) has made a similar point from a more sociological perspective. He
argues that in order to understand cross-national differences in outcomes, it is necessary
to consider not just a particular decision node (even the final one) but rather the range of
options entertained in the first place, often completely different cross-nationally.

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with whom they are likely to ally themselves subsequently (Skocpol 1992;
Pierson 2003a; Weir 2003). Attention to such feedback effects is crucial for
understanding how institutional complementarities are forged historically
because they alone provide the necessary causal links between the specific
episodes – across different periods and often involving different political
actors and coalitions – in which successive rounds of institutional innova-
tion occur. Such feedback effects establish the raw materials (constellation
of players, definitions of interests) with which policy entrepreneurs, as well
as defenders and challengers of existing institutions have to work.
How do such feedback effects operate? The present analysis confirms
some of the insights from previous scholarship, but also contains new leads
and insights. In some cases, and in line with contemporary theorizing on
“path dependence” in politics, we can observe a traditional logic of “increas-
ing returns to power” – that is, situations in which the victors at one stage
impose institutional solutions that reflect and entrench their interests, thus
biasing outcomes in the next round. An example from the present study is
the case of the United States, where employers – already less dependent
on skilled labor than their counterparts elsewhere – were in a position to
decisively defeat the control strategies of organized labor (and crush craft
unions) at the end of the nineteenth century. This set the scene for more
innovations in production technology and personnel management that fur-
ther reduced their dependence on skilled labor – which in turn rendered
the possibility (indeed the necessity) of joint (union-employer) regulation
of training, and of skilled labor markets generally, more remote over time.
This line of argument mirrors Huber and Stephens’s account of Sweden
sketched out above, in which the victory of the proponents of centralization
in struggles over industrial relations institutions in the 1930s created an en-
vironment (a wage environment, above all) in which low-wage producers
could not survive. This tilted the playing field for subsequent institutional
and policy choices, in their case, discussions in the 1950s over social policy.
Beyond arguments based on a logic of increasing returns to power, how-
ever, the present analysis highlights the way in which institutions created
by one set of actors and for one set of purposes can sometimes be embraced
and “carried forward” on the shoulders of another coalition altogether. As
we saw in the German case, for example, neither organized labor nor the
machine industry was part of the original coalition behind the crucial legisla-
tion of 1897, yet both would eventually become hugely important carriers of
the system that evolved subsequently. The existence of this handicraft-based

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Conclusions, Empirical and Theoretical

system of training had important feedback effects – crucial above all in

shaping the way that unions defined their interests with respect to skill
formation. As the ranks of Germany’s social democratic unions filled up
with skilled workers who had received their credentials under the system,
the unions developed a strong interest not in dismantling the system but
rather in controlling or co-managing (codetermining) the system of firm-
based training that it represented.5 The important point is that from quite
early on German unions were themselves invested in a system of plant-
based training, and therefore pursuing strategies that were very different
from those of social democratic unions elsewhere (for example, Swedish
unions), which were more skeptical of all forms of firm-based training and
spent their time pushing instead for publicly managed, school-based voca-
tional education for blue collar workers.
The machine industry was the other key actor in Germany in the early
industrial period, not part of the original coalition but one whose strategies
with respect to the handicraft system were also vitally important to its evo-
lution. The machine industry, heavily dependent on skills, was therefore a
major consumer of the skills generated by these small handicraft produc-
ers. As elaborated in Chapter 2, large machine companies tried to pursue a
completely different model of skill formation based on training for internal
labor markets – very similar to practices emerging in the United States and
Japan at around the same time. But these firms could not escape the logic
of the pre-existing handicraft system altogether. Skill-intensive industries
in Germany were pushed toward a more coordinated approach to training
through their competition with the artisanal sector whose methods they
abhorred and whose power to certify skills they coveted.
Saying that labor unions and the machine industry framed their interests
in relation to the existing handicraft system, however, is not the same as
saying that these groups were invested in those institutions as originally
constituted. Here I part ways with some path-dependence theorizing that
emphasizes “lock in” as actors adapt their strategies to conform to the
logic of prevailing institutions. Once in place, institutions do indeed affect
the interests and strategic options available to various groups. Against the
determinism of some lines of argument, however, institutions continue to

5 Employing Greif and Laitin’s terms (Greif and Laitin 2003), this could be characterized
as a situation in which the operation of these institutions produced behavioral effects that
expanded the “quasi parameters” within which the institution was self-enforcing.

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be the object of ongoing political contestation, and changes in the political

coalitions on which they rest hold the key to understanding significant shifts
over time in the form the institutions take and the functions they perform
in politics and society.
The issue becomes the extent to which institutions generate only self-
enforcing feedback or whether their operation also generates dynamics that
complicate rather than contribute to the “reliable reproduction” of these ar-
rangements (Clemens and Cook 1999: 449; on this point, see also Orren
and Skowronek 1994). The increasing interest of both the machine indus-
try and organized labor in the system of training if anything unleashed new
conflicts, particularly over the governance of that system. The resulting
renegotiation of the governance structures over time drove changes in the
content of training toward greater standardization and uniformity, and
culminated in the political-distributional transformation of the system as a
whole.
This case can be seen as an instance of institutional development and
change that combines elements of positive feedback with new developments
that did not necessarily always push in the same direction but altered the
overall trajectory. It thus takes us beyond increasing returns and positive
feedback arguments (associated with the path-dependence literature) by
demonstrating how actors on the periphery (“losers” in one round) can
become invested in prevailing institutions in certain ways, such that shifts in
the balance of power that go their way may result in institutional conversion
rather than either straight reproduction or breakdown (see also Thelen
2002).
The key to understanding institutional complementarities is to think in
terms of institutional co-evolution and feedback effects as processes through
which coherence does not emerge so much as it is constructed, as institu-
tions inherited from the past get adapted – in this case through political
incorporation and associated renegotiation – to changes in the political,
market, and social context. To the extent that things “fit” together, it may
be partly because one group or coalition is always winning, or because new
institutions are selected for their compatibility with those that already ex-
ist. However, it may well also be due to processes through which inherited
institutions are actively “fitted” or adapted to new circumstances, new in-
terests, and new power constellations. These considerations bring me to
the broad question of institutional origins, evolution, and change to which
the foregoing analysis speaks.

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Institutional Evolution and Change

The analysis above thus also provides insights into general processes of
institutional reproduction and change. Whereas earlier generations of in-
stitutional analysis focused primarily on the effects of different institutional
configurations on policies and other outcomes, a growing number of studies
have turned their attention to the question of how institutions themselves
originate and evolve over time (for example, among others, Clemens and
Cook 1999; Pierson 2004; Greif and Laitin 2003). Current work in this
area has been largely driven by dissatisfaction with existing treatments of
the subject, particularly those that draw a sharp line between the analysis of
institutional reproduction and that of institutional change. As pointed out
in Chapter 1, a common understanding in the literature sees institutional
change in highly discontinuous terms, as the consequence of exogenous
shocks that wipe the slate clean (Mancur Olson’s [1982] theory of postwar
economic growth) or that open new possibilities for agency and innova-
tion (Katznelson’s “unsettled moments of uncommon choice” [2003: 277,
282–3]).
Without denying that such critical junctures are possible, the present
analysis offers a somewhat different angle on institutional reproduction
and change. Contrary to strong punctuated equilibrium models that lead
us to expect big changes in the context of big historic breaks, we often
find significant continuities through historically “unsettled” times, and on-
going contestation and renegotiation in “settled” periods that nonethe-
less over time add up to significant change. As the case of Germany
vividly demonstrates, institutional arrangements often turn out to be in-
credibly resilient in the face of huge exogenous shocks of the sort we
might well expect to disrupt previous patterns and prompt dramatic in-
stitutional innovation. As events in the immediate post-World War II
period (Chapter 5) make clear, in times of crisis or deep uncertainty,
political actors often specifically eschew experimentation and instead fall
back on familiar formulas – resulting in institutional reproduction not
change.
As the German case has also shown, however, more subtle and smaller
scale changes in “settled” rather than “unsettled” times are also worthy of
our attention, as, over time, they can cumulate into significant institutional
transformation (see also Djelic and Quack 2003: 309). Chapters 2 and 5 of
this book traced the evolution of the German system from a core framework
aimed mostly at defeating unions to a pillar of social partnership between

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labor and capital one hundred years later. This process was defined not
so much by massive renegotiations at historic “breakpoints” (of which in
Germany over the twentieth century there were certainly plenty), but rather
through processes of layering and conversion (Chapter 1), as the incorpo-
ration of new groups into pre-existing institutions resulted in the addition
of new elements that altered the overall trajectory and renegotiations based
on changing coalitional foundations that redirected the institutions toward
goals and functions completely unanticipated by the original founders.
Much of the early literature on diverse national trajectories tended to
obscure these issues by conceiving of institutions as the “frozen” residue
of critical junctures, or as the “sticky” legacies of previous political battles
(see, for example, Lipset and Rokkan 1968: 3, 50, 54, which employs the
language of “freezing”). More recent literature on path dependence and
increasing returns effects has, however, pushed the debate forward by spec-
ifying the dynamic processes that sustain institutions over long periods of
time (Pierson 2000a). Increasing returns arguments tell an important part
of the story, but they are mostly designed to capture the logic of institu-
tional reproduction, not institutional change. Moreover, in many cases,
explaining institutional persistence will require that we go beyond posi-
tive feedback arguments. As we scan the political and political–economic
landscapes, we find that institutional survival is often strongly laced with
elements of institutional adaptation and even sometimes transformation
of the sort that brings inherited institutions in line with changing social,
political, and economic conditions.
The general argument I have made is that institutional reproduction
and institutional change, which are often treated as completely distinct
analytic problems, have to be studied together and are in some important
ways quite closely linked (see also Thelen 1999). Formal institutions do not
survive long stretches of time by standing still. The language of stasis and
inertia is particularly unhappy because as the world around institutions is
changing their survival will not necessarily rest on the faithful reproduction
of those institutions as originally constituted, but rather on their ongoing
active adaptation to changes in the political and economic environment in
which they are embedded.
An obvious and general lesson that emerges from the foregoing analysis is
to underscore Robert Bates’s cautionary note not to “confound the analysis
of the role of institutions with a theory of their causes” (Bates 1988; see also
Knight 1999:33–4). The present study serves as a strong warning against
varieties of what Pierson calls actor-centered functionalism that engage in
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a kind of backward deduction and in which “the effects of the institutions

[are taken to] explain the presence of those institutions” (Pierson 2000b:
475). Looking at German vocational training institutions from today’s van-
tage point, analysts quite reasonably portray this system as part of a high-
wage, high-quality production regime that reconciles the existence of strong
unions with strong performance in export markets. As the history shows,
however, this was not the obvious endpoint of a trajectory that could have
been foreseen in the late nineteenth century.
As Pierson notes, the point is not that institutions are not designed by
purposive actors with particular interests; clearly they are.6 The point is
that “changes in the broader social environment and/or in the character
of the actors themselves” (among other things) can, over time, produce a
significant and unintended “gap” between the goals of the designers and
the way institutions operate (Pierson 2004: 108–9). Cases where such “gaps”
can be observed may be particularly fruitful ones to mine for insights into
the way in which institutions evolve over time. The perspective on insti-
tutional development elaborated in this book has emphasized the political
contestedness of institutions, and argued that shifts in the coalitions on
which institutions rest are what drive changes in the form they take and the
functions they serve in politics and society.
In line with some current theorizing about path dependence in politics,
the present analysis shows that we need to be sensitive to the possibil-
ity of what Stinchcombe has termed “historicist explanations,” that is, the
idea that the “processes responsible for the genesis of an institution are
different from the processes responsible for the reproduction of the in-
stitution” (Mahoney 2000: 4; Stinchcombe 1968; Pierson 2000a). Against
functionalist accounts that read the origins of institutions off their current
functions, a somewhat longer time frame will often be necessary for us
to see how institutions created for one set of purposes can be redirected
to serve quite different ends. Alongside power-distributional accounts that
stress how powerful actors design institutions to anchor their position, we
often need a longer time frame to see how institutions created by one
configuration of power or coalition of interests can be “carried forward”
on the shoulders of some other coalition entirely. And beyond some

6 Although as Schickler (Schickler 2001), Palier (Palier forthcoming), Pierson (Pierson 2004),
and others have pointed out, institutions also often represent compromises among groups
with very different and even contradictory interests. In the present study, the 1897 Handicraft
Protection Law is a perfect example of this (see the analysis in Chapter 2).

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cultural accounts that see institutions as faithfully reflecting shared cul-

tural scripts, a longer time frame may allow us to see more clearly how
institutions created at one juncture can be constitutive and not just reflec-
tive of a particular social or cultural orientation. The point in each case is
that the creation and existence of the institution at one juncture can have a
formative impact on actor strategies, interests, identities, and orientations
subsequently.
Positive feedback is clearly part of the story but what also emerges from
the present analysis is the way in which such feedback effects are not nec-
essarily associated with the faithful reproduction of the system as originally
conceived. In terms of the sources of (or pressures for) change, the present
study underscores the insight of Clemens and others that analyses of in-
stitutional development need to be attuned to processes unfolding on the
periphery (Clemens 1993; Orren and Skowronek 1994; Weir 1992). This
is because institutions do not just generate positive feedback, they also
“generate grievance . . . [and] actors who are aggrieved but not co-opted
are an important source of pressure for institutional change” (Schneiberg
and Clemens forthcoming: 35). Here it is important to remember that, in
politics, unlike the marketplace, the “losers” at one juncture do not neces-
sarily disappear and their “adaptation” can mean something very different
from “embracing and reproducing” the institution, as in increasing returns
arguments from economics. Where the institutions that prevail do not gen-
erate significant positive feedback effects among the aggrieved, their later
empowerment is likely to spell institutional breakdown. This is the case
for Britain, where union-enforced apprenticeship was actively destroyed by
employers when changing market conditions shifted the balance of power
sharply away from skilled unions.
As the German case highlights, however, it is also important to look at
whether actors who are on the periphery themselves become invested in
the prevailing institutions and if so, in what ways. In the present analysis the
most important initiators of change were those that were “outside” the vo-
cational training system as originally constituted (that is, for the handicraft
sector), above all, the organized machine industry and organized labor. In
both cases, the strategies these groups pursued in some ways adapted to
the logic of the existing system while in other ways putting intense pres-
sure on those institutions to accommodate their different agendas. In cases
such as this, shifts in the balance of power between “insiders” and previous
“outsiders” may result in institutional conversion rather than breakdown.
Such cases combine elements of increasing returns and positive feedback
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with new developments that do not necessarily always push in the same
direction but rather can alter the overall trajectory.
The kind of analysis articulated here helps us get beyond blunt mod-
els of discontinuous change based on a strong juxtaposition of periods of
institutional “stasis” versus “innovation.” It does so not just by identifying
modes and mechanisms of gradual change, but also – this is important – by
forcing us to specify which aspects of the system are getting stably reproduced
over time and which are subject to renegotiation and why. What is incred-
ibly stable through the many truly massive breakpoints in Germany (from
1897 to the present) has been the idea of a collectively managed system
for monitoring how firms train their workers (a quite unusual historical
achievement). On the other hand, what was not at all stable, and subject to
intense contestation and periodic renegotiation was the governance struc-
ture through which this system would be administered. That is what was
periodically renegotiated in ways that on the one hand allowed the system
to survive – by bringing it into line with changes in the societal balance
of power – while at the same time putting on these institutions an entirely
different and unanticipated spin compared with the political and functional
logic of the system created in 1897. This case makes clear that one can often
make sense of the form and functions that institutions have assumed only
by viewing them, as Pierson and Skocpol (2002) recommend, in the context
of a larger temporal framework that includes the sequences of events and
processes that shaped their development over time.

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Index

Abel, Heinrich, 66, 245 Vocational Training and Works

Acemoglu, Daron, 14–15, 74, 138 Management, 232, 234, 235, 237
Act Against Sedition, 97 Apprentice strike (Britain), 113, 144
Act for the Encouragement and Relief Apprentice wages, 114, 118
of Friendly Societies, 97 Apprenticeship and Skilled
Adenauer, Konrad, 251, 255 Employment Association, 120–121
Albert, Michael, 2 Apprenticeship Promotion
Alexander, Magnus, 199 Act of 1976, see
Allan, William, 100, 106 Ausbildungsplatzförderungsgesetz
Allgemeine Elektrizitätsgesellschaft Apprenticeship training, joint
(AEG), 57, 60, 69 regulation through unions and
Allied Powers in post-WWII Germany, employers, 132, 196
240, 242–248; American Zone, 243, Apprenticeship training, length of, 102,
246, 247, 247n; British Zone, 242, 112, 114, 114t, 115, 117, 143, 178n,
246, 247, 247n, 248, 251n, 254; 283
French Zone, 243, 246, 247, 247n; see Apprenticeship, conflicts between
also Occupation unions and employers, 21, 100, 113,
Allis-Chalmers, 196 132–133, 145, 148, 186, 190–191,
Amalgamated Engineering Union 228, 280
(AEU), 137, 137n, 139, 140, 146 Arbeitsausschuß für Berufsbildung (AfB),
Amalgamated Society of Engineers Working Committee for Vocational
(ASE), 99, 100, 103, 103n, 105–107, Training, 88, 89, 250
107n, 108, 109, 111, 130, 131, 132, Arbeitsstelle für Berufserziehung des
135, 137n, 182, 183, 184n, 190, 191, Deutschen Industrie- und
212 Handelstages, Office for Vocational
American Federation of Labor (AFL), Training of the Association of
188, 195 German Chambers of Industry and
American Management Association, Commerce, 241, 249, 254n
205 Arbeitsstelle für Betriebliche
Amt für Berufserziehung und Berufsausbildung (ABB), 249, 250,
Betriebsführung (AfBB), Office for 251n, 261n

323
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Index

Armstrong, Whitworth and Company, Becker, Gary, 11–15, 21, 127, 147n,
127 173, 210, 211, 284
Arnhold, Carl [Karl], 83–85, 86, 232, Berghoff, Hartmut, 239
233, 234 Berlin Association of Metalworking
Arthur, Brian, 26, 27 Employers, 88
Artisans, artisanal sector (Germany), see Booth, Charles, 103
Handwerk Borsig, 55, 57, 60, 69, 88
Artisans, artisanal sector ( Japan), see Boyer, Robert, 1
Oyakata Brandt, Willy, 264
Association for Education in Industry Bray, Reginald, 115, 127, 128
and Commerce, 142, 143 Britain, compared with Germany, 16, 19,
Association for Metalworking 21, 22, 32, 33, 46, 48, 51, 51n, 53,
Employers, see Gesamtmetall 64, 67, 97, 100, 104, 109, 111,
Association for the Advancement of 114–116, 118, 121, 125–127, 133,
Education in Industry and 135–136, 138, 140, 145–146,
Commerce, 135 279–280; compared with Japan, 21,
Association of Berlin Metal 22, 32, 156, 280; compared with
Industrialists, 57, 75, 86 United States, 21, 38, 148, 177,
Association of German Employers’ 178–180, 181, 183, 184, 188, 189,
Organizations, see Vereinigung der 212–213, 280, 282
Deutschen Arbeitgeberverbände British Electric, 122
(VDA) British Westinghouse Company, 103n,
Association of German 117, 123, 125, 127, 134n
Machine-Building Firms, see Brody, David, 212
Verband Deutscher Brown & Sharpe, 199
Maschinenbauanstalten (VDMA) Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung
Association of German Metal (BIBB), National Institute for
Industrialists, (GDM), 77 Vocational Education, 260n, 261n,
Association of the German Iron and 265, 268n
Steel Industrialists, see Verein Bundesinstitut für
Deutscher Eisen- und Stahl Berufsbildungsforschung (BBF),
Industrieller (VDESI) Federal Institute for Vocational
Association of Machine and Iron Training Research, 260, 261n, 265
Works, 161n Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft
Ausbildungsplatzförderungsgesetz, und Forschung (BWF), Federal
Apprenticeship Promotion Act of Ministry for Science and Research,
1976, 265 262
Auxilliary Service Act of 1916 Bundesverband der Deutschen
(Germany), 133 Industrie (BDI), National
Axmann, Artur, 227 Confederation of German Industry,
245n, 249, 254
Baethge, Martin, 219, 263, 266, 269, Bundesvereinigung der Deutschen
275, 276 Arbeitgeberverbände (BDA),
Basic Law (Germany), 256n Confederation of German
Bates, Robert, 25, 293 Employers’ Associations, 249

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Carnegie Steel Works, 192 Costs of training, 17, 19

Cartels ( Japan), 162, 162n Craft control strategies, 51, 53, 62, 67,
Central Office for Research and 107, 108–109, 110, 133, 136–138,
Promotion of Vocational Education, 146, 168, 181–184, 195, 199, 202,
see Zentralstelle zur Erforschung und 203, 212, 279
Förderung der Berufserziehung Craft labor markets, 21–22, 98
(ZEFB) Craft unionism, 21, 156, 157, 279, 280;
Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Britain, 92, 98, 98n, 100–103,
(Germany), 241, 255, 260, 261n, 104–107, 130, 145, 279, 281, 283;
264, 277n United States, 32, 148, 149, 177, 179,
Christian Social Union (CSU), 181–184, 186, 188, 189–190, 191,
(Germany), 261n, 264, 277n 193, 202–203, 280, 282, 289;
Clayton and Shuttleworth, 122, Germany, 51n, 68, 70
125 Crafts Institute at the University of
Clemens, Elizabeth, 295 Cologne, 241
Clement, Wolfgang, 277n Credible commitment problems,
Codetermination as union demand in 17–18, 19, 21, 24, 47, 92, 101–104,
Germany, 255, 258, 259, 263, 115, 116–117, 118, 121, 129, 144,
290 159, 179, 182, 183, 283–285
Collective action problems, role in skill Credit constraints as source of market
formation, 11, 19–20, 24, 60, 64, failure in skill production, 12, 17,
111, 148, 161n, 162, 175, 179, 194, 19, 114, 127
196, 202, 269, 272, 273; see also Critical junctures, 27, 28, 29, 34, 37,
Employer coordination 215, 215n, 218, 292
Collectivist system of skill formation, Crouch, Colin, 21n, 262, 268
19, 20, 148, 149, 151, 175–176, 281 Crusius, Werner, 254
Collier, David & Ruth, 215n Culpepper, Pepper, 269n, 275
Colonial period, apprenticeship in US,
178–180 DATSCH (Deutscher Ausschuß für
Combination Acts (1799, 1800), 96; Technisches Schulwesen), German
repeal of, 98, 99 Committee for Technical
Company unionism, 56, 72, 74, 85, Education; role in skill
149, 171 standardization, 77–78, 134, 135,
Congress of German Crafts and 200, 205, 223–225; under Weimar,
Trades, see Deutscher Handwerks und 59–62, 63, 64, 73, 79, 82, 83, 84, 88;
Gewerbekammertag (DHGT) under National Socialism, 90, 225,
Congress of German Industry and 225n, 230, 231, 232, 232n, 233–234,
Commerce, see Deutscher Industrie 235n, 238, 241, 248, 249, 250,
und Handelskammertag (DIHT) 251
Continuing vocational education and David, Paul, 26
training (Germany), 270 Dehen, Peter, 62
Convergence theories, 1 Deutscher Handwerks und
Coordinated market economy, 2–4, 5, Gewerbekammertag (DHGT),
9, 17 Congress of German Crafts and
Corporation schools (US), 199–202 Trades, 89

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Index

Deutsche Arbeitsfront (DAF), German Economics Ministry (Germany), role

Labor Front, 219n, 220, 220n, 221, under National Socialism, 220, 224,
226, 227n, 228, 231, 231n, 232, 228, 231, 233, 234–237; post-World
232n, 233, 234n, 236n, 240; conflicts War II, 231n, 233, 234n, 240, 245,
with Economics Ministry over training, 251, 252, 257–258, 261, 277n
231, 234–237 Elementary schools and education,
Deutsche Demokratische Republik 125, 125n, 126, 134
(DDR), East Germany, 216n, 240n, Employer associations, role in training,
259 269, 273
Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB), Employer coordination, 60, 62, 75, 76,
German Trade Union 79, 87, 88, 161–162, 193, 250;
Confederation, 244n, 254, 255n, see also Collective action problems
259 Engineering Employers’ Federation
Deutscher Handwerkskammertag (EEF), 108, 109, 111, 113, 133, 134,
(DHKT), German Association of 135, 136, 137, 140, 143, 146, 212
Chambers of Artisans, 256n Erhard, Ludwig, 253
Deutscher Industrie-und Exploitation of apprentices, 46–47,
Handelskammertag (DIHT), 54n, 63, 94–95, 110, 111, 112n, 113,
German Congress of Industry and 119, 131, 144, 179, 257, 279
Trade, 82, 88, 89, 245, 246, 246n,
248, 249, 250, 253, 259, 263 Fachhochschulen, technical colleges,
Deutscher Metallarbeiterverband 275
(DMV), German Metalworkers Fachvereine, 49–50
Union, 49–50, 52, 68–70, 71 Factory schools, Britain, 122, 123, 142;
Dilution, in Britain, WWI, 133 Germany, 56, 85, 86; Japan, 154,
Dinta (Deutsches Institut für 163–164; United States, see
Technische Arbeitsschulung), German Corporation schools
Institute for Technical Training, Federal Institute for Vocational
83–86, 231, 232, 232n, 233, 233n, Training Research, see
234, 236n Bundesinstitut für
Diversified quality production, 6, 9, Berufsbildungsforschung (BBF)
15n, 23 Federal Ministry for Science and
Dobbin, Frank, 37 Research, see Bundesministerium
Domanski-Davidsohn, Elisabeth, 50 für Wissenschaft und Forschung
Douglas, Paul, 201 (BWF)
Drive system (US), 191–192, 198, 203, Federalism, 244
208 Feedback effects, 27, 31, 34, 36, 37,
41, 48, 52–53, 288–290, 291, 293,
East Germany, see DDR 295
East London Apprenticing Fund for Feldman, Gerald, 75
Christian Children, 119 Finegold, David, 10, 13, 262, 270
Eastern Germany (post-unification), Fisher Act, 134, 141
271, 275–276 Fisher, H.A.L., 134, 135
Economic theories of institutions, Fleming, Sir Arthur, 134n
286n Foreign craftsmen, as source of skills in
Economic theories on skills, 8, 11–15 Japan, 154, 155

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Index

Foremen, 177, 192, 198, 202, 203, 206, Gesamtmetall, Association for
207, 208, 209, 213, 282 Metalworking Employers, 273
Four Year Plan, Office of, 236 Gesetz zur vorläufigen Regelung des
Franklin, Benjamin, 180 Rechts der Industrie- und
Free Democratic Party (FDP), Handelskammern (1956) (IHKG),
(Germany), 253, 264, 265 Law for the Provisional Regulation
Friderichs, Hans, 265 of the Rights of the Industry and
Friendly benefits, 51n, 92, 96–97, Trade Chambers, 241, 256, 258,
98–99, 104, 105–107, 145 258n
Friendly Union of Mechanics, 104n Gewerbeordnung (1869), 248
Functionalism, 6, 7, 24–25, 27, 30, 32, Gewerbevereine, role in training,
36, 293, 294 44–46
Globalization, 1, 3
Gemmill, Paul, 208, 209 Gompers, Samuel, 194
General Electric, 199, 200, 200n, 201, Gordon, Andrew, 163
206n, 208, 278 Göring, Hermann, 236
General skills, 11, 13, 14, 15, 17 Grand Coalition (Germany, 1966–69),
German Association of Chambers of 241, 260, 263
Artisans, see Deutscher Great Depression (1929), 90, 137, 211,
Handwerkskammertag (DHKT) 220
German Committee for Technical Great Lockout (1897), 191
Education, see DATSCH Greif, Avner, 30
(Deutscher Ausschuß für Technisches Großer Befähigungsnachweis (major [or
Schulwesen) comprehensive] certificate of
German Congress of Industry and competence), 228
Trade, see Deutscher Industrie-und Guilds, 21, 21n, 42, 45, 46, 51, 93–95,
Handelskammertag (DIHT) 152, 157, 162, 178, 181, 257;
German Institute for Technical voluntary guilds in Germany, see
Training, see Dinta Innungen
German Labor Front, see Deutsche Gutehoffnungshütte (GHH), 85, 234
Arbeitsfront (DAF)
German Metalworkers Union, see Hacker, Jacob, 218–219, 287–288
Deutscher Metallarbeiterverband Hall, Peter, 2, 3, 4, 9, 16, 285
(DMV) Handelsgesetzbuch 1897, 248
German Trade Union Confederation, Handicraft chambers, role in
see Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund apprenticeship training, 22, 40,
(DGB) 44, 46–47, 51, 81, 88–90, 229,
Germany, compared with Britain, 16, 19, 241, 247, 256–257, 262–263,
21, 22, 32, 33, 46, 48, 51, 51n, 53, 267–268
64, 67, 97, 100, 104, 109, 111, Handicraft Protection Law (1897), 7,
114–116, 118, 121, 125–127, 133, 23, 33, 39–41, 42, 43–47, 53, 57,
135–136, 138, 140, 145–146, 57n, 58, 107, 175n, 281, 289, 294n
279–280; compared with Japan, Handicrafts, handicraft sector
22–23, 38, 148, 149–151, 156, 163, (Germany), see Handwerk
166, 172–176, 280; compared with Handwerk chambers, cost of training
United States, 32, 184, 205–206, 280 in, 54n, 268, 283

327
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Index

Handwerk sector, 79–81, 88, 174, 221, 250, 250n, 252, 256, 257–258, 259,
224, 228–230, 246, 259, 279; 261, 262–263
definition of, 40n Innungen (voluntary guilds in
Handwerkskammern, see Handicraft Germany), 43, 44, 49, 51
chambers Inside contracting (US), 187–188, 189,
Handwerksordnung (HwO) 1953, 241, 192, 213
256–257, 258n Institutional change, xii–xiii, 3, 4, 6–8,
Hansen, Hal, 19, 44, 44n, 46, 46n, 47, 23–24, 28–31, 33–36, 38, 215,
82, 179, 185, 201, 237 216–217, 218, 278, 289, 291,
Heavy industry, approach toward 292–296; mechanisms of, 35–36;
training (Germany), 237 political coalitions and, 33–36; see also
Herrigel, Gary, 19n, 20, 45n, 49, 51, Political coalitions, role in institutional
56, 76, 245, 270 stability and change
High school (enrollments in US), Institutional complementarities, 3–4,
180n, 210 16n, 278, 285–291
High skill equilibrium, 5n, 10, 149 Institutional conversion, 36, 37, 218,
Historicist explanations, 294 291, 293, 295
Hitler Youth, 219n, 226 Institutional evolution, see institutional
Hitler, Adolf, 232n change
Hollingsworth, Rogers, 1 Institutional layering, 35, 36, 37, 41,
Homburg, Heidrun, 56 217, 293
Huber, Evelyne, 288, 289 Institutional origins, 4–5, 278–282,
294; political coalitions and, xi–xii,
Immigration, as source of skills in US, 20–23, 31–34; theories of, 23, 27
180, 181, 185, 186, 197, 203 Institutional reproduction, 7, 8, 34, 36,
Imperial Institute for Labor Exchange 37, 215, 216, 217, 218, 278,
and Unemployment Insurance, see 292–296; mechanisms of, 7
Reichsanstalt für Arbeitsvermittlung Institutional stability, see Institutional
and Arbeitslosenversicherung reproduction
(RAA) Internal labor markets Germany, 290;
Increasing returns effects, 26, 27, 31, Japan, 148, 149, 165, 166, 167, 169,
34, 289, 291, 293, 295 171, 175, 176, 206, 213, 282, 284;
Indentures, 12–22, 101, 103n, 113, United States, 207, 208, 209,
115, 120, 123, 182, 200, 201, 225 214
Industrial Committee of the Jewish International Association of Machinists
Board of Guardians, 119 (IAM), 182, 183, 183n, 184, 184n,
Industrial Patriotic Council, 171 190, 191, 202
Industrial Training Boards, 147 International Harvester, 200
Industrie und Handelskammer, see International Molders Union (IMU),
Industry and Trade Chambers 188
Industrielle Mittelstand, 43n, 76–77, Iron and steel industry (Germany),
79 81–86
Industry and Trade Chambers, 59, 67,
79; role in apprenticeship, 221, Jacoby, Sanford, 185, 187, 192, 201,
222–223, 226, 236, 241, 247n, 249, 208

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Index

Japan, compared with Britain, 21, 22, 32, United States, 181–184, 189, 212,
156, 280; compared with Germany, 280, 282; comparative strategies of
22–23, 38, 148, 149–151, 156, 163, employers toward, 279, 281–285
166, 172–176, 280; compared with Laitin, David, 30
United States, 148, 177–178, 184, League of German Crafts, see
188, 206–207, 210, 213–214, 280, Reichsverband des Deutschen
282 Handwerks (RDH)
Job classifications, 203, 203n, 206, 207, League of German Industry, see
211, 284 Reichsverband der Deutschen Industry
Job control unionism, 22, 178 (RDI)
Journeymen Steam Engine and Legislative reform of training (Britain),
Machine Makers’ Friendly Society, 93, 128, 129, 134, 135, 137, 141,
104 147
Jowitt, Kenneth, 29 Leimig, Josef, 254–255
Junior Technical Schools, 127, 141n Leipzig Agreement, 235
Levine, Solomon, 152, 166
Kansai Industrial Federation, 172 Ley, Robert, 220, 231n, 232, 234–235
Katznelson, Ira, 29, 292 Liberal market economy, 2–4, 5, 9, 16
Kawada, Hisashi, 152, 166 Life-time employment ( Japan), 160,
Kearney & Trecker, 196 164–166, 167, 169, 172, 282, 284
Kelly, Roy Wilmarth, 195 Lockouts (Britain), 105, 106, 107,
Kerschensteiner, Dr. Georg, 127n 108–109, 113, 132, 135, 140, 146,
Kieslinger, Adolf, 246, 246n 191
King, Desmond, 147 Loewe, Ludwig, 55, 57, 60, 69
Kleiner Befähigungsnachweis, (minor Low skill equilibrium, 5n, 10
certificate of competence), 57n Luchtenberg, Dr. Paul, 253
Klug, Thomas, 190
Knight, Jack, 25, 32 Machine and metalworking industries,
Knox, William, 95, 96, 100, 116 role in training, 278; in Britain, 104,
Kocka, Jürgen, 40n, 48–49, 51 122–125, 127–129, 134, 143; in
Krause, Erwin, 254n Germany, 41, 42, 53–55, 56, 57–59,
Krupp, 234 62, 63, 72–73, 174–175, 279, 290; in
Kultusministerkonferenz (KMK), Japan, 152–153, 155, 157, 158, 162,
Standing Conference of the 174–175; in the United States,
[state-level] Ministries of Culture, 186–188
244, 244n Mack, Frida, 78
Mahoney, James, 27
Labor, organized labor, Britain, 81, Major [or comprehensive] certificate of
99–100, 104, 130–131, 131n, competence, see Großer
138–139, 189, 212, 280, 283; Befähigungsnachweis
Germany, 48–53, 65, 66–67, 68–72, Maschinenfabrik Augsburg Nürnberg
90, 175–176, 218, 219n, 241–242, (MAN), 55, 56, 57, 60, 69, 73, 278
251n, 252–255, 257, 258, 259, 262, Mason, Timothy, 220, 226
262n, 263, 264, 276, 290; Japan, Mass production, 184, 185, 191, 192,
151, 166, 168, 169n, 171–176, 282; 213

329
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Index

Masters and Servants Act of 1875, 113 National Confederation of German

Mather and Platt, 122, 123, 127, 128, Industry, see Bundesverband
278 der Deutschen Industrie (BDI)
McKinlay, Alan, 137 National Institute for Vocational
Meiji Japan, 151, 152–154, 155, Education, see Bundesinstitut für
158 Berufsbildung (BIBB)
Metal Manufacturers Association of National Institute for Vocational
Philadelphia (MMA), 193–194 Training, see Reichsinstitut für
Metalworkers Union ( Japan), see Tekkō Berufsausbildung in Handel und
Kumiai Gewerbe (RBHG)
Military industry, role in skill National Metal Trades Association
formation, 152, 152n, 153, 153n, (NMTA), 191
159, 160n, 161, 171–172, 202, 220, National Socialism, 38, 90, 171, 175,
221, 223, 237, 238–239 176, 232n, 281; impact on training,
Ministry of Industry ( Japan), 153 219–222, 240, 246, 250, 252n, 255;
Ministry of Labor (Britain), 142 repression of unions, 219n, 220n, 228,
Ministry of Labor (Germany), 87, 231
244n, 245, 252, 259, 262, 277n National Vocational Education Act of
Ministry of Science and Education, 1917 (US), 195; see also Smith
264, 265 Hughes Act
Minor certificate of competence, see National Vocational Skills
Kleiner Befähigungsnachweis Development Association, 173
Mitsubishi, 160, 161, 163, 164, 168, New Institutional Economics (NIE),
174 24, 32
Moe, Terry, 25, 32 Newton, William, 105
Monitoring of training, 18, 20, 44, 46, Nolan, Mary, 74
47, 63, 115, 118, 119, 120, 121, 144, North, Douglass, 27
145, 179, 225–227, 245, 256, 279,
283 Occupation of Germany, post-WWII,
More, Charles, 125 38, 240, 242–251, 254; see also Allied
Morris, John van Liew, 201 Powers
Mosher, Jim, 68 Office for Vocational Training and
Motley, James, 184, 190, 212 Works Management, see Amt für
Muth, Wolfgang, 78 Berufserziehung und Betriebsführung
(AfBB)
Nagasaki Shipyard, 154, 165 Office for Vocational Training of the
National Apprentice Law 1937 (US), Association of German Chambers
211 of Industry and Commerce, see
National Association of Corporation Arbeitsstelle für Berufserziehung
Schools (NACS), 196n, 200, 201, des Deutschen Industrie- und
205 Handelstages
National Association of Manufacturers Olson, Mancur, 29
(NAM), 193, 193n, 194, 195, 198 Open shop movement in the US, 191,
National Board of Education, 129, 134, 191n, 203, 205n
141 Orren, Karen, 37, 285

330
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Index

Oyakata, 23, 149, 151, 154–155, 156n, Reconstruction of Germany, post

158–159, 160, 162, 163, 164, 167, WWII, 241, 242, 251–263
169, 170, 172, 174, 176, 177, 187, Red-Green Coalition, 266n, 276n
213, 280, 282; Meiji government Reform of Handwerk law, 277n
policy toward, 151–152 Reichsanstalt für Arbeitsvermittlung and
Arbeitslosenversicherung (RAA),
Path dependence, 8, 23, 25–29, 29n, Imperial Institute for Labor
31, 34, 36, 37, 215, 278, 289, 290, Exchange and Unemployment
291, 293, 294; in economic history, 26, Insurance, 227
37; theories of change in, 28–29 Reichsberufswettkampf, 226
Pätzold, Günter, 240, 251 Reichsgruppe Industrie (RGI), 220n,
Piecework, 207, 209 225n, 235, 236
Pierson, Paul, 24, 24n, 25, 27, 30, 36, Reichsinstitut für Berufsausbildung in
287–288, 293, 294, 296 Handel und Gewerbe (RBHG),
Pischke, Jörn-Steffen, 14–15, 74, 138 National Institute for Vocational
Poaching, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21; Training, 224, 233, 237, 249, 251
in Britain, 127, 141, 144, 283; in Reichsverband der Deutschen Industrie
Germany, 60, 70, 73, 82, 222, 273; in (RDI), League of German Industry,
Japan, 158, 160, 161, 162, 162n, 88
164, 165, 172, 280; in the United Reichsverband des Deutschen Handwerks
States, 193, 197, 201; see also (RDH), League of German Crafts,
Collective action problems 89
Political coalitions, role in institutional Reichswirtschaftkammer, 246, 246n
stability and change, xiii, 278n, 289, Rhode, Helmut, 265
291, 293, 294; see also Institutional Royal Commission on Labour (1892),
change 116
Poor Laws, 97 RWM, see Economics Ministry
Power-distributional theories, 6, 33, (Germany)
294
Premium apprenticeship, Britain, 102, Schacht, Hjalmar, 220, 231n, 234–236
119, 123n, 124, 124n, 143 Schickler, Eric, 33, 35, 41
Public education and schooling, 180, Schmidt, Helmut, 265
180n, 264 Schneider, Herman, 193n
Public sector enterprises, role in skill Schönhoven, Klaus, 52
formation ( Japan), 159, 160 Schröder, Gerhard, 276, 276n
Public vocational education schooling, Schütte, Friedhelm, 71
193, 194–196, 210–211, 213, 260n, Scientific management movement,
268n; see also Vocational schools 204
Punctuated equilibrium models, xii, 28, Segmentalist system of skill formation,
29n, 30, 31, 35, 36, 215, 216, 240, 20, 23, 38, 41, 56, 58, 82, 148, 149,
292, 296 151, 158, 166, 167, 168n, 171,
Putting-out system of production, 93n 175–176, 198, 213, 231, 273n, 282
Seniority system, 20, 207; see also
Rational choice theories, 29–30, Life-time employment
32 Shop stewards, 133, 213

331
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Index

Siemens, 56, 59, 69 Streeck, Wolfgang, 2, 3, 9–10, 23, 267,

Skill certification, 18, 19; in Britain, 92, 269
101, 102, 107, 109, 115, 116n, 118, Sweden, 286–287, 288, 289
121, 136n, 145, 283; in Germany, 39, Swenson, Peter, 19n, 20, 93, 146, 190,
47, 53, 57–58, 58n, 59, 60, 63, 64, 198, 205n, 286–287, 288
65, 73, 76, 77, 79–80, 89, 90, 145, Swidler, Ann, 29
146, 149, 172, 174, 224, 229, 231,
238, 246, 247, 256, 279, 283 (see also Taira, Koji, 157, 164, 171
Handicraft chambers); in Japan, 149, Tawney, R.H., 112, 115, 116, 128,
155, 173–174; in the United States, 131n
179, 182, 188, 194, 197, 201 Technical Education Acts of 1939
Skill standardization, 41, 75, 77n, ( Japan), 172
78–88, 90, 145, 166, 175, 217, 221, Tekkō Kumiai ( Japan), Metalworkers
223–225, 230, 231, 232n, 237, 250, Union, 158
281, 291 Tokugawa Shogunate, 157, 158
Skocpol, Theda, 37, 296 Tollkühn, Gertrud, 46, 78
Skowronek, Stephen, 37, 286 Tōkyō Kikai Tekkō Dōgyō Kumiai, see
Smith Hughes Act, 195, 210; see also Association of Machine and Iron
National Vocational Education Act Works
Smith, Allan, 135, 137, 146 Training levy, 265–266, 266n
Social Democratic Party (SDP), Transferable skills, 13, 14, 15
(Germany), 87, 241, 260, 264,
281 Unification (Germany), 216n, 270,
Social democratic unions, 49–50, 52 275–276
Social Security Act, 288 Unintended consequences, 36
Sociological theories, 6, 7, 32, 37, Unions, see Labor, organized labor
286n, 288n, 295 United States, compared with Britain,
Soffer, Benson, 188 21, 38, 148, 177, 178–180, 181, 183,
Soskice, David, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 13, 14, 184, 188, 189, 212–213, 280, 282;
16, 268, 269, 271, 275 compared with Germany, 32, 184,
Specific skills, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 209 205–206, 280; compared with Japan,
State policy, impact on skill formation, 148, 177–178, 184, 188, 206–207,
20, 22–23, 31–32, 279; in Britain, 210, 213–214, 280, 282
92, 94–95, 97, 98, 100, 145, 147; in
Germany, 39, 42–44, 46, 51, Varieties of capitalism, xi, 2, 2n, 4–11,
150–151, 174, 175n, 176, 217, 221, 278, 285
260n, 262n, 268n, 275; in Japan, Verband Deutscher
150–151, 153n, 154–162, 174, 176, Maschinenbauanstalten (VDMA),
184; in the United States, 182, 184, Association of German
196–197 Machine-Building Firms, 59, 60, 64,
Statute of Artificers (1563), 94–95, 101, 75–78, 79, 83, 90, 111, 136, 136n,
178 143, 167, 205, 221n, 231
Stephens, John D., 288, 289 Verein Deutscher Eisen- und Stahl
Stevens, Margaret, 13–14 Industrieller (VDESI), Association of
Stinchcombe, Arthur, 26, 294 the German Iron and Steel
Stinnes-Legien Agreement (1919), 68 Industrialists, 83

332
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Index

Vereinigung der Deutschen 220n, 221, 222, 225n, 227, 228, 230,
Arbeitgeberverbände (VDA), 231, 232, 233n, 237, 238n, 239, 246,
Association of German Employers’ 246n, 250, 252n, 260n, 281
Organizations, 88 Weingast, Barry, 25, 30
Vestibule training, 204–205 Weiss, Linda, 172, 176
Vickers, 122, 124 Welfare capitalism, 198, 200n, 201,
Vocational schools, Britain, 123, 124, 206, 214, 284
125–127, 127n, 128–129, 130–131, Westinghouse Company, 199, 200, 208
141–142, 145; Germany, 45, 45n,
54n, 61–62, 74, 85, 225, 225n, 227, Wigham, Eric L., 146
229, 239, 240, 242–244, 250, 272n, Winchester Repeating Arms Company,
274; Japan, 171n; United States, 192
194–196, 210–211, 214 Wisconsin model of skill formation,
Vocational Training Act of 1969 196–198, 198n
(Germany), 91, 218, 242, 259–262, Work Promotion Act, 275
263, 264 Working Committee for Vocational
Vocational Training Law of 1958 Training, see Arbeitsausschuß für
( Japan), 173 Berufsbildung (AfB)
Vocational training reform, failure in Works Constitution Act (of 1952), 255;
Weimar period, 88–90 (of 1972), 263n
von Dohnanyi, Klaus, 264 Works councils (Germany), 133, 263,
von Rieppel, Anton, 56, 60 263n
Wright, Erik Olin, 158
W.H. Allen, Son & Co., Ltd, 123
Wage compression, 15, 15n, 17n, Yahata steel mill, 153, 154, 165, 169
68, 69–70, 74, 138–139, 140, Yawata Iron and Steel Works, 168
273 Yokosuka, 154, 160, 165, 278
Wage coordination, 20
Wage system, skill formation and, Zaibatsu, 167
110n, 138n, 143, 166, 168, 170, 172, Zeitlin, Jonathan, 100, 136n, 137, 139,
206–208, 209, 273, 284 147
Wagner Act, 211 Zentralarbeitsgemeinschaft (ZAG), 65,
Wagner, Karin, 270, 272 67, 73
Ware report, 243, 253 Zentralstelle zur Erforschung und
Webb, Sidney and Beatrice, 95, 98, Förderung der Berufserziehung
117 (ZEFB), Central Office for
Weimar Republic, 15, 22, 34, 41–42, Research and Promotion of
53, 63–91, 111, 146, 166, 176, 218, Vocational Education, 254

333