TY - JOUR A1 - Emmenegger, Patrick A1 - Graf, Lukas A1 - Strebel, Alexandra T1 - Social versus liberal collective skill formation systems? A comparative-historical analysis of the role of trade unions in German and Swiss VET JF - European Journal of Industrial Relations N2 - We distinguish between social and liberal collective skill formation systems and demonstrate that the German VET system is a social system with a strong (parity) role for trade unions in its governance. In contrast, unions play a considerably weaker role in the more liberal Swiss system, which privileges employers’ interests. We show that the different position of unions in VET systems has the expected consequences on a range of indicators. We further examine why unions are less important in Switzerland and show how, after the First World War, differences in the institutional environment and power resources of the union movements set Germany and Switzerland on different paths, which are still visible today. KW - - KW - Employers KW - Germany KW - skill formation systems KW - Switzerland KW - trade unions KW - VET Y1 - 2020 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b1570-opus4-35805 SN - 0959-6801 SN - 1461-7129 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/0959680119844426 N1 - Provided by the DeepGreen Project. VL - 26 IS - 3 SP - 263 EP - 278 PB - SAGE Publications CY - Sage UK: London, England ER -