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Journal of Vocational Education & Training
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Decentralised cooperation between industries
and local governments in a statist skill-formation
system: an analysis of industrial schools in Sweden
Bo Persson & Brita Hermelin
To cite this article: Bo Persson & Brita Hermelin (2020): Decentralised cooperation between industries and local governments in a statist skill-formation system: an analysis of industrial schools in Sweden, Journal of Vocational Education & Training, DOI: 10.1080/13636820.2020.1829007 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13636820.2020.1829007
© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Published online: 12 Oct 2020.
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Decentralised cooperation between industries and local
governments in a statist skill-formation system: an
analysis of industrial schools in Sweden
Bo Perssona and Brita Hermelinb
aDivision of Political Science, Department of Management and Engineering (IEI), Linköping University,
Linköping, Sweden; bCentre for Municipality Studies, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
ABSTRACT
The scholarly debate about cooperation between different stakeholders in Vocational Education and Training has pri-marily focussed on the national level, and much less on local and regional levels. This article aims to contribute to our understanding of the conditions and mechanisms of decen-tralised cooperation in VET systems, through a comparative case study of two partnerships between local government and industry at two industrial schools in Sweden. We want to understand how and why companies and municipalities engage in this kind of co-operation, in a national structural context which provides few incentives for doing so. Our analysis is guided by two research questions. Firstly, what have these collaborations meant in terms of the involvement of firms and commitment from local government? Secondly, what factors can explain the similarities and differences between the establishment and upholding of these two collaborative arrangements? Our study shows that the part-nerships can be characterised by different dynamics in rela-tion to the scope of participarela-tion and depth of commitment of the partners. We also show that two conditions are espe-cially important for understanding variations between the cases: the structure of local industry, and the characteristics of the relationship between local government and the indus-trial companies.
ARTICLE HISTORY Received 19 December 2019 Accepted 11 September 2020 KEYWORDS
Vocational education & training; governance; cooperation; public–private partnerships; local government
1. Introduction
Vocational education and training (VET) has been an important focus for research on skill-formation systems within the political economic tradition. This research has described many similarities between national VET systems in various industrial countries, as well as some major differences. The latter include variations in the involvement of the state, the industrial sector and labour- market organisations, and how these cooperate (Busemeyer 2015; Culpepper and Thelen 2008; Thelen 2004; Trampusch 2010). So-called collective formation CONTACT Bo Persson bo.persson@liu.se
https://doi.org/10.1080/13636820.2020.1829007
© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduc-tion in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
systems, for example, have been characterised by strongly institutionalised cooperation between labour-market organisations and the government. In so- called statist VET systems, on the other hand, public actors, primarily the national state, have taken primary responsibility for VET, and the commitment of companies and unions has been considered less important (Busemeyer and Trampusch 2012; Jørgensen 2018).
The scholarly debate on cooperation within VET has primarily focussed on the national level, however, and much less on local and regional levels. Several researchers have argued that there is a need for research that improves our understanding of the role of cooperation within VET at the local and regional levels (Culpepper 2003; Gessler 2017; Persson and Hermelin 2018). In a recent article by Emmenegger et al., the authors argue that too little attention has been paid to a systematic comparative analysis of ‘the causes, patterns and outcomes’ of cooperation at the decentralised level (Emmenegger, Graf, and Trampusch
2019, 22). We argue that, in many ways, decentralised cooperation for VET is especially interesting in systems where there is a low degree of institutionalised cooperation between public and private actors at the national level. In these kinds of systems, the local level might function as an alternative arena within which the involvement of industry in the VET system can be strengthened (cf. Remington 2018).
In this article, we focus on initiatives to strengthen the involvement of industrial firms in VET at the local level in Sweden. The Swedish VET regime is sometimes described as representing an archetype of a state-dominated and school-based VET system (Busemeyer and Trampusch 2012; Olofsson and Persson Thunqvist 2018). However, during the last few decades, a number of so- called industrial schools have been established by major Swedish industrial companies, often in collaboration with, and co-owned by, local governments. These initiatives were made possible through decentralisation and marketisa-tion reforms of the school system in Sweden (Karlsson, Lundh Nilsson, and Nilsson 2015; Persson and Hermelin 2018). In many ways, these schools repre-sent a deviation from the overall Swedish VET regime, since the industrial firms involved in them have a stronger commitment than is generally the case for industrial partners in the Swedish VET model.
The establishment of industrial schools in Sweden addresses important issues about how to understand the conditions and motives for collaboration in VET at the local and regional levels. The incentives for industrial firms and local governments to become involved in this kind of collaboration are influenced by several dilemmas. For industrial firms in Sweden, the incentives to invest in collaboration seem to be diminished by a high degree of uncertainty (for example, risk of poaching), since VET is predominantly a public responsibility and the coordination among firms, which is assumed to limit the risks of poaching, is low (Busemeyer 2009). For local governments, strong collaboration with local industries seems to diverge from their roles and responsibilities as
implementers of the general Swedish education policy, which stresses universal education and broad competencies, not too closely related to specific firms (Olofsson and Persson Thunqvist 2018). With reference to this, an empirical study of decentralised cooperation for VET in Sweden, where sub-national governments hold a strong position and play an important role in upper secondary education, is assumed to be a particularly relevant contribution to the field.
The aim of this article is to contribute to our understanding of the conditions and mechanisms of decentralised cooperation in VET systems, through a comparative case study of partnerships between local governments and industry in relation to two industrial schools in Sweden. We want to understand how and why firms and municipalities engage in this kind of co-operation, in a national structural context that provides few incentives for doing so. Our analysis is guided by two research questions. Firstly, what have these collabora-tions meant in terms of the involvement of firms and commitment of local governments? Secondly, what factors can explain similarities and differences in the establishment and upholding of these collaborative arrangements? The two cases selected for analysis have similar contextual characteristics in terms of the size of the municipalities and socioeconomic conditions, but the models of partnership developed in each case are different in terms of how the relations between the partners are regulated.
The comparative analysis of the cases will take its starting point in a historical institutional approach, as it is used in the political economic analysis of VET, and by literature about local and regional economic development policy. In line with this literature, we understand collaboration in VET to consist of negotiations between actors and actor coalitions that are nested within multilevel relations and local contexts and which reflect the legacies and outcomes of past struggles.
The remainder of this article is organised as follows: Section 2 presents the theoretical approach of the analysis; Section 3 describes the empirical study pertaining to methodology and data; Section 4 presents the results of the study, and Section 5 summarises the main results and provides conclusions.
2. Theoretical perspective
The economic literature on VET has focussed on how the governance of coop-eration for VET often faces complex challenges in the form of collective dilem-mas and conflicts about the distribution of costs and benefits. One central dilemma emphasised in this literature is that private companies, which are the main beneficiaries of trained labour in industrial countries, have few incentives to invest in training due to problems of free-riding; for example, so-called poaching (Acemoglu and Pischke 1999).
In contrast to this economic literature, researchers in comparative political economy have focussed on how the development of VET systems is shaped by different institutional arrangements, for instance, collective bargaining institu-tions and public policies (Busemeyer 2015; Busemeyer and Trampusch 2012; Culpepper 2003; Streeck 2012; Thelen 2004). In this literature applied to VET, it is emphasised that actors’ interests and strategies are shaped by, and interact with, ‘institutional underpinnings created and maintained by the state as well as the formal and informal non-market institutions governing labour relations’ (Emmenegger, Graf, and Trampusch 2019, 26). The reasons why private compa-nies invest in cooperation are not only connected to cost/benefit analyses of the effects of training, but are also influenced by national education and training philosophies, as well as how the labour market is organised. Kathleen Thelen has emphasised that, in line with this perspective, VET systems have been influenced not only by economic calculations, but also to a high degree by the political struggles and legacies of the past (Thelen 2004).
The comparative political economy literature on VET has contributed to an understanding of the division of labour between the public and private actors in different VET systems. Within a historical institutional tradition, Busemeyer and Trampusch (2012), for example, have developed a model focusing on two dimensions: the degree of firm involvement and the degree of public commit-ment to VET. In many ways, their model also conceptualises the degree of collaboration between public and private actors in different national systems. This may consist of strong coordination in collective skill formation systems (high involvement in both dimensions), or weak in statist skill formation systems (strong public, weak firm involvement). They argue that four aspects in parti-cular will be important for understanding the development of VET systems, in terms of different combinations of firm and public involvement. Firstly, the characteristics of the firms and cleavages within the employers’ camp (for example, influencing the extent of firm involvement); secondly, the dynamics of partisan competition and state structures (for example, influencing the orientation of the education system); thirdly, the power politics within the trade- union camp (influencing, for example, the role of apprentice systems in different countries); and, fourthly, the balance of power between business and labour (which influences the variation in emphasis of firm-specific skills in different systems).
We argue that, in modified form, the first two of these aspects are also relevant when studying local VET structures. The two latter aspects, relating to the role of unions, can be expected in a statist type of system (where the role of social partners in VET is limited) to be less relevant at the local level. However, at the local level, it can be assumed that the characteristics and degree of firm coordination are essential for firm strategies (Emmenegger, Graf, and Trampusch 2019). Building on Busemeyer and Trampusch’s model (see above), Remington argues that it is useful to study local partnerships in VET along two
dimensions: ‘breadth or scope of participation, and depth of commitment on the part of the organisational partners’ (Remington 2018, 506). For our study, two of the ideal types that, according to Remington, are more often found at the local level, often as ‘compensatory structures’, due to the lack of national VET cooperation, are particularly interesting. In the consortium model, interfirm cooperation is high, even though the investment made by each party is rela-tively modest. Such cooperation might also include other stakeholders in VET, such as local governments. In the parental model, a single large firm acts as the anchor. Remington argues that, in such a model, there is continuous bargaining between one firm that dominates the labour market (and where, as a consequence, poaching is not a threat) and local governments, which are trying to ensure that VET provides not only firm-specific skills but also more generic and transferable skills and knowledge (Remington 2018, 509). In our study, we will use Remington’s model to discuss similarities and differences in the actor constellations behind the collaborations, and explain different paths in the development of industrial schools.
Relating to Busemeyer and Trampusch (2012) second aspect, concerning the importance of state structures, we argue that, when studying local collabora-tions for VET, it is especially important to stress variacollabora-tions in the role of local governments in these partnerships. Therefore, in order to analyse the causes of local collaboration in VET, we find it fruitful to relate the historical institutional perspective to the literature about local and regional development policy (Barca, McCann, and Rodríguez-Pose 2012; Hassink 2005). Important factors influencing policies related to economic development that are stressed in this literature include, for example, the degree of local self-rule and the relationship between local governments and industrial companies. A central idea in this literature is that different structural (for example, industrial) and economic conditions foster different kinds of coalitions and networks, which will have different objectives and tend to lead to different policy outcomes. For example, the ownership structure and the degree to which local corporations are inte-grated into larger industrial conglomerates matters for the kinds of relationship between local government and firms that develop (Pierre 2011). In turn, the type of institutionalisation of this relationship (for example, into committees or more informal networks) can be assumed to condition the development of local cooperation on VET. Research in this area, focusing on local VET structures, also shows that the institutional environment and social capital across local actors may have an impact upon the way in which actors define their interests and objectives (Rusten and Hermelin 2017).
To summarise our theoretical perspective: based on the discussion above, we will analyse how the collaborations relating to industrial schools are structured and conditioned through the involvement of firms and local governments, but also how they are embedded in both their local contexts and wider interactions between the involved stakeholders. Concerning the first research question, the
involvement of firms and the commitment of local governments will be ana-lysed by focusing on the breadth and intensity of collaboration of actors, and what resources the industrial and local government partners each contribute to the collaboration. Considering the second research question, in order to explain variations between the cases in the establishment and maintenance of colla-borations, we will analyse the motives and conditions for decentralised coop-eration in local environments, focusing on the characteristics and degree of firm coordination and the character of each local-government–firm relationship.
3. Methodology and material
The research design of this paper is a historically oriented comparative case study. This means analysing two cases of municipality–industry collaboration in relation to what have been labelled industrial schools: The Curt Nicolin Gymnasium (CNG) in the municipality of Finspång, and the Göranssonska School in the municipality of Sandviken. These collaborations represent pio-neering examples in Sweden of decentralised industry–school collaborations with dual-model variants of VET, which can be considered anomalies/deviant cases in a state-dominated VET regime/system. Furthermore, the local environ-ments within which these schools are situated are similar in size and share a strong legacy of manufacturing production and the presence of multinational engineering-based manufacturing companies. However, the two collaborations are different when it comes to the division of labour between the actors involved in the partnership. The CNG partnership is characterised by a broad representation of firms, and an equally strong local government representation, similar to the consortium model suggested by Remington (2018). In the Göranssonska School partnership, one large firm is the sole industrial partner, and the local government representation is weaker, thus resembling the par-ental model in Remington’s discussion. The selection of these two cases is based on the logic of a most-similar-cases design, which means that the partnerships were selected because they are very similar with regard to possible influencing factors (the same national political–legal structure, similar-sized municipalities and a similar socioeconomic context), while the outcome (the type of partner-ship cooperation) varies. Using this design logic, many of the potentially expla-natory factors that might influence the phenomenon being studied can be kept constant, which will help when identifying and reflecting upon factors not present in both cases as possible explanations (George and Bennett 2004).
The empirical work for the comparative case study includes an examination of the historical development of the two schools, from approximately the late 1990s onwards. The methodological approach can be defined as a kind of process-tracing, which means that we have analysed in detail the process of initiating, establishing and maintaining the schools through a focus on the central chain of events and initiatives taken by key actors, and the institutional
context of each case. Our ambition, with the help of the analytical model presented in the theoretical section, is to characterise the different elements of cooperation that have developed in each case and to unveil the motives and conditions behind the establishment and sustaining of cooperation (George and Bennett 2004).
The analysis is based on different data sources. Firstly, we studied different kinds of written documents relating to the industrial schools and the munici-palities; for example, annual reports, policy documents, statistical material and documents from the municipal archives. Secondly, to complement this data, we carried out semi-structured interviews with representatives and stakeholders from the schools. The interviews were conducted during the period 2013–2019 through different packages of research work (see Hermelin and Edwardsson
2014; Persson and Hermelin 2019). In total, we conducted 18 interviews with representatives of the local governments (the chairs of the municipality execu-tive boards and the municipal chief execuexecu-tives), the industry partners (current and previous chairs of the school boards, and HR directors of the major com-panies), the schools (principals and directors), and a few other relevant stake-holders. Finally, we used different secondary sources, including studies of different aspects of the historical development of vocational education and training in the two municipalities. The motivation for using this data in the analysis was guided by the principle of triangulation; that is, the using of several different sources of data to cross-check findings about the same phenomenon.
4. Decentralised collaboration in VET through industrial schools in Sweden
4.1. Governance of VET in Sweden: a background
The statist and school-based system in Sweden associated with the present VET system became the predominant structure from the late 1960s onwards. The extensive consolidation of the welfare state led to a stepwise development towards what has become a comprehensive system of upper secondary schools in Sweden, within which VET was largely integrated (Olofsson and Persson Thunqvist 2018). This organisational context has also involved VET in Sweden being primarily managed within the education system for young pupils, while VET for further education has been less well developed compared to other, similar countries (Busemeyer 2015). VET through upper secondary schools is strictly regulated by national law and is monitored by national government bodies. Upper secondary education is not compulsory by law, but most young people enrol in an upper secondary school education programme.
Recent decades have seen important changes to the education system in Sweden in general. This has involved transformations towards a more decen-tralised and market-oriented system. Through a reform in 1989, local
governments were given the main responsibility for organising and delivering public education, including upper secondary education. A few years later, another reform introduced a voucher system, through which private actors were entitled to obtain public funding and compete with public schools (run by the municipalities) on an equal basis, provided they were approved by the government education agency (The National Agency for Education; now run by the National School Inspectorate). Neither public nor private schools are allowed to charge tuition fees while they are receiving public funding (Blomqvist 2004).
Thus, although the national regulation of upper secondary schools remains, the funding and overall responsibility is handled by local govern-ment, and executed by both local governments and different private actors. This market-oriented system has led to a proliferation of privately owned schools. Around one-third of upper secondary schools are run by private actors, and about one quarter of the pupils at upper secondary schools are enrolled in privately owned schools. This development has led to competi-tion between schools (Lundahl et al. 2013). Nevertheless, the Swedish VET system remains a statist system in important ways, whereby VET is inte-grated into the nationally regulated system for upper secondary school (Busemeyer 2015).
While most of the private actors involved in this school market are companies specialising in education, the private actors involved in the industrial schools studied for this article specialise in advanced engineering- based manufacturing. Such companies had a strong involvement in voca-tional schools up until the late 1960s, but with the integration of VET into the comprehensive public upper secondary school system, these schools were dismantled. However, the market reform of the 1990s led to the reappearance of manufacturing companies as owners of schools and they once more became strongly involved in VET (Karlsson, Lundh Nilsson, and Nilsson 2015). These schools may be fully owned by the industry or co- owned by companies and local governments; the latter ownership structure is the focus of this article.
The two schools studied in this paper are also involved and integrated in a national initiative of stakeholder organisations for the engineering-based manufacturing industry in Sweden; the so-called Technical College (Teknikcollege in Swedish) Scheme, which is a certification scheme for technical VET. This scheme was initiated during the early 2000s, is administered by the Council of Swedish Industries, and involves employer organisations and trade unions in the engineering industry. The aim of the scheme is to support the supply and quality of industrial and technology-oriented education pro-grammes (through public and private schools) at upper secondary level (Persson and Hermelin 2018).
4.2. The Curt Nicolin school (CNG)
The first case investigated in this paper, The Curt Nicolin School (CNG), is located in a small municipality (Finspång) in central Sweden. Finspång is in turn located within a region with a long tradition of manufacturing that dates back to iron- ore mining in the sixteenth century. The largest local employer in Finspång is a unit of a major international company that produces turbines for power transmission. This unit has around 2600 employees. The manufacturing plant was originally owned by STAL (Svenska Turbinaktiebolaget Ljungström) and, for many decades, from around 1920 to the late 1990s, it was owned by the Swedish company ASEA (later ABB). The most recent acquisition of the local plant was by Siemens and took place in 2003 (Lagergren 2006). Like many other large Swedish industrial companies, ASEA and STAL organised vocational edu-cation for young people, partly in cooperation with local governments, and also employed apprentices. However, during the 1960s and ‘70s, these activities were largely abolished and/or integrated into the public comprehensive upper secondary school system (Lagergren 2006).
The opportunity available from the early 1990s, described above, to acquire public funding for private schools made it possible for the previous owner of the local plant, ABB, to take the initiative to establish a private school that eventually became called the Curt Nicolin School (CNG, named after a major Swedish industrialist, who was the CEO of ASEA STAL during the 1950s). This initiative had high ambitions to establish a prestigious school combining technical VET with a more general natural-science-oriented educa-tion. The vision of the school was to develop a modern pedagogy for VET that would be a form of education that was distinct from the traditional vocational training programmes organised by local governments. While the school was successful from its beginnings in the 1990s in developing high-quality educa-tion with a primarily natural-science focus, and attracted pupils with high grades, it was less successful in supplying local industry with skilled manual workers. The high-performing pupils at this school tended to move away from the municipality to study at university (Hermelin and Edwardsson 2014; Lagergren 2006).
Since the industrial technical programme at CNG could not meet the local demand for skilled manual workers, at the beginning of the 2000s a discussion was initiated involving the firms in the local environment and the municipality of Finspång. Their shared goal was to engage in a common effort to reform the education and make major changes in this industrial school (Finspång Municipality 2003). Eventually, this led to a stronger focus on industrial technol-ogy – which relates to training in vocational skills – and changing the ownership of the school from fully owned by one local company, to being co-owned by several companies involved in local industry and the municipality (Curt Nicolin Gymnasiet 2019).
Since the re-inauguration of the school in 2004, the profile of its educational programmes has changed, reflecting the new competence needs of the local labour market. At the beginning, the school only had an industrial technology programme. In 2007, CNG launched an electrical technology programme, and in 2010 it established a technology programme preparing pupils for education programmes at university (Curt Nicolin Gymnasiet 2010). In 2014, CNG extended its repertoire by setting up a programme in healthcare. Thus, by 2019, the school was running four education programmes, of which three are in the area of technology and one in healthcare (homepage, CNG). In this way, the school has expanded its focus, from the direct need to supply competent workers for industry, to encompass a broader segment of the local and regional labour market.
What has this collaboration meant in terms of the involvement of firms and commitment from local government? As mentioned above, since the beginning of the 2000s, the school has been co-owned by local industry (51%) and the local municipality (49%). Hence, the municipality is almost as strong a partner as the private companies. Secondly, this is a case in which several companies are co-owners. The firms’ shares in the school are managed through a holding company. However, the largest local manufacturing company (Siemens) is also the largest shareholder in the holding company (Persson and Hermelin 2019). The members of the board of this company include representatives from the municipality and several companies. The chair is from the largest company co- owner (interview, chair of the board Curt Nicolin Gymnasiet 2019).
Both the firms and the local government have contributed with extra resources for the school (to complement state funding, which is distributed by local government). The companies sign three-year contracts for co-ownership and partnerships. The companies’ contribution to the school is financial, work-in -kind, internships and machinery for the school workshop. An important objec-tive of the collaboration for the school is to strengthen the ‘matching of demand and supply’ for the local labour market. This involves integrating school-based education and workplace learning. At CNG, the work-in-kind contribution of the companies is primarily the organisation of internships that involves supervisors and mentors at the workplaces. This entails iterative contacts between the school and the hosting companies. The pupils undertake periods of internship at the companies corresponding to 15 weeks in each school year (interview with managing director Curt Nicolin Gymnasiet 2019).
What factors can explain the establishment and upholding of these colla-borative arrangements? The motives driving the predecessor of the existing main company partner of the school in Finspång, apart from strengthening the provision of competence in the region, seems to have been part of a larger strategy of the multinational company ABB to set-up industrial schools in what could be seen as an industrial offensive to strengthen privately owned VET education in Sweden (as an alternative to publicly organised education)
(Lagergren 2006). By the time the restructured CNG school (with a new profile and ownership) was initiated, Siemens had taken over from ABB, and the motives of the new firm were primarily skills provision and reducing problems with recruitment, but now in collaboration with other companies, which made the initiative less risky (interview with representative of Siemens 2014).
A major reason for the change in the profile and ownership of the school seems to have been a change in ownership of the industrial plant. The new owner, Siemens, was reluctant to commit to the future of its presence in Finspång, and the municipality leadership was eager to find solutions that could limit its risks by a broader firm representation and strong local govern-ment involvegovern-ment (interview with municipality executive director 2014; inter-view with representative of Siemens 2019). For the local government, it was essential that, at least formally, a broad firm involvement was highly engaged, because Swedish law does not allow municipalities to support individual com-panies. Furthermore, the existence of an Industrial Development centre (IDC), a competence centre originally set up by the state and co-owned by local industries and unions, provided a basis for organising interfirm cooperation for the new school, which was also essential for the establishment of the new set-up (interview with representative of Siemens 2014; interview with represen-tative of IDC 2014). Over time, the school has become an important resource for the companies. Its attractiveness among young people is considered by respon-dents to be ‘good branding’. The maintenance of the partnership has also been strengthened by its embeddedness in regional cooperation. Through active entrepreneurship from the school leadership, this local partnership has been a leader in establishing a regional partnership within the national technical college scheme (see above) and intermunicipal cooperation with a larger, neighbouring municipality (Persson and Hermelin 2019).
In this case, the close relationship between local government and local industry seems to have been an important condition for the establishment and maintenance of the collaboration. There are long traditions of close coop-eration between the municipality and companies in Finspång – for example, through a common local industrial policy committee – which seem to have been important in nurturing cooperation for the school (Hermelin and Edwardsson 2014). The municipality of Finspång was initially somewhat reluc-tant to join the collaboration, but the idea developed through a process invol-ving central actors related to the industrial policy committee. However, the sustaining of the collaboration has not been free from friction. The establish-ment of the CNG has led to the municipality’s own upper secondary school gradually becoming marginalised. In 2013, CNG and the municipality even applied for a takeover by CNG of all upper secondary programmes in the municipality. The application was denied by the Swedish schools inspectorate and led to a heated debate within the municipality in which people claimed that the municipality was sitting on two stools, which illustrates a dilemma in
combining industrial policy with education policy objectives (Persson and Hermelin 2019).
4.3. The Göranssonska School
The second case, the Göranssonska School, is located in Sandviken in the east-ern part of mid-Sweden. This town has grown through the establishment and development of the steel company Sandvik AB. Sandvik AB currently has around 6000 employees and is the main local employer. The company has a legacy extending back to the mid-nineteenth century, when an industrialist, Göran Fredrik Göransson, established an iron and steel industrial plant in the area, which eventually became the firm Sandvik AB. Until the mid-1930s, Sandvik AB was not only the main local employer, but also an important provider of different welfare services for the local population, including housing and health-care. Hence, there is a long history of close public–private cooperation between local government and industry in Sandviken (Carlestam 1986).
The Göranssonska industrial school was opened in 2002. It was set up as a collaboration between the company Sandvik AB and the municipality of Sandviken (Sandvik Education 2002). Unlike CNG, the Göranssonska School runs only one education programme, the industrial technical programme. However, as is the case with CNG, this programme also prepares pupils for higher education because almost all of them follow extended programmes of study. The school company not only runs the education programme, it also provides a unit for contract education. This unit primarily sells courses for internal skills development at Sandvik AB. Furthermore, the company that owns the Göranssonska school runs one additional school close to another plant belonging to Sandvik AB in the region. The CEO of the Göranssonska School is also CEO of this other school (homepage the Göranssonska School; interview with the CEO of Sandvik Education 2019).
What has this collaboration in Sandviken meant in terms of the involvement of firms and commitment from local government? Interestingly, this initiative was inspired by Gothenburg Technical Gymnasium (GTG), an industrial school co-owned by the municipality of Gothenburg and the Volvo group, but, in contrast to both GTG and the CNG, the Göranssonska school was to be owned 91% by Sandvik AB and only 9% by the local municipality. Hence, the company is the major owner of the school, which is formally a division of this company. Respondents explained that this ownership structure was decided upon because it facilitated the transfer of funding from the mother company to the school. Although the municipality’s share of ownership is smaller, both the municipality and the company contributed an equal amount of financing to establish this school (interview with a former representative of the management team of Sandvik AB 2019). The board members also represent the highest level of management and leadership within the respective organisations (interview
with the chair of the Municipal Executive Board 2019; interview with the Municipal Chief Executive 2019).
Reflecting upon the organisation and ownership, compared to CNG, the Göranssonska School is more closely integrated into the ordinary activities of the company (Sandvik AB). The main manufacturing company contributes in different ways with complementary resources. According to our interviews, Sandvik AB contributes with about 30% extra funding in addition to the school fees. The organisation of internships through the Göranssonska School is similar to that at CNG, and most pupils are interns at Sandvik AB. The Göranssonska School also offers internships abroad, and offers guarantees of jobs (for short periods) for pupils after they have graduated (interview with the principal of the Göranssonska School 2019).
So, what factors can explain the establishment and maintenance of these collaborative arrangements? A central aim of the initiation of the collaboration was to organise an industrial technology programme for the needs of industry (not least for Sandvik AB, naturally). According to our interviews, the process of establishment was originally driven by the Municipal Chief Executive, but also involved the HR director of the company (interviews with representatives of the municipality leadership 2019; interview with former representative of the man-agement team of Sandvik AB 2019). Similar to CNG, an important objective was to increase the interest of local school pupils in technology and in working for the manufacturing industry, both locally and within the wider region (Sandviken Municipality 2002). Since the company has been able to keep close control of the development of the school, through the design of the partnership, the opportunities for it to gain from the arrangement (through making recruitment easier, for example) have been considered high (interview with former repre-sentative of the management team of Sandvik AB 2019). Furthermore, the Göranssonska School has been successful in attracting pupils, and the education has been considered of high quality, which has increased support for continuing the firm’s ownership of the school (Persson and Hermelin 2019). As for CNG, the school has been a pioneer in the development of the technical college scheme (see above), at both national and regional levels, relating the school to broader regional and national industrial interests and objectives (Karlsson, Lundh Nilsson, and Nilsson 2015).
It is obvious that the character of the local industrial structure in Sandvik has influenced the development of the new school. The dominance of Sandvik AB in the region has limited poaching problems. A matter of dispute, however, has concerned the future development of the school. Some representatives of Sandvik AB have sometimes argued that it should become more of an ‘elite school’ and they wanted to start a natural-science programme. However, the representatives of the municipality have wanted to protect the school’s indus-trial technical profile, partly to maintain its strong local connection (if the school becomes more of a ‘regular’ private school, it becomes difficult for the
municipality to justify its participation) and partly to avoid creating tensions between the Göranssonska School and the municipality’s own upper secondary school (interview with the chair of the Municipal Executive Board 2019; inter-view with the chair of the board of the Göranssonska School 2019).
The municipality’s interests, from a rational and resource-based perspective, are quite apparent. The municipality is strongly dependent upon one company for local employment. Hence, it has had strong incentives to join forces with this company to facilitate the supply of skilled labour. This might explain why the Municipal Chief Executive in Sandviken functioned as an entrepreneur in initiat-ing the idea of the school. The relationship between the municipality and the company is described by all the interviewees as informal and ‘symbiotic’, based on a strong interdependence and established social networks of cooperation. Unlike the situation in the municipality of Finspång, there do not seem to have been many tensions between the different roles and objectives of the munici-pality related to the collaboration in Sandviken.
4.4. Comparative discussion
We will now analyse our two research questions in a comparative analysis of the two cases. Firstly, what have these collaborations comprised in terms of the involvement of firms and commitment of local governments? Using Remington’s (2018) model, we can observe somewhat different dynamics within the collaborations when it comes to actor constellations and reasons for invol-vement. From Remington’s perspective, the Göranssonska School can in many ways be characterised as a parental model. One major company is the partner industry in the collaboration, it meets most of the extra costs, but by ‘tailoring to its own needs’ (having strong control, using the school for contract training etc.), and by using its own facilities, it can maximise its control over training. In the CNG case, the character of cooperation is more mixed. On the one hand, it is similar to what Remington has described as a consortium model, in which several companies agree to cooperate as a collective partner, which then creates a partnership with a public actor (the municipality). The role of the municipality is more important, including financially, in this partnership. On the other hand, the dominance of the company Siemens in the collaboration means that it shares some features with the parental model.
Furthermore, our analysis shows that these local partnerships have devel-oped in close interaction with institutional arrangements at both regional and national levels. As mentioned above, the investigated schools have developed in close relation to the national technical college scheme, which relates both to the multi-institutional context of the cooperation involved in these industrial schools and also to the task of monitoring and certification. Furthermore, although the partnership constellations for each school are quite local, they
act within a wider regional market and attract pupils who live some distance away.
What factors can then explain similarities and differences in the establish-ment and upholding of these collaborative arrangeestablish-ments? The study reveals many similarities in the motives and conditions behind the establishment of the schools. In both cases, it is evident that the motives of the industrial companies are closely related to their need for workers with particular competences. Through different measures, such as offering trainee education after pupils have passed their exams, the companies have also tried to decrease the risk of poaching. Moreover, the lion’s share of funding for these schools is public, which further decreases the risks for the companies. Our case studies also show that the companies view the schools as good marketing (both schools are considered successful on the upper secondary school market). Meanwhile, the municipalities have objectives and obligations that are partly contradictory, which has influenced the development of cooperation. Apart from strengthen-ing the economic development of their municipality, local governments are also responsible by law for implementing the national schools’ policy and providing young people with upper secondary education within municipal borders.
Furthermore, in both cases, the development of the schools is affected by local contexts and local institutional development trajectories. The comparison shows that the schools’ development trajectories are path-dependent processes within local environments. In Finspång, the main company had a strong invol-vement in vocational education and training up until the late 1970s, so there was experience upon which to base the new school. In Sandviken as well, there had been similar feedback effects. Finally, an interesting institutional aspect is that the schools have been influenced by each other. Both schools are members of a national network for industrial schools which meets regularly.
The difference between the trajectories of the cases, leading to somewhat different models of partnership, seems to be related to two factors. Firstly, variations in aspects related to the structure of industry. In the CNG case, the changes in ownership of the main industry, and the tradition of interfirm cooperation between the companies, were important factors behind the devel-opment of a consortium model of industry–local-government partnership. In the case of Göranssonska, the strong dominance of one firm influenced the development of a parental-like model. Secondly, there are some variations in the characteristics of the relationship between local government and the industrial companies. In both cases, the collaborations are based on a long and stable relationship between industry and local government, but in the CNG case this is related to a corporative institutional environment (involving several firms, unions and representatives of the national state). In contrast, the less formalised relationship between the municipality and the main company in Sandviken, building on a division of labour between the partners rather than close cooperation, influenced the development towards a more marginal role
for local government in the partnership of the Göranssonska school (although the municipality was closely involved in founding the school).
Although the local industrial structures and the characteristics of the relation-ship between local government and the industrial companies have been impor-tant factors in explaining the various facets of these arrangements, their maintenance is dependent on continued support from the alliances behind them. Overall, the dynamics of the cases are somewhat different in this respect. In the case of CNG, the dynamic is due to the more complex actor constellation described above. The school has many stakeholders and hence a broader mis-sion (not only tailored to the needs of one company); however, these multiple stakeholders have also led to more tensions in the collaboration. In Sandviken, the ‘parental firm’ has stronger control over the school, and hence the coopera-tion has led to fewer tensions.
5. Conclusions
The aim of this paper was to contribute to our understanding of the conditions and mechanisms of decentralised cooperation in VET systems, through a comparative case study of the relations between local governments and industry partners in the administration of industrial schools in Sweden. The study was inspired by a historical institutional approach, as it is used in the political economy of VET, and by literature about local and regional economic development policy. In line with this literature, we have analysed collaborations in VET as negotiations between actors in coalitions that are nested in multilevel relations and geographical contexts and reflect the legacies and outcomes of past negotiations. Based on this approach, we have focussed on two research questions for the discussion about local collaborations between industrial firms and local government. Firstly, what have these collaborations comprised in terms of the involvement of firms and the commitment of local government? Secondly, what factors can explain similarities and differences in the establish-ment and upholding of these collaborative arrangeestablish-ments? Through a comparison of the two cases, we have tried to identify important factors in explaining the collaborations.
Analysing the involvement of the various actors in the collaborations has led to an exploration of the observed variations between the types of actors involved, the levels on which they collaborate, and the intensity of the collaborations, although they are in many ways similar types of phenomena. Both schools are co- owned by firms and local governments, but involving somewhat different actor constellations. In both cases, the firms have contributed extra resources and activities over and above state funding and regulations, and have also attached the schools more closely to their ordinary activities (although to varying degrees). The local government involvement is well characterised as a commitment; without contributing huge resources, their involvement constitutes a strong symbolic act
in support of these local-government–industry partnerships. Using Remington’s (2018) model of partnerships, we see strong aspects of the parental model, where the school is quite tightly related to a firm, in the case of the Göranssonska school, and the consortium model, where the risks are shared, in the case of CNG.
When it comes to explaining the establishment and upholding of these collaborative arrangements for VET, we have identified two factors, based on the similar cases method of comparison, that seem particularly important: the structure of local industry, and the characteristics of the relationship between local government and industry. Remington’s model of different types of partner-ship has been useful, not only in characterising the types of partnerpartner-ship, but also for understanding how the industrial structure has influenced the involvement of industrial companies in partnerships, and how this relates to different motives and conditions for the strategies of firms and local governments. Furthermore, the study demonstrates the importance of the interplay between: (i) local structures of actors and links between these actors; (ii) feedback effects generated by local trajectories; and (iii) initiatives by local change agents in establishing and upholding industrial schools. This is also contextualised into a wider system of development and monitoring, which to an important extent is in the hands of national government regulations and, to a lesser extent, is implemented by national stakeholder organisations for the industry. Through our analysis, we have illustrated how the different dynamics of actors’ constella-tions and local condiconstella-tions within this national system can explain similarities and divergences between the industrial schools investigated here.
This interplay between local constellations and multi-level governance is not without problems. As has been shown, there are strong tensions between the different roles of government in this development. From the perspective of economic development policy, an increase in collaboration between industry and local government has been considered positive, and has also been encour-aged by both national government and local governments (especially those handling industrial policy). On the other hand, from an education policy per-spective, the development has been questioned, and recent legislation has restricted the opportunities for industry–local-government collaborations of the sort discussed in this paper (SFS 2010, 800). A general problem for the VET system might be that there is, as it were, no dominant vision propounded by the national government to which they can relate.
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