In this article, the authors ask how the institutional design of vocational education and training (VET) affects worker adaptability to changing skill demands over the life cycle. They compare two types of VET systems. Collectivist systems have high employer involvement and focus on specific skills, whereas Statist systems have lower employer involvement and focus more on general skills. Based on prior research demonstrating the importance of general skills in learning new skills, the authors hypothesize that worker adaptability will be higher in Statist VET systems than in Collectivist VET systems. Using a triple-difference model on data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, they find that as age increases, a significantly steeper decline in worker adaptability occurs within Collectivist systems compared to Statist systems. Results provide an explanation behind the diminishing employment returns to employer-dominated VET systems found in prior studies.

在本文中，作者询问职业教育和培训 (VET) 的制度设计如何影响工人对生命周期中不断变化的技能需求的适应性。他们比较了两种类型的 VET 系统。集体主义系统具有较高的雇主参与度并专注于特定技能，而国家主义系统具有较低的雇主参与度并更多地关注通用技能。基于先前的研究证明了通用技能在学习新技能中的重要性，作者假设工人的适应性在 Statist VET 系统中会比在 Collectivist VET 系统中更高。使用国际成人能力评估计划数据的三重差异模型，他们发现随着年龄的增长，与国家主义系统相比，集体主义系统中工人适应性的下降幅度更大。结果为先前研究中发现的雇主主导的 VET 系统的就业回报递减提供了解释。