The Chinese government promotes cooperation between colleges and companies in vocational education to improve the supply of skilled workers and increase labour productivity. This study employs the concept of positive coordination – negotiations concurrently addressing productive and distributive questions – to analyse the advantages and limitations of voluntary cooperation embedded in networks. In terms of production, many projects focus on updating, narrowing and deepening curricula to lower the costs of initial training borne by companies and the risk of labour turnover. In terms of distribution, however, the deep and narrow curricula are at odds with students’ preference for general and transferable skills; and the mutual commitments of both companies and students are uncertain. The solutions provided by cooperation are partial and unstable. Overall, they reduce skill mismatches but cannot control turnover or overcome market failure, which undermines tertiary vocational education's contribution to labour productivity.

In this article Emma Sullivan and Sandra Smythe go through the presentation they gave at the BIALL conference entitled “Apprenticeship pathways into the library, information and knowledge profession”. Emma and Sandra co-Chair the CILIP Trailblazer group, which is currently developing a Level 7 Library, Information and Knowledge Professional Apprenticeship Standard. Here they discuss how and why they became involved with the group and why the apprenticeship route is so important for the profession, both for employees and employers. (For more background to the CILIP apprenticeship schemes see page 140 of the Autumn 2023 issue of LIM.)

For many years apprenticeships were associated with heavy industry and skilled manual work, but in more recent times the focus has shifted towards other fields and professions, including librarianship. In 2017 CILIP – the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals – began working with employers across sectors designing apprenticeships specific to library, information, knowledge and archives work. The Level 3 Library, Information and Archive Services Assistant Apprenticeship was the first to be developed and came online in 2019 and to date over 100 apprentices have been through the apprenticeship, while other apprenticeships to do with the profession are now up and running. Here Claire Laybats, Professional Services Development Manager for CILIP, gives LIM the full story.

In Australia and internationally, women continue to be underrepresented in male-dominated trade occupations. A notable barrier is the apprenticeship system, which requires women to overcome obstacles in employment and training. Government and industry stakeholders have encouraged women’s apprenticeships in male-dominated trades through the development of Group Training Organisations’ (GTOs) that operate as intermediaries between apprentices and employers. Extending Acker’s model of workplace inequality regimes, we argue that inequality regimes operate between organisations at an industry-wide level. We ask ‘Do GTOs operate to produce and reproduce workplace and industry-wide inequality regimes? Or can they facilitate improved gender diversity in male-dominated trades?’ Drawing on a recent study of regional tradeswomen’s employment, we find that although GTOs have an important role in facilitating gender diversity, they have inconsistent results in challenging existing inequality regimes. There is a risk that they may become a vector of transmission for workplace inequality regimes to the broader industry.