Employability, higher education and the knowledge economy

Abstract

This chapter focuses in particular on the inter-connections between different types of higher education systems (as commonly defined in education literature by the prevalence of vertical or horizontal differentiation), and different types of knowledge economy (with respect to the relative importance attached to advanced manufacturing or dynamic services). It proposes a theoretical framework to understand the relationship between higher education systems and knowledge-based labour markets. The chapter then examines the complementarity — or lack thereof — between higher education systems and national knowledge economies in Britain, South Korea, Germany and the Netherlands, each having a different higher education–knowledge economy combination. Ultimately, the chapter recommends that governments should revive or create a vocational subset of higher education institutions to meet the high-skills demand of labour markets.