Introduction: The Industrial Relations of Learning and Training: A New Consensus or a New Politics?

Abstract

■ The learning agenda has become an increasingly prominent concern of policy-makers at the level of the EU and national Member States, and is often presented as a positive-sum issue around which industrial relations renewal can take place. Yet the dynamics related to this in industrial relations terms are relatively under-explored. This introductory article reviews some of the underlying debates and sets out the main contributions of the articles in this special issue. These show that the new politics of learning and skill poses significant challenges for national systems of regulation, the mode of engagement between the social actors and the capacities and capabilities needed by the social actors to further `supply-side' industrial relations renewal.