Multinational companies and local knowledge base - an evolutionary perspective: Regional variants of initial vocational education and training activities in Germany

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Economic Geography analyses knowledge as prerequisite for the competitiveness of companies and regions, e.g. in the context of local knowledge bases. Although the relevance of applied practical education was pointed out early on, it has been hardly systematically researched until now. Here, the attention is on ‘dual’ initial vocational education activities, which is an interface between the local labour market and company needs. In Germany, there is (institutionally based) a wide range of opportunities between different regions. Industry-specific features play a role in the local varieties, as well as local stakeholders and joint education-related initiatives. Foreign direct investments are in the centre of the study, because they are potentially relevant but still unknown actors with regard to dual education activities, and because their sectoral distribution differs regionally. It is evident that education activities are changing repeatedly, whether companies or other local stakeholders are the drivers. The reasons for change are not (solely) due to production-related rationalities, such as company growth or innovation, but also patterns of interpretation, e.g. focussing on competitiveness or reduction of youth unemployment. To systematically capture the temporal dynamics, this project follows a view inspired by evolutionary economic geography. In doing so, 'formations' of actor constellations and relevant 'bundles of competences' are identified. The project asks how subsidiaries of foreign multinational companies are involved in dual education activities in different regions of Germany, and which evolutionary formations of actor arrangements can be found there, and why. As direct investment from different countries concentrate in different regions, the project focuses (besides a general overview of Germany), on Hamburg, Frankfurt, Duesseldorf, Cologne, Munich and Stuttgart. The overall situation is analysed by database analysis, the regionally differentiating storylines by a pilot study and a regional main survey using qualitative approaches, systematically combining perspectives and methods of economic geography and business education.