Call for papers: Skills for Growth. The Ratio Colloquium for Young Social Scientists 2015 Stockholm, August 20-22.

Extended Deadline

The Ratio Institute hereby invites young scholars, including graduate students, in fields such as education, economics, political science, business administration, sociology and economic history to submit paper proposals for a cross disciplinary colloquium in Stockholm. The aim of this colloquium is to bring together researchers in different fields working on skills, vocational education, on-the-job-training, youth unemployment, validation and labour market issues from a competence, innovation and growth perspective.

Despite massive investments in education in many countries there are major skills shortages in many private as well as public sectors, often over the entire business cycle. At the same time unemployment is high, especially among the young and immigrants. This indicate that there are major problems with quality, efficiency and relevance in the educational systems, tendencies towards over-education and mis-education as well as inefficient learning environments and lack of practical skills. This has severe consequences for employment and growth. The problems involved deserve to be studied a lot more.

The colloquium is a two-day workshop and includes both paper sessions and two keynote lectures held by internationally distinguished scholars within the fields of skills formation and education especially vocational education.