Anna Margareta Wilson
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Wilson
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Anna Margareta
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annamargareta.wilson@unisg.ch

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  • Publication
    Type: journal article
    Journal: Acta Sociologica
    Volume: 64
    Issue: 1
    URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/0001699320902837
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0001699320902837
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/112228
  • Publication
    What signals do employers use when hiring? Evidence from a survey experiment in the apprenticeship market
    ( 2020-05-19)
    Fossati, Flavia
    ;
    Wilson, Anna Margareta
    ;
    Bonoli, Giuliano
    How do employers use different types of signals—that is, information believed to be associated with productivity—when hiring apprentices? We use a survey experiment in Switzerland—a country with a well-developed dual training system—to study employers’ hiring behaviour. The results reveal that whenever possible, employers resort to direct signals, i.e. information such as educational credentials and aptitude test scores, when making hiring decisions. However, in contexts of high uncertainty, notably, when candidates’ profiles convey ambiguous signals, they are more likely to use probabilistic signals, such as socio-economic status (SES) indicators, to complement their assessments. Consequently, in contexts of high uncertainty, candidates with lower SES are more likely to be discriminated against in the apprenticeship market.
    Type: journal article
    Journal: European Sociological Review
    Volume: 36
    Issue: 5
    URL: https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcaa020
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcaa020
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/112111
  • Publication
    Bringing firms on board. Inclusiveness of the dual apprenticeship systems in Germany, Switzerland and Denmark
    ( 2019)
    Bonoli, Giuliano
    ;
    Wilson, Anna
    In dual vocational education and training (VET) systems, the state and employers collaborate in order to meet a coun- try’s needs in terms of education for youth and professional skills for the labour market. These systems are considered as effective tools to lower youth unemployment. However, since firms in dual VET systems select the apprentices, not every candidate gets access to in-firm training. Consequently, governments develop measures that try to make their dual VET systems more inclusive. We present a categorisation of the different measures used to enhance inclusiveness in three dual collective skill formation countries (Switzerland, Germany and Denmark). We show that inclusiveness meas- ures exist in each of the three countries but are limited in the extent to which firms are expected to play an active role in them. We conclude that the types of measures adopted are related to political economy traditions and the country’s level of macro-corporatism.
    Type: journal article
    Journal: International Journal of Social Welfare
    Volume: 28
    Issue: 4
    DOI: 10.1111/ijsw.12371
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/117995
    Scopus© Citations 22
  • Publication
    Torn between economic efficiency and social equality? Short-track apprenticeships in Denmark, Germany and Switzerland
    (SAGE, 2019)
    Maio, Gina
    ;
    Graf, Lukas
    ;
    Wilson, Anna
    Educational institutions, especially those facilitating vocational education and training (VET), face the challenge of combining social goals, such as the provision of quality education for a large section of the population, with rising economic utility demands. However, we know little about how VET systems institutionalize these different demands and, further, how social and economic goals are actually institutionalized in VET. Our article aims to unpack this puzzle by analysing shorttrack dual vocational training programmes (short-tracks) in Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. These short-tracks combine on-the-job and school-based training, targeting candidates who face difficulties entering full-length dual programmes. Thus, short-tracks are prime examples of training programmes located at the nexus of economic and social demands. In our comparative institutional analysis, we bridge the political economy of collective skill formation and sociological institutionalism literatures. We find that the institutionalization of goals in VET not only differs between countries but that there is also considerable variation within national VET systems. Our analysis reveals that VET regulations, regional and sectoral standards, and the legitimization of key actors can differ greatly in their institutionalization of social and economic goals.
    Type: journal article
    Journal: European Educational Research Journal
    Volume: 18
    Issue: 6
    DOI: .o0r.g1/107.171/1774/7147940940141919886699561
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/117994
  • Publication
    A silver lining for disadvantaged youth on the apprenticeship market: an experimental study of employers' hiring preferences
    ( 2019-11-29)
    Wilson, Anna
    In dual vocational education and training (VET) systems, school- leavers in their mid-teens who wish to pursue vocational certi- ficates through in-firm apprenticeships are subjected to the training providers’ quite selective hiring-processes. Previous research shows that youth with weak school performances are one of the groups that have the largest difficulties being hired as apprentices. Less investigated in the literature is what employer characteristics that are conducive for their willingness to hire a disadvantaged apprentice: both on the level of the organisation and of the recruiter. I draw on organisational and institutional literature and on person-organisation fit and ethical decision-making theory to formulate expectations regarding the preferences of the organisations and recruiters. The applied method is a factorial survey experiment administered to in-firm vocational trainers with recruitment authority in the commercial occupation in Switzerland. The findings show that public sector employers are more lenient towards candidates with weaker academic achievements than employers in the private sector. Moreover, respondents with a more egalitarian outlook on the access to vocational training for disadvantaged youths tend to lower their thresholds for the candidates’ academic achievements.
    Type: journal article
    Journal: Journal of Vocational Education & Training
    Volume: 73
    Issue: 1
    DOI: 10.1080/13636820.2019.1698644
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/117997
    Scopus© Citations 5
  • Publication
    What is broken about the dual VET system (and how it can be fixed)
    ( 2023)
    Anna Margareta Wilson
    ;
    Scherwin Michael Bajka
    Dual vocational education and training (VET) systems are renowned for their strong political support, high level of private-public cooperation, and smooth transitions into the labor market. However, the expanding general education at the upper-secondary level offers employers an alternative avenue of skill provision. Along with shifting educational preferences, the need for higher technical and general skills in some jobs, and the loss of interest for manual, traditionally blue-collar occupations, general education is gaining ground at the expense of vocational training. These trends are likely to engender skill mismatch, as well as skill shortage, problems even in the context of dual VET where such issues historically have been less pertinent. In this paper, we study training firms’ concerns with the dual VET system. We explore factors predicting firms’ worry about imminent skill shortage and how it is connected to dual vocational training and use novel survey data with 2’700 Swiss training firms). We link the survey data to data on local labor markets and institutionalized educational pathways. Our study contributes to the scholarly debate on skill shortage and skills mismatch problems, showing the which problems and solutions that are specific to firms given the type of work they train for.
    Type: conference paper
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/117998
  • Publication
    To train or not to train, that is the question: Swiss firms’ training consideration in a changing skills landscape
    ( 2023-02-03)
    Wilson, Anna Margareta
    ;
    Bajka, Scherwin Michael
    The demands of the labor market are changing rapidly and as a result, skill shortages are becoming more common across various industries. In countries with a collective skill formation system, where vocational education and training (VET) is a well-established part of the education system, firms play a crucial role in providing training and producing skills needed on the labor market. However, providing training and hiring apprentices is costly and demanding for firms, whereas the option of poaching graduates from other firms, or to hire experienced skilled workers may be more attractive. In this paper, we examine which firm types choose to opt out of, or to stay in, VET and what factors contribute to their decision. Using novel survey data from over 2’500 Swiss training firms, we identify the factors associated with likelihood of consider remaining in or leaving VET. We find that hiring difficulty being a strong factor associated with opting out, whereas low hiring selectivity, high retention rates and stronger institutional embeddedness are associated with a consideration to stay. We propose a framework that categorizes firms into four groups that inform our understanding of where the risk of opting out is high: “Selective strugglers”, the “Loyal veterans”, the “VET opportunists” and the “VET flagships”.
    Type: conference paper
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/107762
  • Publication
    Type: book section
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/117999
  • Publication
    Type: work report
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/118439