Skill Formation and Human Resource Development in Response to the Second IT Revolution. A Comparative Institutional Analysis of Germany and Japan

New technological regimes, i.e., the second IT Revolution has been exerting a strong pressure for structural adjustment in industrialized countries. In order to secure employment and increase income it is necessary to develop IT production and application as these are growing fields of intensive added value.
As to what extent industrialized economies will benefit from the advantages of new information technologies, depends essentially on their ability to mobilize the necessary skilled labour. The production of IT hardware and software, their application, as well as IT related services require qualifications that are new respectively not available to the extent they are needed. This demands considerable efforts not only in the field of skill formation and human resource development, but also has effects on the whole work organization, the labour market and the pattern of work and employment.
The presentation will address the following questions: What changes can be observed in the skill formation systems and human resource management? What is special about the Japanese-style skill formation and HRM in comparison to the German model? Special attention will be paid to the question of how the systems perform and what the responses by Japanese and German firms and the public sector to the fast technological change are?

Viktoria Heindorf is Research Assistant at the Japan Centre of Munich’s Ludwig-Maximilians-University as well as Council Assistant of the European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS). Her research focuses on comparative studies (esp. Japan and Germany), mainly in labour economics and human resource management