Transnational Education Policy and a Globally Competitive Workforce: A Comparative Analysis of Vocational Education and Training Policy in the European Union and the United States

This research examines parallel multilevel political entities as they competitively position education within a global education policyscape. Building on a growing body of research that compares policy of the European Union (EU) and the United States (US), this chapter considers the emphasis and purposes of the Copenhagen process policy in the European Union to the Department of Labor Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grants in the US policy to consider how vocational education and training (VET) is being reconstructed as a neoliberal response to globalization.

Policy responses to global market forces are shifting VET from the local and nation-state policy realm into global labor policy tuned to multinational labor demands and competitive global markets for labor and production. The EU and the USA employ similar rhetoric for policy framing and justification despite variances in governance structure and regulatory environments. Critical comparative policy analysis reveals not only a shift from local or national orientation to the transnational through similar policy discourse but also a shift of power from a locally based collaboration of individuals and the institutions that serve them to competitive multinational labor flows.