The literature review is the first stage of a project which will examine the engagement of employer organisations in skills development, focussing on participation in the governance arrangements of skills systems. Employer involvement in ‘governance of skills systems’ may include participation in the apex, regulatory, quality assurance bodies, as well as in the coordinating bodies at the national, sectoral, or local levels. Increasingly, governance in the global skills system is important – whether focused on national bodies involved in governance of skills migration, mutual recognition of national qualifications, trans-national education or, indeed, the global labour market.

The literature review includes mostly peer-reviewed articles, technical reports (published and soon-to be published) and a limited number of conference proceedings and background papers. The focus of the electronic search was on recent literature (2013-2017) but also included several, less recent, but frequently cited technical reports. In the literature surveyed, there were numerous descriptive country level examples of employer organisations involvement in the governance of skills, but a relative dearth of evaluative studies.