International Journal of Training and Development 4:1 ISSN 1360-3736 Towards a framework for the comparative analysis of national systems of skill formation David Ashton, Johnny Sung and Jill Turbin This article builds on earlier attempts to develop a conceptual framework for the comparative analysis of training and skill formation systems. Following a critical review of previous approaches, the article identifies the main underlying relation- ships which shape national systems of skill formation. We identify four such ‘models’ of the skill formation process. These models show how such a framework can help us under- stand why societies have different approaches to the provision of education, training and skill formation and why there are significant differences in government policies towards training as they at tempt to respond to the challenges of globalisation. There have been a number of attempts to develop typologies of education, training and skill formation systems. Many of these have emanated from particular disciplines of social science, namely educational, industrial relations/labour market studies, eco- nomics and political science. More recent work, however, has recognised the impor- tance of an interdisciplinary approach which combines theoretical understanding and moves towards a much broader perspective. We begin this discussion by considering some of the more recent attempts to theorise skill formation systems and formulate typologies which can be used for comparative purposes. We start with a very brief look at typologies developed from the educational perspective. Here much research has focussed on the identification of different models of educational provision. One influential researcher has been Furth (1985) who, in a study carried out on behalf of the OECD, distinguished the education and vocational training of different countries according to the post-compulsory ❒ David Ashton is Director of Centre for Labour Market Studies, University of Leicester. Johnny Sung is Deputy Director and Jill Turbin is a Research Fellow at the same Centre for Labour Market Studies, University of Leicester.  Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 2000, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main St., Malden, MA 02148, USA. 8 International Journal of Training and Development