1 Segmented Skilling: Static and Dynamic „New Economy‟ S kills Dr Doug Fraser, Research Associate (drdrfraser@gmail.com) Assoc Prof Anne Junor, Deputy Director (A.Junor@unsw.edu.au) Assoc Prof Ian Hampson (i.hampson@unsw.edu.au), Industrial Relations Research Centre Australian School of Business University of New South Wales Abstract: There are at least three problems in the measurement of skill – aggregation, dynamism, and codification. Skill is an individual and collective capacity, expressed in performance and reflected in outcomes. Aggregate measures relying on proxies such as occupational entry qualifications may not provide the best picture of segmentation and mobility processes. Statistics on training effort have the potential to create a misleading picture of an industry‟s or firm‟s commitment to skill-based innovation by failing to distinguish ad-hoc, just-in-time measures to maintain the current capability of a firm‟s workforce from interventions designed to develop a creative, adaptive capability. To be measured, skills must first be named. Workplace-level skill development requires frameworks for identifying growth opportunities. In exploring these three problems in the Australian and New Zealand context, the paper proposes a dynamic framework for classifying approaches to skilling (not confined to formal training) on the basis of their contributions to adaptive capability, proposing three types of skill: threshold, platform and springboard. The codification problem is particularly severe in „new economy‟ service industries, and the paper critiques the attempt to capture under-specified service skills in concepts such as „soft skills‟ or „employability skills‟. It suggests an alternative framework for classifying the adaptive and generative of workplace learning – an analysis that may have relevance beyond the service sector. Keywords: Adaptive skills, dynamic skill models, service skills, skill development, skills growth, skill measurement, uncodified skills, workplace learning, ********************************** Introduction This exploratory paper represents a preliminary attempt to bring together two research agendas addressing the problem of measuring skills – one starting from the macro-level, the other from a micro-level perspective. The authors share a definition of skill as emergent from practice as a process of „… becoming adept at doing something by the application of knowledge refined through experience‟ (Fraser, 2009: 60, citing Bullard et al., 1995). This focus on acquired and applied capabilities differentiates skill on the one hand from innate aptitudes (though these may be a prerequisite for learning) and from attitudes on the other. It defines skill in terms of capability and context - a potential that is realised if the organisational and skill formation environment provide the opportunity to for its development.