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*** Apologies for cross-posting *** Dear colleagues, We would like to draw your attention to the call for papers for the stream 'Inclusiveness in Skill Formation Policies' at the 2015 ESPAnet Conference at the University of Southern Denmark, 3-5 September 2015. In today’s post-industrial economies possessing limited basic and professional skills is a major source of disadvantage. Low and unskilled workers tend to be concentrated in low paid and unstable jobs and are overrepresented among the long-term unemployed. In the long-term, lack of skills can result in insufficient social security coverage and social exclusion. In response to this major societal problem, governments in OECD countries have been developing policies aiming to improve the inclusiveness of skill formation processes. These interventions can be deployed at different points of the process, from the pre-school level to tertiary education. Examples of such interventions include measures that allow school dropouts to obtain some professional qualification, re-training programmes for individuals possessing obsolete skills or orientation programmes that facilitate the choice of a suitable profession. Such interventions can take place within various policy domains: the general education system, the vocational training system but also in the context of active labour market policies. The promotion of inclusiveness in skill formation policies is framed by the trade-off between inclusiveness and performance. Firms want education systems to produce highly skilled, competitive workers. If too much emphasis is placed on performance, then the risk is to lose out on inclusiveness. On the other hand, excessively inclusive skill formation systems may produce workers who are on average less competitive, reducing as a result the market value of diplomas. Policy interventions need to position themselves within this trade-off. For this stream, we welcome contributions focusing on the various aspects of the promotion of inclusiveness in skill formation policies and their coordination with the social security system. These include the role played and the positions adopted by different actors in inclusive skill formation policies (employers, unions, education departments, social affairs departments), the coordination of social and training policies and possibly resulting dysfunctionalities such as cost-shifting or turf wars, evaluations of interventions promoting inclusiveness in skill formation, analyses of the trade-off between performance and inclusiveness, inclusiveness in a life-course perspective, and analyses of programmes aimed at specific groups such as immigrants, the young or women re-entering the labour market. The deadline for abstract submission is 10 March 2015. Abstracts should be sent by e-mail (as word or pdf attachment) to [log in to unmask] We hope to see you in Odense! Giuliano Bonoli, University of Lausanne Patrick Emmenegger, University of St. Gallen