Interactions between the Educational and Employment Systems in the German Democratic Republic and the Soviet Union

Abstract

This paper investigates the consequences for employment in the GDR and USSR of expansion and changes in education. As in many Western countries, change in education disturbed the balance between systems of education and employment. In East Germany, efforts to remodel the employment system by changing the organi zation of work to fit the qualifications of employees began after an imbalance had been produced by raising the qualifications of skilled workers to a uniquely high level. In the Soviet Union the same imbalance is now occurring. An excess of applicants over places in universities was followed by an attempt to provide an alternative to university by expanding vocational training. In turn, this is raising skills beyond the level required by the existing organization of work, and is being followed by an attempt to change the latter by introducing so-called 'brigade organization'. This is intended to increase the autonomy and responsibility of production workers by what might be described as a partial de-Taylorization.