This paper gives a description of the core aspects of the concept of ‘collective skills formation’ as an Political Economic approach to understand the involvement of the enterprise sector in the complex frameworks of apprenticeship training (‘Dual Systems’). The concept is based on the theoretical approach of historical institutionalism, specifically developed to understand institutional change. The particular problem which must be understood in apprenticeship is the high degree of interaction and cooperative involvement of enterprises and the state, seemingly beyond the normal short term profit interests of capitalist firms. This is expressed by the notion of ‘collectivity’. The historical dimension of the concept is given by the question of why the apprenticeship model, used quite universally in the pre-modern economies, has survived as predominant provider of VET in some countries, whereas in most others it has not survived, or has been deliberately destroyed in modern times. The approach is genuinely more political than economic, arguing that specific situative constellations are very important to explain institutional outcomes in VET systems. The approach provides also interesting insights in important VET-related issues, often neglected by pedagogy, as the structures of wage bargaining and the formation of interest representation and occupational groups.