Search results

This monograph identifies and describes the emergence of a new area of social policy known as learning policy. Learning policy refers to government efforts to manage knowledge and skill reproduction through education and training, and is undertaken as part of economic development together with social policies aimed at the reform of the welfare state. The author uses English education and training policies as a case study to document the development of a state-sanctioned learning policy for education and training through five periods in England and Wales from the 1944 Education Act to the 1988 Education Act and the 1992 Further and Higher Education Act. The decisive indicator of the emergence of learning policy is the unprecedented level of systematic integration of education and training with the economy. He argues that as full time employment declines, the extension of education and training through lifelong learning is replacing the social control that existed formerly in the workplace. Education and training at all levels plays a significant role in the social exclusion of marginalised groups through the lack of recognised credentials. In conclusion, the author proposes an alternative direction for learning policy based on a partnership between education and democracy to produce a real learning society.