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This volume focuses on the recent changes in education and training policy, mainly in the United Kingdom. The considerable developments of past years and the ways in which they have affected both education and training are examined. The contributors analyse the methods by which the workforce is educated and look closely at the type of training now offered to those in work. There is careful analysis as to how much the political climate of the time influences developments. Other countries are also included such as Germany and there is analysis on the ways in which the 'new' industry-led qualifications such as National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) and General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQs) have worked. This publication contains the following chapters: The roles of the state and the social partners in vocational education and training systems / Andy Green; Education training and economic performance in comparative perspective / David Finegold; Vocationalism and educational change / Rob Moore and Mike Hickox; Industrial training or new vocationalism?: structures and discourses / Stephen Ball; Contextualising public policy in vocational education and training: the origins of competence-based vocational qualifications policy in the UK / Steve Williams and Peter Raggatt; The competence and outcomes movement: the landscape of research / Inge Bates; Reality testing in the workplace: are NVQs 'employment-led'? / John Field; A critique of NVQs and GNVQs / Alan Smithers; Ideology and curriculum policy: GNVQ and mass post-compulsory education in England and Wales / Denis Gleeson and Phil Hodkinson; The implementation of GNVQs in further education: a case study / Margaret Bird, Geoff Esland, Jane Greenberg, Sandy Sieminski and Karen Yarrow; The politics of training in Britain: contradictions in the TEC initiative / Jamie Peck; Markets, outcomes and the quality of vocational education and training: some lessons from a Youth Credits pilot scheme / Phil Hodkinson and Heather Hodkinson; and Policy and accountability / Lee Harvey and Peter Knight.

This chapter presents a critical analysis of markets within the broad area of the globalisation paradigm and the relationship to education policy. An outline some of the consequences of globalisation is offered highlighting why education is critical to future economic development. There is an implied ethical judgement in the argument that markets tend to magnify and reinforce existing social inequalities between groups and individuals. The authors go on to suggest that knowledge skills have assumed strategic importance in securing economic advantage. Two contrasting national strategies have emerged in response to economic globalisation. They are: (1) the neo-Fordist approach to the New Right and (2) the post-Fordist approach of the left modernisers. Both share a belief in the importance of re-skilling the nation and investing in high level skills as the means of securing economic growth. The authors are sceptical of the assumptions that underlie both positions. They suggest that continuing economic deregulation will inhibit the creation of more highly skilled jobs, and that, as the polarisation of income inequalities intensifies, many individuals seeking further education and training will be denied access to what is likely to become increasingly expensive forms of provision.

This is the first of two volumes of readings. Volume I is organised around the theme of the social, political and economic contexts of education and training. The papers are intended to extend and deepen the debates about post-compulsory education and training by placing them within the broader context of economic and employment policy, both in the UK and internationally. The papers and the authors are: Introduction / Geoff Esland and John Ahier; The changing nature of work / Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland; Education, globalization and economic development / Phillip Brown and Hugh Lauder; The great work dilemma: education, employment and wages in the new global economy / Martin Carnoy; The new knowledge work / Stanley Aronowitz and William DiFazio; Jobs and people / John Grieve Smith; Evaluating the assumptions that underlie training policy / Ewart Keep and Ken Mayhew; Expanding employment / Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland; Managerializing organizational culture: refashioning the human resource in educational institutions / Geoff Esland, Karen Esland, Mike Murphy and Karen Yarrow; The University of Life plc: the 'industrialization' of higher education? / Richard Winter; Economic restructuring and unemployment: a crisis for masculinity? / Faith Robertson Elliot; Social change and labour market transitions / Andy Furlong and Fred Cartmel; Big pictures and fine detail: school work experience policy and the local labour market in the 1990s / John Ahier and Rob Moore. For individual entries see TD/INT 61.316 to TD/INT 61.328.

This chapter examines the ways in which human resource management (HRM) has become an instrument for the management of change imposed on further and higher education (FHE) institutions by the Further and Higher Education Act of 1992. FHE institutions were obliged to introduce some form of HRM in order to deal with the financial, curricular and staffing demands of the new market culture. The authors argue that these HRM practices have been used as a legitimate means of driving down staffing costs. The conclusion is that this approach raises serious questions about the quality of learning that takes place in some areas of postcompulsory provision.

This chapter is an extract from Grieve Smith's book 'Full employment: a pledge betrayed'. There are two main themes within the chapter. Firstly, there is a challenge to the belief that changes to the supply side of the economy (education, training and the cost of labour) should constitute the main basis of economic management. The problem with the argument is that reducing labour costs and raising skill levels as the means of increasing the number of available jobs is not tenable. Secondly, there is a notion that education and training can of themselves lead to more employment opportunities. An increasing proportion of the unemployed possess high qualification levels. This suggests that the problem is not one of a shortage of skilled people but of a lack of jobs and inappropriate skill utilisation on the part of employers. According to the author, the main impact of education and training is that they tend to redistribute individuals within the existing labour market.