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This paper argues that the current skill strategies of New Labour (in England) and the Labour-led Coalition (in New Zealand) are part of a broader project to construct contrasting markets in education and training. On one hand, the skill strategies are helping to construct open education and training markets through creating institutional-based forms of trust, in the form of educational qualifications. On the other, they are helping to construct closed education and training markets through creating process-based trust, in the form of social networks. The creation of process-based trust is driven by the growing realisation that competitive advantage is more likely to result from forming networks, than from simply increasing the proportion of individuals who hold qualifications. However, while network formation makes economic sense, it is at odds with New Labour’s and the Labour-led Coalition’s discourse of social inclusion.