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Drawing upon interviews with key stakeholders including policy makers and providers of the flagship welfare reform programme, the New Deal for Young People, this article contributes to analysis and debate through an exploration of skills investment policy and practice in this key UK 'welfare to work' programme. It concludes that the vision of a recent report to provide opportunities for welfare recipients to acquire skills in order to adapt to change, find new work and opportunities, and progress in work could founder on the philosophy that the primary purpose of training programmes and active labour market intervention for welfare recipients is to ensure the pace and progress of participants into work and that any educational element or advancement in work is secondary.