Policy Press
Five Qualifying for a job: an educational and economic audit of the English 14-19 education and training system
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Abstract
A dominant international theme in vocational education and training (VET) policy discourse continues to be the need to boost skill supply to meet both the requirements of emerging knowledge economies and to reduce social exclusion by increasing the employability of socially disadvantaged groups. For example, the Commission of the European Communities (CEC, 2003, p 3) warns that while:
efforts are being made in all European countries to adapt education and training systems to the knowledge-driven society and economy … the reforms are not up to the challenges and their current pace will not enable the Union to attain the objectives set.
The objectives referred to are those set at the Lisbon European Council held in March 2000 where:
the Heads of State and Government acknowledged that the “European Union is confronted with a quantum shift resulting from globalisation and the challenges of a new knowledge driven economy” and set the Union a major strategic goal for 2010 ‘to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion.’ (CEC, 2003, p 3)
To achieve these aims it is envisaged it will require a radical programme to modernise education systems, thereby placing education and training policy at the heart of the Union’s economic and social policy (see Chapter Three of this volume).
Such a discourse argues for the need to steer education and training systems to meet both the needs of individuals and the labour market. However, the linkage between the education and training system, on the one hand, and the demands of individuals and the labour market, on the other hand, is complex and developing mechanisms to steer an education and training system to meet individual and labour market demands is highly problematic for policy makers.
Abstract
A dominant international theme in vocational education and training (VET) policy discourse continues to be the need to boost skill supply to meet both the requirements of emerging knowledge economies and to reduce social exclusion by increasing the employability of socially disadvantaged groups. For example, the Commission of the European Communities (CEC, 2003, p 3) warns that while:
efforts are being made in all European countries to adapt education and training systems to the knowledge-driven society and economy … the reforms are not up to the challenges and their current pace will not enable the Union to attain the objectives set.
The objectives referred to are those set at the Lisbon European Council held in March 2000 where:
the Heads of State and Government acknowledged that the “European Union is confronted with a quantum shift resulting from globalisation and the challenges of a new knowledge driven economy” and set the Union a major strategic goal for 2010 ‘to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion.’ (CEC, 2003, p 3)
To achieve these aims it is envisaged it will require a radical programme to modernise education systems, thereby placing education and training policy at the heart of the Union’s economic and social policy (see Chapter Three of this volume).
Such a discourse argues for the need to steer education and training systems to meet both the needs of individuals and the labour market. However, the linkage between the education and training system, on the one hand, and the demands of individuals and the labour market, on the other hand, is complex and developing mechanisms to steer an education and training system to meet individual and labour market demands is highly problematic for policy makers.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- Acknowledgements iv
- Preface v
- Notes on contributors vi
- Producing skills: conundrums and possibilities 1
- Fit for purpose? Sixty years of VET policy in England 13
- The European policy regarding education and training: a critical assessment 35
- ‘I can’t believe it’s not skill’: the changing meaning of skill in the UK context and some implications 53
- Qualifying for a job: an educational and economic audit of the English 14-19 education and training system 77
- Does apprenticeship still have meaning in the UK? The consequences of voluntarism and sectoral change 101
- Tradition and reform: modernising the German dual system of vocational education 117
- Learning in the workplace: reappraisals and reconceptions 149
- Interests, arguments and ideologies: employers’ involvement in education–business partnerships in the US and the UK 171
- Compatible higher education systems and the European labour market: Bologna and beyond 187
- The expansion of higher education: economic necessity or hyperinflation? 203
- Becoming a chef: the politics and culture of learning 219
- Index 245
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- Acknowledgements iv
- Preface v
- Notes on contributors vi
- Producing skills: conundrums and possibilities 1
- Fit for purpose? Sixty years of VET policy in England 13
- The European policy regarding education and training: a critical assessment 35
- ‘I can’t believe it’s not skill’: the changing meaning of skill in the UK context and some implications 53
- Qualifying for a job: an educational and economic audit of the English 14-19 education and training system 77
- Does apprenticeship still have meaning in the UK? The consequences of voluntarism and sectoral change 101
- Tradition and reform: modernising the German dual system of vocational education 117
- Learning in the workplace: reappraisals and reconceptions 149
- Interests, arguments and ideologies: employers’ involvement in education–business partnerships in the US and the UK 171
- Compatible higher education systems and the European labour market: Bologna and beyond 187
- The expansion of higher education: economic necessity or hyperinflation? 203
- Becoming a chef: the politics and culture of learning 219
- Index 245
