Skills Policy in Britain and the Future of Work

A Historical-Political Analysis

Tom Bewick (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

320 Seiten

2025
Policy Press (Verlag)
978-1-4473-7222-6 (ISBN)

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What role did Winston Churchill play in excluding comprehensive schooling from the 1944 Education Act? What was the failed promise of technical education in the post-war period? Why did Margaret Thatcher manipulate government training programmes before the 1987 General Election? And what was the fallout of Tony Blair’s government over lifelong learning?

In this book, Tom Bewick examines the evolution of UK skills policy from the 1881 Royal Commission on Technical Instruction to the present day, revealing how shifting political ideologies have shaped workforce development. He applies a chronological, historical-political policy analysis framework to explain the ‘four training states’ of skills policy and workforce development between the 1940s and the 2020s:

• The interventionist state (1939–1979)

• The laissez-faire state (1980–1988)

• Localism and the devolved states (1989–2010)

• The technocratic state (2010–present)

Traversing time periods to uncover political and economic driving forces, this book challenges conventional thinking and offers insights into how future skills policies can be more effective.

Tom Bewick is Visiting Professor of Skills and Workforce Policy at the University of Staffordshire. He is a former policy adviser to UK ministers on post-compulsory education and training.

Introduction

1. Skills policy as a field of study

2. Political economy of skill: the incremental state

Part I: The interventionist state (1939– 79)

3. Skills planning in the crisis of war

4. The legacy of 1944: turf battles and technology

5. The golden era of industrial training

Part II: The laissez-faire state (1980– 88)

6. Rolling back the frontiers of the training state?

7. Employer voluntarism: who pays?

Part III: Localism and the devolved states (1989– 2010)

8. The rise and fall of Training and Enterprise Councils

9. New Labour and the learning age

10. Skills policy in the devolved nations

Part IV: The technocratic state (2010–present)

11. Austerity in FE: forgotten education?

Conclusion

12. The future of work

Erscheinungsdatum	29.10.2025
Zusatzinfo	9 Tables, black and white; 12 Illustrations, black and white
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften ► Pädagogik ► Berufspädagogik
Themenwelt	Wirtschaft ► Volkswirtschaftslehre ► Makroökonomie
ISBN-10	1-4473-7222-0 / 1447372220
ISBN-13	978-1-4473-7222-6 / 9781447372226
Zustand	Neuware