A central challenge for local skills strategies is whether they can contribute to 'inclusive growth' including more and better jobs across a local economy. Skills strategies, it has been argued, must go beyond simply boosting skills supply and be integrated with policies that shape employer demand for, and utilisation of, skills, including…

UK Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) are seen as critical to policymakers' aspirations to develop an education and training (E&T) system that is both "demand-driven" and "employer-led" and where employers "play their part" in national upskilling. However, the concept of employer leadership remains deeply problematic…

Although the current Labour government is committed to developing the UK as a high skills society, there is much confusion as what such a society might look like and from where it might draw its inspiration. Some academic commentators have also expressed the need for a clearer vision of the kind of society to which the UK might choose to head for…

Finds little evidence of a paradigm shift in capitalism or a trend toward a high-skills knowledge economy. Points out problems in demand-side proposals. Concludes that it is necessary to recognize the centrality of conflict, power, and exploitation in capitalism and outlines a radical political economy of skill. (Contains 104 references.) (SK)

Comparison of policy approaches to national curriculum in Britain and Norway found three key differences: (1) subordination of education to economic priorities is more pronounced in Britain; (2) nations have differing views of worker-citizens needed in a high-skill society; and (3) Norwegian teachers have a much stronger voice in education reform.…