MacDonald and Coffield look at the implementation and outcome of enterprise initiatives introduced in Teeside in relation to 100 unemployed young adults in the age-range 16-25, within a political ideology which has sought to change a dependency culture to one of self-reliance. The young people studied are categorized with reference to their attitude to, and experience of, work, and a number of case studies are cited. An important aspect of the study is that it is specifically concerned with ordinary young people. The conclusions are worked out in terms of the changing culture of work, government policies, the internationalization of labour markets and the changing fortunes of young adults in Britain in the 1990s.

Lifelong learning has been an evidence-free zone for too long. It has been under-researched and under-theorised. This volume, the first of two, is the culmination of years of empirical work undertaken for the ESRC's Learning Society Programme, a major investment in lifelong learning research. It explores the ways lifelong learning can contribute to the development of knowledge and skills for employment, and other areas of adult life. In this first volume, the contributors address the challenges to social science researchers to study issues that are central and directly relevant to the political and policy debate, and to take into account the reality of people's lives. Each chapter gives an overview of one project, describing its objectives, methods, main findings and policy implications. Some of the main themes explored include the education market post-16, key skills in Higher Education, adult guidance services, and how knowledge can be developed at work. In the introduction, these topics are placed by the editor within the broad context of research and policy on different types of learning societies and lifelong learning. The evidence provided shows what policies are or are not working and provides the basis for structural reform. Some of the conclusions arrived at by the projects challenge fundamental assumptions of current policy. The contributions demonstrate the value of independent, critical research in an area which is awash with unsubstantiated generalities, armchair musings and banalities without bite. Differing visions of a Learning Society contributes to the public debate on lifelong learning, and is essential reading for politicians, policy makers, practitioners, academics and researchers concerned in any way with lifelong learning.

The relationship between research and policy has recently become turbulent and contentious. Into this charged atmosphere, five of the projects form the ESRC's Learning Society Programme present the implications of their findings for policy, and constitute a powerful critique of current policy on lifelong learning in this collection. For the first time, findings are presented from a major new survey, commissioned by the Programme, which examined the skills of a representative sample of British workers and found, for example, an 'alarmingly high' mismatch between the demand and supply of qualifications. Other chapters heal with the fragmentation of provision for adult guidance, the financial and psychological casts of lifelong learning for learners with children, and the failure of the market principle in education to create a national culture of learning. The report also contains many practical recommendations. The new Labour government is committed to introducing evidence-based policy and practice, and so the present roles of researchers, policy makers and practitioners will be subjected to intensifying pressure to change in the next few years. These issues are debated in the first two chapters and concerns are expressed about how easy it will be in future to speak truth to power. The report is essential reading for all politicians, policy makers, employers, trade unionists and educationalists keen to create a culture of lifelong learning within the UK.

How can opportunities for teaching and learning be improved to ensure that many more people participate, gain qualifications and obtain decent jobs? Will government policies enable us to achieve these goals? What new ideas do we need to ensure a more inclusive, equitable and efficient learning system? These are some of the main concerns which underlie this thought-provoking book coming from a major research project looking at how policies affect learners, tutors, managers and institutional leaders in Further Education Colleges, Adult and Community Learning centres and in Work Based Learning sites. Post compulsory education in the UK has been constantly restructured by the New Labour government and has been subject to considerable policy turbulence over the last few years. This book attempts to understand this important but poorly understood sector by both talking to students and front-line staff and by interviewing the officials responsible for managing post-compulsory education and lifelong learning. By examining the sector simultaneously from the 'bottom up' and from 'top down', the authors show how recent policy is affecting three disadvantaged groups - 16-19 year olds who have fared poorly in official tests at school; unemployed adults learning basic skills; and employees at work learning basic skills. The authors conclude that there are serious failings and suggest principles and features of a more equitable and effective learning system.

This report argues for a fundamental reassessment of the significance of informal learning. Formal education and training represent only a small part of all the learning done in schools, colleges, at work, at home and in the community. Yet it is formal learning which is at the heart of the government's unshakeable determination to drive up standards by means of qualifications, national targets and league tables. A hierarchy of different types of learning has emerged with 'learning for earning' at the top and informal learning at the bottom. This report concludes, however, that an unjustifiable reliance on certification may serve to alienate informal learners. These 'learning entrepreneurs' argue that the formal training they receive is often dispensable, whereas their own informal learning is necessary and is very much part of who they are and how they interact with the world. A love of informal learning which is not linked to certification or to work appears to be a key characteristic of lifelong learners. The five projects from the ESRC's The Learning Society Programme represented in this report do not claim to be the first (but just the latest) to have 'discovered' the importance of informal learning. There is a long-standing tradition in the UK whereby policy makers, researchers and practitioners readily admit the significance of informal learning and then proceed to develop policy, theory and practice without further reference to it. We need to break this sequence by acknowledging that informal learning is not an inferior form of learning whose main purpose is to act as the precursor of the main business of formal learning. It is fundamental, necessary and valuable in its own right, at times directly relevant to employment and at other times not relevant at all. The potential of informal learning will, however, only be realised if government, companies and educational institutions reassess its central role in the lives of all learners. The case for informal learning has still to be won; indeed, it has scarcely begun to be heard. The necessity of informal learning is essential reading for all politicians, policy makers, employers, trade unionists and educationalists keen to create a culture of lifelong learning within the UK.

Is lifelong learning the big idea which will deliver economic prosperity and social justice? Or will it prove to be another transient phenomenon? Picture lifelong learning, the editor suggests, as making its way through three overlapping stages - romance, evidence and implementation. Lifelong learning is tentatively entering the second stage, where research evidence is beginning to challenge the vacuous rhetoric of the stage of romance. The findings from the Economic and Social Research Council's programme of research into the Learning Society are presented in two volumes, of which this is the second. The editor, Frank Coffield, begins by surveying as a whole the findings of the 14 projects, and summarises them in a number of recurrent themes and policy recommendations. The chapters which follow present the aims, methods, findings and policy implications of six projects. Volume 1 contains similar chapters on the other projects. Taken together, the conclusions suggest very different ways of thinking about a Learning Society and very different policies from those in operation at present. The two volumes demonstrate from empirical evidence the continuing weaknesses of current policies and make proposals, based on hard evidence, for more effective structural changes. This second volume presents findings from a national survey of the skills of British workers, and it discusses both the meaning of the Learning Society for adults with learning difficulties, and the use of social capital to explain patterns of lifelong learning. Other chapters present for the first time five different 'trajectories' of lifelong learning, explore the determinants of participation and non-participation in learning, and examine innovation in Higher Education. Finally, two differing visions of a Learning Society are contrasted. The first extrapolates existing policies and practices into the next 5-10 years and finds them seriously wanting. The second option calls for more democracy rather than technocracy and develops a kaleidoscopic array of possible futures which find their source in the empirical work of the 14 projects. These volumes are essential reading for politicians, policy makers, practitioners, employers, and all teachers with responsibility for lifelong learning.

This first report in the ESRC Learning Society series examines the key processes of learning, as embedded in particular workplaces, in organisational structures and in specific social practices. Why is learning suddenly so important? How can the quality of learning at work be improved? Instead of extolling the 'joys' of learning, the authors explore the conflicts and barriers which organisations run into (or create for themselves), even when they are trying to promote greater learning among staff. Its strong comparative dimension is illustrated in the discussion of, for example, the construction industry in Wales which is compared with its counterpart in Germany. The importance of this edited collection is that it will help to transform fashionable phrases such as 'the learning organisation' or 'lifelong learning' into practical ideas and methods which could enhance the quality of learning in British firms. Learning at work is important reading for managers in Industry and Commerce, for TECs/LECs, Trade Unions and Chambers of Commerce, for policy makers in the Department for Education and Employment, for politicians, voluntary organisations and academics specialising in the interactions between employment, training and education, and for all those practitioners in firms, Colleges of Further Education and training providers who are promoting lifelong learning.

How can opportunities for teaching and learning be improved to ensure that many more people participate, gain qualifications and obtain decent jobs? Will government policies enable us to achieve these goals? What new ideas do we need to ensure a more inclusive, equitable and efficient learning system? These are some of the main concerns which underlie this thought-provoking book coming from a major research project looking at how policies affect learners, tutors, managers and institutional leaders in Further Education Colleges, Adult and Community Learning centres and in Work Based Learning sites. Post compulsory education in the UK has been constantly restructured by the New Labour government and has been subject to considerable policy turbulence over the last few years. This book attempts to understand this important but poorly understood sector by both talking to students and front-line staff and by interviewing the officials responsible for managing post-compulsory education and lifelong learning. By examining the sector simultaneously from the 'bottom up' and from 'top down', the authors show how recent policy is affecting three disadvantaged groups - 16-19 year olds who have fared poorly in official tests at school; unemployed adults learning basic skills; and employees at work learning basic skills. The authors conclude that there are serious failings and suggest principles and features of a more equitable and effective learning system.