In the light of changes the government has launched as part of its welfare to work initiatives, this text explores apprenticeship. The authors set the historical context and discuss the theoretical and practical aspects of acquiring the necessary knowledge and skills for competence.

In the light of changes the government has launched as part of its welfare to work initiatives, this text explores apprenticeship. The authors set the historical context and discuss the theoretical and practical aspects of acquiring the necessary knowledge and skills for competence. The Dearing Report has proposed a work related route for some students and this book focuses on a number of academic and professional perspectives on apprenticeship and its revival. The book concludes with a look at the future of apprenticeship.

Education has betrayed its promises to deliver upward social mobility and a brighter future. Young people study harder but learn less, running up a down-escalator of devalued qualifications to become overqualified but underemployed, unable to move forward with their lives. From primary to post-graduate schools - funny phonics through endless testing to phoney apprenticeships and the world's most costly university fees - Patrick Ainley explains how English education is now driven by the economy and politics, 'dumbing down' rather than 'wising up'. Addressed to teachers and students at all levels of learning, it concludes by suggesting how schools, colleges and universities can begin to contribute towards a more meaningful and productive society.

Tabloid headlines such as 'Anti-social Feral Youth,' 'Vile Products of Welfare in the UK' and 'One in Four Adolescents is a Criminal' have in recent years obscured understanding of what social justice means for young people and how they experience it. Youth marginality in Britain offers a new perspective by promoting young people's voices and understanding the agency behind their actions. It explores different forms of social marginalisation within media, culture and society, focusing on how young people experience social discrimination at a personal and collective level. This collection from a wide range of expert contributors showcases contemporary research on multiple youth deprivation of personal isolation, social hardship, gender and ethnic discrimination and social stigma. With a foreword from Robert MacDonald, it explores the intersection of race, gender, class, asylum seeker status and care leavers in Britain, placing them in the broader context of austerity, poverty and inequality to highlight both change and continuity within young people's social and cultural identities. This timely contribution to debates concerning youth austerity in Britain is suitable for students across youth studies, sociology, education, criminology, youth work and social policy.

Tabloid headlines such as 'Anti-social Feral Youth,' 'Vile Products of Welfare in the UK' and 'One in Four Adolescents is a Criminal' have in recent years obscured understanding of what social justice means for young people and how they experience it. Youth marginality in Britain offers a new perspective by promoting young people's voices and understanding the agency behind their actions. It explores different forms of social marginalisation within media, culture and society, focusing on how young people experience social discrimination at a personal and collective level. This collection from a wide range of expert contributors showcases contemporary research on multiple youth deprivation of personal isolation, social hardship, gender and ethnic discrimination and social stigma. With a foreword from Robert MacDonald, it explores the intersection of race, gender, class, asylum seeker status and care leavers in Britain, placing them in the broader context of austerity, poverty and inequality to highlight both change and continuity within young people's social and cultural identities. This timely contribution to debates concerning youth austerity in Britain is suitable for students across youth studies, sociology, education, criminology, youth work and social policy.

This is a concise account of the current difficulties in education and employment, offering positive strategies for future policy. Education and training faces its own credit crunch as unemployment rises. The growing lack of legitimation creates a space for an open debate on its future and purpose. The coherent account presented in this book contributes to this debate by concisely explaining how what sometimes appears to be an almost terminal crisis in schools, colleges and universities is related to the changing relationship between young people, educational qualifications and employment in the early 21st century. Uniquely, the authors combine their experience of teaching at all levels to present a comprehensive analysis ranging from primary to postgraduate schools. Accessible and direct in style, it argues that radical alternatives are required and that for the first time opportunities exist to have a wider debate about not only what education is for, but also what it could be for. The book ends with positive proposals for future strategies bringing together students and teachers in new conceptions of education and democracy as the only way to break the impasse in education at all levels.