Confronting the Skills Paradox
An 18 month project with City & Guilds looking at participation in adult learning
Skills formation in the Uk faces a paradox:
While maximising the talents of the whole population matters more than ever in creating economic and social success, the danger is that skills formation and educational credentials will become a source of greater polarisation. The paradox, in this situation, is that skill formation still follows a ‘trickle down’ principle, in which those already well endowed particpate the most, enjoying the highest levels of investment and subsidy both from the state and from employers.
This is an 18 month project with City & Guilds exploring why the paradox has been so resistent to policy interventions, and how it might be overcome.
It will involve:
- desk-based research
- sectoral case studies
- workplace ethnography
- public engagement
- international comparative work
- public events
- a final published report
To download the dicussion paper written to launch the project click here.