In recent years concerns about inequality have been growing in prominence within UK policy debates. The many causes of inequality of earnings and income are complex in their interactions and their tendency to reinforce one another. This makes inequality an intractable or "wicked" policy problem, particularly within a contemporary context…

A focus of Government policy has been the need to ensure that those at the lower end of the labour market invest in their human capital through re-engaging with learning, which has been assumed to enable progress into better-paid employment. This article explores the problems created by "bad jobs" and the evidence for the existence of a…

The author of this review begins with a declaration of interest--more than a decade and a half ago he, along with Alison Wolf and 13 other researchers, signed a letter to the "Financial Times" protesting at design flaws in National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs). Their missive provoked a grumpy response from the then National Council…