There is strong evidence that learning gained in, through and for work, whether it is through employment, voluntary, community, domestic or any other kind of work, helps to equip people with the capabilities that can improve their working lives, their employability and their life skills (Lester and Costley, 2010, Beehives, 2018, WEXHE, 2019).…

"Healthy, Wealthy and Wise: The Impact of Adult Learning across the UK" identifies a range of economic and social policy challenges confronting the four nations today and argues that adult learning can make an important contribution to addressing these and promoting a fairer and more inclusive society. Published in 2017, the report draws…

Intermediaries--also referred to as bridge builders, boundary spanners, conveners, and other names--fill the critical role of connecting all the parties in the system to empower people with the skills required in the labor force. Those parties generally include employers, educators, workers, and prospective workers. Within these categories may…

In the United Kingdom higher education environment, government may make efforts to encourage institutions to engage in governance structures to secure policy objectives through a steering approach. In this article connections between skills governance structures and the recent Higher Education Funding Council for England workforce development…

Background: The two most common models of workforce planning are the "stock and flow" and the demographic approach. The former balances future losses from a system against recruitment and retention, whilst the latter simply "grosses up" current provision based on changes to population demographics. However, such approaches…

This publication focuses on national and international policy initiatives to develop a better understanding of work-based learners and the types of flexibility that may well enhance their study especially pedagogically. As part of our five-strand research project "Flexible Pedagogies: preparing for the future" it: (1) highlights the…

Vocational training systems that take the needs of the word of work seriously and maintain strong and dynamic connections with it are faced to growing complexity and instability. Some countries try to cope with this through creating new mediation mechanisms between the systems of training and work that allow higher level complexity while…

Our universities are an indispensible part of the UK's healthcare system. This publication is the first in a series of Universities UK reports depicting the vital connections between higher education and healthcare. It illustrates the virtuous partnership between health providers and universities in supplying and developing the healthcare…

Companies received more than 5 billion British Pounds last year from the Exchequer in tax relief for work-related training. That is equivalent to the turnover of more than 250 further education colleges. And it vastly overshadows the 50 million British Pounds Growth and Innovation Fund set up to support employers' initiatives to improve skills and…

The National Strategic Skills Audit by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills found that one in eight adults of working age has no qualifications; more than a quarter are not qualified to Level 2; and almost a half are not qualified to above Level 2. The CBI report, "Ready to grow: business priorities for education and skills,"…

Co-investment between the state, employer, and employee is an intrinsic feature of most vocational and education training systems. The government's strategy is to "profoundly" shift responsibility for funding learning and skills from the state to individuals and businesses. At a time of stringent cuts in publicly-funded further education…

This report looks at the future opportunities and challenges facing the UK university research base and makes recommendations as to how the system can respond to these. It comes at a time when the UK has elected its first coalition government for 70 years and is facing unprecedented economic challenges. The report is aimed at policy makers…

This publication highlights the critical role UK universities will continue to play in reviving and sustaining economic growth across the country. Using a range of visual data and statistics, it highlights that the UK's future success depends on developing innovation and the knowledge economy in what is an increasingly competitive global…

The paper questions the link that policy-makers assume exists between qualifications and access to employment in the creative and cultural (C&C) sector. It identifies how labour market conditions in the C&C sector undermine this assumption and how the UK's policy formation process inhibits education and training (E&T) actors from…

The publication of "Learning Through Life," the main report of the Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning, has been welcomed across the trade union movement. It offers a useful and useable framework for discussing the learning needs of people through the different stages of life and makes compelling suggestions about how to adjust…