Jobs, unemployment and education for work

Abstract

This paper addresses the problems faced by adult educators in responding to unemployment and an ever‐changing employment market. The key issues are explored with reference to the prevailing educational, training and employment contexts of Australia and theUK. In order to frame the main discussion, the paper first traces developing trends in employment and unemployment across the advanced capitalist world, concluding that full employment, as we have known it in the past, is unlikely to exist again. It then attempts to re‐assess and re‐evaluate the role played by education and training in relation to employment and unemployment, highlighting a clear tendency for current policies to re‐inforce rather than reduce inequalities in the labour market, and identifying the dilemmas this poses for adult educators with a concern for social equity. In addressing unemployment and its social and economic impact, the challenge for adult educators is, in a new and changing educational context, to revisit and try to resolve a number of longstanding issues: the relationship of the micro to the macro; the overall values and purposes of adult education; the identification of and responses to educational needs; and the development of methodologies and strategies that offer some real prospect of empowerment for those who are disadvantaged in or excluded from the labour market. Thepaper concludes that away forward might be in forging alliances with a wide variety of social groups and movements, and a unifying focus might be provided through developing a new understanding and interpretation of'education for work’.