Lifelong learning policies for vulnerable young adults in post-recession Scotland

Abstract

This article shows how the Scottish Government’s (SG) political management of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) has reinforced the economic goals of lifelong learning (LLL) under the skills for work agenda. Youth unemployment has been prioritized as the main social problem to be addressed, and most of the limited public resources for LLL have been targeted towards youth at risk of unemployment at the expense of the rest of the adult population. The article adopts a Cultural Political Economy perspective to examine LLL policy discourses contained in 12 policy documents published by the SG during the period between the Scottish National Party’s arrival in power and the Independence Referendum (2007–2014). The analysis draws attention to the fact that the GFC has been used by the SG to legitimize selective cuts to the further education sector as well as a stronger labour market orientation within LLL provision.

Keywords:

• Education policy
• financial crisis
• lifelong learning
• political economy
• vocational education
• youth employment

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Consortium members of the project and the members of the National Advisory Board in Scotland for comments on preliminary ideas presented in this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The GFC of 2007–2008 caused the Great Recession in the United Kingdom, which lasted for five quarters, from 2008 Q2 to 2009 Q2 (Office for National Statistics 2013). Although the consequences of the Great Recession on employment reached its pick later in 2011, the post-recession refers to the period that started in 2009 Q3.

2 The original Scotland Act 1998 gave the name ‘Scottish Executive’ as the legal term for the devolved government. In January 2001, the then First Minister Henry McLeish suggested changing the official name from ‘Scottish Executive’ to ‘Scottish Government’. On 2 September 2007, the SNP minority government announced that the Scottish Executive was to be re-branded as the ‘Scottish Government’. We will use the term ‘Scottish Government’ throughout the text to avoid confusion.

3 Tertiary education attainment of the 30- to 34-year-old population is 59.9% and 47.8% for those aged 25–64, Eurostat 2016.

4 The proportion of early school leavers in Scotland (13.1%) is higher than in the UK (11.2%) and the EU (10.7%), Eurostat 2016.

5 Project websites: http://young-adulllt-scotland.org/ and http://www.young-adulllt.eu/

6 Following the Post-16 Education (Scotland) Act 2013, colleges in Scotland – which provide vocational and non-vocational education and training at the upper secondary and tertiary level – underwent a regionalization process intended to more closely align the offer of courses with the needs of the regional labour market, reducing their number from 43 to 26.

7 The Cabinet Secretary for Fair Work, Skills and Training was a position in the Scottish Government that had overall responsibility for employment policy, women’s employment, youth employment, the living wage and skills and employment training. The position was abolished in May 2016, with employment issues moving to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Jobs and Fair Work, and training matters being handled by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills.

8 At the age of 16, young people in Scotland can legally leave school.

9 See Scottish Executive (2006, appendix 4).

10 Education at a Glance, 2005.

11 Positive destinations include higher education, further education, training, voluntary work and employment (Scottish Government 2007a).

12 Frequently updated at http://nationalperformance.gov.scot

13 https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/what-we-do/skills-planning/regional-skills-assessments/

Additional information

Funding

This research is supported by the YOUNG_ADULLT Project ‘Policies Supporting Young People in their Life Course. A Comparative Perspective of Lifelong Learning and Inclusion in Education and Work in Europe’, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 693167.