Employers, the ghost at the feast

ABSTRACT

The question addressed in this paper is why expanding Higher Education (HE) has become the default policy position in England. One answer concerns the reluctance by employers to train. The paper adopts an historical perspective on the policy reviews into this issue which have displayed a remarkable policy amnesia, employers have not been engaged. Consequently, successive governments have fallen back on expanding the HE sector as the main way to boost skill levels.

KEYWORDS:

• Skills
• Employers
• Demand-side
• apprenticeships

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ewart Keep

Ewart Keep is Emeritus Professor of Education, Training and Skills at the Department of Education, Oxford University.  He is a former director of the SKOPE research centre and has published extensively on the role of employers in creating and productively deploying skills.  He has been involved in numerous government inquiries and; policy work on skills across the UK, and is currently a board member of the Scottish Funding Council and of the Department for Education's new Productivity and Skills Board.