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This paper seeks to describe and examine the changing world of work and in particular the promotion of the Flexible Labour Market and consider the implications for education and training. The Flexible Labour Market is currently the centrepiece of the British Government's economic and employment policy. Two interpretations of flexibility are refined: flexibility of skills (multi-skilling) and flexibility of conditions with its connotations of uncertain and episodic opportunities for work. The paper then considers the current challenge for education and training to enable young people to understand, and engage in, what is predicted to be an uncertain social world.

This paper explores the influence of two government departments, the Department of Employment and the Department of Education and Science (now the Department for Education), on post-16 provision during the last decade. In acknowledging the underlying move to vocationalizing the post-16 curriculum and processes, two new concepts are introduced for distinguishing those policies intended for the short-term control of entry to the labour market, regulatory vocationalism,and those longer-term policies of anticipatory vocationalismintended to raise the skill and knowledge base of the workforce for an uncertain and highly competitive economic and employment future. The paper examines the main instruments of policy from A New Training Initiative: A Programme for Action(DE/DES, 1981) to Education and Training for the 21st Century(DES/DE, 1991), arguing that over the decade it has been the immediate social and political contexts which have largely determined policy towards post-16 provision and therefore led to a period of superficially episodic initiatives. However, it is further argued that whereas the rhetoric of policy is shifting towards a longer-term vision, the changes in education and training infrastructure are only compatible with short-term concerns.

This paper explores the influence of two government departments, the Department of Employment and the Department of Education and Science (now the Department for Education), on post-16 provision during the last decade. In acknowledging the underlying move to vocationalizing the post-16 curriculum and processes, two new concepts are introduced for distinguishing those policies intended for the short-term control of entry to the labour market, regulatory vocationalism, and those longer-term policies of anticipatory vocationalism intended to raise the skill and knowledge base of the workforce for an uncertain and highly competitive economic and employment future. The paper examines the main instruments of policy from A New Training Initiative: A Programme for Action (DE/DES, 1981) to Education and Training for the 21st Century (DES/DE, 1991), arguing that over the decade it has been the immediate social and political contexts which have largely determined policy towards post-16 provision and therefore led to a period of superficially episodic initiatives. However, it is further argued that whereas the rhetoric of policy is shifting towards a longer-term vision, the changes in education and training infrastructure are only compatible with short-term concerns.

One of the responsibilities of the DES is to plan for the recruitment and training of an appropriately qualified teaching force to meet the needs of our schools. Recent policy has paid considerable attention to the congruence between the training and qualifications of teachers and their teaching programmes; the term used to describe this relationship is 'match'. Match can be investigated with respect to various aspects of a teacher's qualifications and training; the subject content, the age-phase trained for, the professional aspect of the training. This paper concentrates on one aspect of match, that of the subject content of the initial qualification with the subsequent teaching programmes within the secondary sector.It is argued that during the next decade demographic and economic factors will pose considerable challenges to the recruitment and maintenance of an appropriately matched teaching force. Furthermore it is argued that many of the current Government policies may well exacerbate the problem by weakening local authority discretion in the deployment of teachers and also by rendering teaching a less secure and attractive career. This paper argues for a better understanding of how teachers are deployed within schools and authorities, it also argues for an urgent review of policies involving the teaching force and suggests some policy options open to Government.

This paper is based on the experience of evaluating part of a nationally funded in-service scheme for secondary and further education teachers in the United Kingdom during the period September 1985 to March 1987. The scheme was related to the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative (TVEI), a national pilot scheme of curriculum renewal for the age group 14-18, promoted and funded through the Manpower Services Commission (MSC). The in-service scheme was known as TVEI-Related In-Service Training (TRIST). The scheme was evaluated in three local education authorities (LEAs); two metropolitan boroughs and one shire county. Particular consideration is paid to the prevailing educational climate as it was influenced by a variety of Central Government policy initiatives during the TRIST funding period. The authorities, as a result of their experiences during the TRIST scheme, were able to respond in a more prepared manner to the radical changes required by the Government's new national policy for the direction and funding of in-service as it emerged.At the time of the launch of TRIST all three local authorities were in different stages of development with reference to their in-service provision. They have been described here as conventional, transitional and exploratory. The three authorities used the opportunity provided by TRIST funding to review and extend their methods for the identification of in-service needs, to explore and broaden their means of delivering in-service training, and there was considerable pioneering of mechanisms for translating and disseminating in-service lessons into practice within the schools. However, it is argued that the timing of the introduction of the new policies for funding and direction of in-service training, 'Grant Related In-Service Funding', did not permit the authorities the opportunity to refine and consolidate their learning in the new in-service processes.

This paper considers a number of explanations promoted by governments over the last two decades to explain Britain's economic decline. It is argued that the explanations are only partially based in economic realities and are contrived to legitimise broader agendas for policy initiatives. The inadequacy of the education and training system emerges as a recurrent theme and has, as a consequence, been subjected to considerable change. However, other explanations for economic decline have been offered: lack of enterprise, lack of flexibility in the workforce and lack of competitiveness. These explanations are examined for their coherence and continuity and for their implications for education and training.