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This article presents information on the role played by education and training on developing skills required for the effective functioning of the British economy. The policies being developed emphasize on more years of formal education, followed by an individual commitment to lifelong learning, as the means to achieve the twin aims of economic growth and social inclusion. Therefore, a vocational education and training program was developed which increasingly focused on meeting the demand of large corporations.

This paper examines the origins of state educational systems in Europe in the nineteenth century and the institutionalization of mass education throughout the world in the twentieth century. We offer a theoretical interpretation of mass state-sponsored schooling that emphasizes the role of education in the nation-building efforts of states competing with one another within the European interstate system. We show that political, economic, and cultural developments in Europe led to a model of the legitimate national society that became highly institutionalized in the European (and later, world) cultural frame. This model made the construction of a mass educational system a major and indispensable component of every modern state's activity. We discuss the usefulness of this perspective for understanding recent cross-national studies of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a reprint of the article "Teaching Development at Graduate Level in Britain," edited Dudley Seers, which appeared in the Volume 11, Number 3 1980 issue of the "IDS Bulletin." Courses in development studies in Great Britain are said to be in direct and active competition with similar potential or actual courses offered in developing countries.