Hilary Steedman

Productivity, Machinery and Skills: Clothing Manufacture in Britain and Germany

This study compares samples of matched plants in Britain and Germany engaged in the manufacture of womens outerwear; it follows earlier matched plant studies, also published in the National Institute Economic Review, which examined matched plants in metalworking and furniture manufacture in these two countries. German clothing manufacturers specialise in high-fashion items produced in great variety of which a high proportion is exported at high unit prices; the typical British manufacturer concentrates on more standardised items produced in long runs and is consequently more vulnerable to competition from lower-cost producers in developing countries. The study examines the contribution of machinery, new technology and skills to differ ences in clothing productivity in the two countries. A final section discusses future trends in the industry in the light of the 1992 proposals for a Single European Market.

Five Years of the Modern Apprenticeship Initiative: An Assessment against Continental European Models

Government has promised that Britain will build a vocational route based on apprenticeship to match that found in the rest of Europe. However, judged on the first five years of Modern Apprenticeship, every important aspect of apprenticeship in Britain will need to be strengthened and improved if the government’s aspirations are to be realised.

A Decade of Skill Formation in Britain and Germany

Abstract The 1980s marked the beginning of an era of activity and change in vocational training in Britain marked most notably by the introduction of National Vocational Qualifications, government funding for Youth Training, the expansion of Further Education and the creation of the Training and Enterprise Councils. One of the principal aims of all these initiatives was to increase the volume of training in Britain, in particular at the intermediate skill level. In Germany, by contrast, the dual system has remained unchanged in its basic principles and operations. This article reviews quantitative trends in skill formation at the intermediate (craft) level in engineering and construction over the past decade in Britain and Germany and provides a new assessment of standards aimed at in construction in the two countries. It appears that the volume of training provided in the engineering and construction sectors in Britain has not increased over the decade. In engineering the level has remained roughly const...

Shifting Foundations: the Impact of NVQs on Youth Training for the Building Trades

The (1990) regulations for Youth Training (YT) combined with the introduction of assessment to NVQ standards have led to a significant reduction in the amount of mathematics taught to young building trainees compared both to the previous City and Guilds qualification and compared to what is required for young people on similar courses in France and Germany. The linking of YT funding to outcomes of NVQ assessment without proper guarantees of independence for college-based assessors has resulted in damaging pressures on colleges to deny entry to poorly-qualified trainees and to pass students who are only barely competent. The article concludes that young people on YT should be entitled to receive general education in addition to occupational competence in order to bring their provision into line with mainstream 16-19 provision in Britain, to ensure future flexibility and adaptability and to match training standards for 16-19 year olds in other European countries.

Basic Competence in Mathematics: Swedish and English 16 Year Olds.

The transition to mass participation in post-16 education, which had occurred considerably earlier in other European countries, has finally taken place in England. However, high drop-out and failure rates persist, particularly on vocational qualification routes. Our hypothesis is that an important factor is the lack of basic competence of lower-achieving English students in the key skills English language and Mathematics required for success in further study. Our research addresses the validity of the argument by investigating whether any significant difference can be detected between the skills of English students entering post-compulsory education and those of students in countries where drop-out and failure rates are low. The country investigated in this study is Sweden where participation of 16-year-olds in post-compulsory education is currently over 90 per cent; and where some 90 per cent of those enrolling normally obtain an academic or vocational qualification. Some GCSE Maths questions were incorporated into the national test taken by Swedish 16-year-olds at the end of compulsory schooling; and significant differences were found in the scores of the lower 40 per cent of the cohort in the two countries. The results are consistent with the hypothesis; and also go beyond previous Swedish-English comparisons, which reflect the general emphasis in international studies on younger age groups (typically 9 and 13-year-olds).