Ken Mayhew

The Impact of Training on Labour Mobility: Individual and Firm-level Evidence from Britain

We investigate the impact of different types of training on the mobility expectations of workers, using three surveys. Most training episodes produce some transferable skills, and most transferable training is paid for by employers. Overall, training has no impact on mobility in three out of every five cases; the remaining cases are split equally between those where training increases and those where it decreases mobility. We find that training is more likely to lead to lower mobility when it is less transferable to other firms, is sponsored by firms, and where its objectives include increasing the identification of employees with corporate objectives.

Moving beyond skills as a social and economic panacea

This article examines two inter-related issues. First, the tendency for UK skills policies to act as a substitute for other social and economic measures. Second, the problem of current conceptualisations of skills policy creating narrowly-drawn, technicist interventions that are frequently incommensurate with the scale of the problems which they purpor t to tackle. The ar ticle suggests that current policy formation processes, particularly in England, are being deployed in a manner that seeks to close off consideration of other potential avenues by which contemporary social and economic problems might be addressed. The case is made for a wider framing of both policy possibilities and avenues for relevant research to support such policy development.

The move to mass higher education in the UK: many questions and some answers

This article describes the course and causes of the expansion of higher education in the UK since the 1960s. The number of university students from modest social backgrounds has increased, but they comprise much the same proportion of the university population as they did 40 years ago. Though personal rates of return from higher education are generally substantial, subject choice matters, while the extent of the returns to society is more problematic. Despite government statements to the contrary, there is still doubt about how productively new graduates will be employed in the labour market. Meanwhile, the sector has had to meet this expansion with tight public funding since the early 1980s. The article considers the impact of this and of the increase in compliance and audit costs. Finally it suggests that the incentive structures applied by the government may have made the different parts of the sector more homogenous than is desirable.

Skill: the solution to low wage work?

During the UK Labour governments 13 years in power, raising skill levels was seen as the principal mechanism to improve the position of workers stuck in low wage jobs. This article draws together research undertaken in low wage sectors to question the assumptions that underlay Labours approach to low pay.

Britain's Training Statistics: A Cautionary Tale

In the last two decades or so education and training have become central in the discussion of Britains economic performance. There have been substantial changes in education and training policy (OECD 1995) and, at the same time, an expansion of participation in post-compulsory education. Both current and recent governments have aimed to raise work-based training through a mixture of persuasion and limited, selective, measures. Yet, there is considerable uncertainty about the extent to which the education and training system is enhancing skills in Britain or, for that matter, in many other countries. This paper concentrates on one dimension of the issue, namely work-based training statistics. There is uncertainty both over the amount of inputs into training and over its impact on skills. It argues that the uncertainty is, in part, the consequence of poor training statistics and that policy debate would benefit from improvements in the ways in which these statistics are compiled and interpreted.

Inequality – ‘wicked problems’, labour market outcomes and the search for silver bullets

In recent years concerns about inequality have been growing in prominence within UK policy debates. The many causes of inequality of earnings and income are complex in their interactions and their tendency to reinforce one another. This makes inequality an intractable or ‘wicked’ policy problem, particularly within a contemporary context in which many of the established policy responses from previous eras are at best discussed in muted terms and more normally deemed to be unavailable. This reflects the eclipse of ‘equality of outcome’ models and the concomitant rise of ‘equality of opportunity’ as the new policy mantra from Thatcher onwards. As traditional policy responses have withered, the role of education and training as a ‘silver bullet’ that can address a host of economic and social challenges has come to the fore. This article outlines policy makers’ beliefs that improving the educational attainment of students from lower socio-economic backgrounds can enable them to compete more effectively for elite jobs, and also that increasing the supply of educated employees can transform the level of demand for skills from employers. These beliefs are then critiqued, with reference to occupational congestion, over-qualification and the evidence that skills supply does not always create its own demand.

Towards a learning society — Definition and measurement

Abstract This article focusses on the fashionable concept of the learning society. It outlines the origins of the idea of a learning society; underscoring the different definitions of the concept that have resulted from two strands of thought ‐ economists and training experts, who have advanced the economic imperative for a more highly educated and skilled national workforce, and educationalists, who have often sought to construct a broader social and political case for an increased emphasis upon learning. The article then goes on to provide a working definition of a learning society; and probes what societal characteristics, infrastructures, expectations, behavioural norms and cultural values would support such a society. An attempt is made to identify criteria that might aid measurement and judgement on the progress of any nation towards the status of a learning society, and the contribution which economics might make to this project is reviewed as an example of the issues and difficulties that will nee...

The Training Reform Act of 1994

Deplores the paucity of vocational education and training (VET) in the UK, especially for the young, citing bad economics as a major reason for the deficiencies. Examines the priorities which need to be addressed in expanding the system, arguing for full‐time versus part‐time training, specialized versus general, adults versus youths, and employer versus self‐sponsorship. Discusses training vis‐a‐vis free tuition, traineeship, required attendance, accreditation and administration, and concludes that the UK must eschew its policy of often ill‐funded and chaotic experimentation (in the guise of flexibility), which it has pursued in the last decade, and emerge from the twilight to devise a strategy based on proven international experience.

Incentives for the Low-Paid: Setting the Scene

Improving incentives for the low-paid is an important objective for the low-paid themselves and for the economy as a whole. Providing a constructive means for people to enhance their well-being by their own efforts is an appropriate social goal. The route may be working longer hours, or seeking out a better-paid job, or acquiring more marketable skills. Improving incentives is a matter of making the extra effort or investment entailed appear worthwhile. This also applies to people not currently receiving a wage, who might be discouraged from labour market participation because they do not regard the expected benefit from working as sufficient (this expected benefit depends not only on gross wage rates attached to particular jobs and on the tax-benefit system but also on the probability of acquiring particular jobs). Thus we should not restrict ourselves to consideration of the currently low-paid, but should also bear in mind the circumstances of groups with a marginal attachment to the labour market, including the unemployed. The economy as a whole can benefit through the extra output produced when the quality and quantity of labour input is increased. This is particularly important when demographic trends point to a fall in the number of young people entering the labour market in the next few years (NEDO, 1988).

Labour Market Developments and Their Significance for VET in England: Current Concerns and Debates.

This chapter discusses the relationship between the labour market and vocational education and training in England. For decades British governments have emphasised the need for more people to stay longer in the formal education system and at the same time have attempted to improve work-based training. They have also emphasised the centrality of vocational education and training in improving national productivity and growth and in alleviating distributional problems. We argue that education and training have made a more limited contribution to these objectives than governments might have hoped. This is because of a very imperfect match between the requirements of the labour market and what the vocational education and training system has produced. We suggest that a greater integration of industrial strategy and education and training policy is needed. More emphasis needs to be placed on apprenticeships and on lower level post-compulsory education rather than on higher education. Greater support is needed for educational interventions in early years in an attempt to reduce class bias in attainment and consequently in labour market opportunities. An overarching problem is that, whilst employer engagement has been a central theme of government policies, the extent of employer buy-in to these policies is unclear.