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Learning and Working from the Msc to New Labour: Young People, Skills and Employment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

Lorna Unwin
Lorna Unwin*
Affiliation:
Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies (LLAKES), and Institute of Education, University of London
*
E-mail: L.Unwin@ioe.ac.uk
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Abstract

This paper argues that successive governments since the 1980s have struggled to establish the necessary foundations to enable the majority of young people to make effective and supported transitions from education to the labour market and, further, to create labour market conditions that protect and nurture young people's potential. The paper sets its analysis within a time-frame that began in 1981 and has come full circle in 2010 with the Labour Government's announcement of the Young Person's Guarantee. Whilst acknowledging that current economic conditions, and the predicted severe cuts in public spending, will make it difficult for an incoming government to make significant changes, the paper argues that new approaches are required to revitalise both the economy and individual life chances.

Keywords

YouthskillsrecessionapprenticeshipdemandI121I128
Type
Research Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 212 , April 2010 , pp. R49 - R60
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

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