A main theme of this book has been that despite the gospel of salvation through education, changes in work and occupations have increased inequality and reduced the certainty of employment. For the majority of the younger generation this has led to a serious mismatch between employment opportunities and their educational qualifications, expectations and aspirations. Instead of ‘moving up’, many young people face the possibility of downward mobility into low-paid, low-skilled employment, so that the risk of being ‘underemployed’ is at least as great as being unemployed. Chapter One recounted the history of how this happened. Chapter Two pointed to the increase in low-skilled, low-paid jobs at the expense of managerial and professional high-paid ones. Chapter Three saw this as reflected in a ‘pear-shaped’ occupational structure, with the majority of people ‘pushed down’ rather than ‘pulled up’. Chapter Four described the consequences for schools and universities where the mass of students find themselves running up a down-escalator.

This chapter suggests specific policy responses as well as indicating a general way forward. It begins by considering what can be done about widening access to all levels of learning, and stressing the importance of preventing further divisive academic selection. The block put on progress by England’s uniquely dominant private schools is acknowledged. With little practicable to be done immediately about these, this chapter looks briefly at an alternative approach from the National Union of Teachers (NUT) as an instance of a new democratic professionalism. This is contrasted with traditional politics of education, questioning its habitual demands for teacher training, qualification reform and local authority control. Instead, a new youth politics is anticipated, and the record of demonstration and riot is briefly reviewed, as well as the reactions of other campaigning groups to youth demands.

Foremost among these is advocacy of the abolition of world record level undergraduate fees. (This will be no more expensive than the money wasted through their non-repayment.) Further education needs to be saved before it is too late, and regional linkages established to recreated colleges by schools and universities to limit academic competition and institutional differentiation. This, in turn, relates to regional regeneration of a diversified economy, taking as many 18+-year-olds as possible on through a school leaving diploma to further study and/or training to opportunities for employment.