evidence from many countries (including France, Italy, Spain, and the USA) of
over-education, with rising graduate unemployment and the use of a university
degree as a sorting device, producing the paradoxical, and in the long run unstable,
situation whereby young peopleWnd prolonged education increasingly unsatisfac-
tory but increasingly demand it.
Since New Labour was elected in 1997 , the UK government has been a keen
advocate of this skills discourse, establishing the Skills Task Force to develop a
national agenda for skills development, and the National Advisory Group for
Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning to advise on developing a culture
of lifelong learning and widening participation. The UK backed the EU economic
reform agenda agreed at the Lisbon summit in March 2000 , which set the goal for
Europe to become by 2010 ‘the most competitive and knowledge-based economy in
the world capable of sustainable growth and better jobs and greater social cohe-
sion.’ The Barcelona summit (March 2002 ) set the further objective of making
‘European education and training systems a world quality reference by 2010 .’ I n
2001 , the UK government restructured post-compulsory education under the
newly created Learning and Skills Council and in 2003 published a White Paper
outlining the government’s skills strategy, 21 st Century Skills: Realising our Potential,
establishing Sector Skills Councils to align training with labor market needs.
The discourse is diVerent in economies facing economic transformation (as in
the former Soviet Union), restructuring (everywhere, but especially in those
economies with a high proportion of agriculture or primary industries), recon-
struction (as in South Africa), and modernization (in degrees ranging from
Vietnam to Turkey). Skill formation is inevitably central to these processes and
some economists see the development of human capital as more important in
explaining patterns of long-term economic growth than physical capital (Briggs
1987 ). Nevertheless, the same problem is manifest as in the OECD countries: skills
mismatches are common as a result of employer reluctance to provide training and
educational provision insuYciently adapted to the needs of the labor market.
Hence it is important to resist the temptation of seeing training as ‘good’ and
more training as ‘better.’ Training must be adapted to the needs of the individual
and the organization if it is to deliver the beneWts intended and it is to this issue
that the next section is addressed.
16.3 Training
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The objective of training is to ensure that all employees have and maintain the
requisite competences to perform in their roles at work. While the state is typically
328 j o n a t h a n w i n t e r t o n