ABSTRACT
The history of training in Britain during the 20th century makes remarkably depressing reading (Hamlin, 1995). In general, it is one of a failure to provide the right skill mix in sufficient numbers for the economy. Latterly, largescale unemployment has been created because the pool of potential employees have few or obsolete “marketable skills”. Hamlin believes that repeated failed attempts to improve the nation’s training systems have resulted from two entrenched traditions: controlled apprenticeships and voluntarism.
