ABSTRACT
The period from 1974 to 1981 was one in which there was an expansion in the scope and range of activities encompassed by the MSC. Yet there were two milestone events during this period. The first was in April 1978 when with the launch of the Youth Opportunities Scheme (YOPS) the MSC acquired fame if not always prestige, and the second a year later when the election of Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister brought its entire future under a cloud of doubt. Although the continuation of the MSC was confirmed in 1981, which emboldened it to introduce the New Training Initiative (NTI), its period of unquestioned growth was clearly at an end. It was during the 1973 to 1981 stage in its development, however, that the MSC came closest to ‘corporatist’ behaviour, when the ten-member Commission (representing the peak organizations of the two sides of industry) actually enjoyed substantial influence over the formation of industrial training policy.
