ABSTRACT
This chapter maps out and overviews policy developments in higher education and the Children’s Workforce. The discussion highlights how the shape and structure of higher education has been influenced by political, social, and economic drivers which have fundamentally altered ideas about the values and principles associated with education. The movement from intrinsic to instrumental values has had a disproportionate impact on some higher education provision, most notably in former polytechnics. These institutions, set up as the vanguard in the democratisation of higher education, have succumbed to neo-liberal policy initiatives that prioritise economic outcomes. These developments have underpinned the reconfiguring of higher education as part of a knowledge economy with links to a variety of quasi-markets in social welfare provision, one of which is the Children’s Workforce. This chapter also discusses the policy background to how the Children’s Workforce has been conceived and how this relates to wider political agendas relating to social justice. It considers how these ideas inform the discourses around professionalisation and the impact this has for those working or aspiring to work in the Children’s Workforce. Finally, the chapter critically evaluates the connections and interconnections between policy developments in higher education and the Children’s Workforce.
