ABSTRACT
The implementation of policy is rarely dependent on cost alone: it also tends to be bound up with society and its values. The task of this chapter is to discover which factors influenced the debate about further education such that the political consensus portrayed in the 1944 Education Act failed to maintain its momentum. Post-war, the need to demonstrate some alteration to existing social relations became part of the policy agenda. Equal opportunity for all became significant as sociologists began to link life experience with an individual's capability to take advantage of opportunities presented. Academic discourse suggested that economic and social factors were limiting the ability of working class children to reach their potential. Technical and commercial education became victims of the social context in which they were placed: the battle for industrial competence was lost as plans for technical training to be on a par with universities was circumvented.
