ABSTRACT
The conventional wisdom is that Britain under-trains its labour force, both compared with the standards of international counterparts and with the internal needs and challenges of an economy facing increased competition in the 1990s. The inadequacies of the British vocational educational and training system have been keenly debated over the last decade, both in the face of rising levels of youth unemployment and now, as we approach a significant downturn in the numbers of young people available for work (MSC, 1982; Sanderson, 1988; OECD, 1983; Finegold and Soskice, 1988; White, 1988, Fonda and Hayes, 1988; Keep and Mayhew, 1988; Coopers and Lybrand, 1985; Hart, 1989 and Davis, 1986).
