ABSTRACT
Higher levels of training and education will be needed for the increase in higher level jobs. New skills will be needed to take advantage of developments in new technologies and new materials. The complexity of the debate concerning skill which is evident in the literature also emerges from the analysis of the primary data which follows the overview of previous work into the conceptualisation of skill. The skills which the office respondents of Bristol Insurance saw themselves as possessing and the skills which are seen as necessary for office work are, to an extent, beyond the scope of Braverman’s mechanical task based definition of skill and provide evidence for the need for skill definition to be expanded to include social as well as technical skills. There is a clear historical association between heavy factory work which requires physical strength and the required gender of the workers who possess such abilities.
