The Routledge encyclopaedia of UK education, training and employment: from the earliest statutes to the present day

Abstract

The development of human capital in the UK (like in many other developed nations) has evolved rapidly in recent years. Unfortunately however, the changing nature, range and variety of systems, initiatives and agencies relating particularly to the fields of education, training and employment has invariably rendered this area (i.e., the development of human resource base) almost impenetrable to professionals and ordinary persons interested in making sense of the profound operations and relationships between its component parts. This problem is caused, more than anything else, by the lack of recognition of the overlapping nature of these three distinctive fields (i.e., education, training and employment) and the need to coordinate and join up activities in these areas. Through a thorough examination of materials from wide-ranging UK sources (i.e., publications from the Department of Work and Pensions; papers from the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, and their predecessors; and every annual report produced by the numerous education departments across the UK from 1839), this book has attempted and succeeded in capturing detailed information about the various bodies, agencies and initiatives that have developed in the UK over time in the area of development of human capital. Truly, the book has lived up to every word of its title. With relevant entries exceeding 1500, it has indeed crossed knowledge boundaries, providing for the first time in the history of the UK, and in the author’s own words, ‘an integrated map of national human capital development, and of the history, development and relationships between education, training and employment’ (xxxix).