Examining business-driven education reform by new policy actors: a discursive analysis of UpSkill Houston

Abstract

ABSTRACT Over the past 35 years, a range of ‘new’ policy actors and networks has emerged from the private sector under the rationale of efficient, free-market alternatives to traditional public policymakers. Under a critical policy studies framework, this paper uses discourse analysis and interviews with key stakeholders to examine how one regional workforce development initiative – the UpSkill Houston initiative – promotes a business-driven vision of education reform. We find that their programmatic narratives promote this vision through a focus on closing the ‘skills gap’ and tailoring education to best meet the labor needs of regional industries. We further note that UpSkill Houston espouses a skills-based vision of a worker pipeline directly from the education sector into high-growth regional industries. We situate UpSkill Houston’s programmatic narrative within an expanding number of private regional workforce development initiatives that seek to leverage postsecondary public education resources to support regional business interests. We argue that initiatives such as UpSkill Houston are important to investigate, as they are among an increasing trend of new education policy actors and networks that exert control over education policy.