Training and Enterprise Councils as Facilitators of a Networked Approach to Local Economic Development: Forms, Mechanisms, and Existing Interpretations

Abstract

The author reviews and examines the relevant literature concerning the role that networks have played in the local economic development activities of Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs), The analysis focuses on TECs as actors within, and catalysts of, networks—specifically at the local level. TEC mechanisms for economic development and the forms of TEC-facilitated networks are considered, and it is argued that a networking approach has gradually permeated TEC strategies both as a specific policy tool and as an instrument for improving the effectiveness of other support initiatives and programmes. The author finds the existence of a dichotomy between the relatively positive finds of Government-sponsored evaluations of TECs and those of more critical academic studies.