Vocational education and training under the New Deal: towards a social theory of lifelong learning in the postschool sector

Abstract

New Labour policy on vocational education and training (VET) in the postschool sector is analysed against the background of a social theory of lifelong learning intended to balance the dominant economistic emphases with the avowed social inclusion and general learning culture objectives of current initiatives. The New Deal Welfare to Work (WtW) programme – a flagship lifelong learning project – is examined in terms of the ‘relief, recovery, reform’ aims that characterised the original American New Deal in the 1930s. In quantitative terms, the national outcomes of WtW schemes are impressive and positive in achieving a large part of the relief and recovery strands, though the qualitative data indicate that there is still much work to be done in the area of fundamental reforms in the postschool VET sector in general and WtW in particular. A number of recommendations for reform in New Deal practices are offered in the light of the main elements of the social theory of lifelong learning outlined.