This book assesses the efforts of successive British government policies to promote the vocational education, training and employment of young people. Based on extensive field research, it presents a comprehensive survey of this important and developing branch of labour economics. The author looks at the subject both historically and analytically, using an examination of human capital theory and the economic theory of training to provide a context for his research.

He relates demographic, educational, economic and technological developments to the effects of successive government training and employment schemes on young people, on employers and on the national economy. He looks at the relationship between the attainment of skills by young people on official training schemes and the demand for skills, and goes on to examine the views of critics of government policies and the reactions of the trade unions.

Through a comparison with the alternative, no-policy position, Mr Deakin detects an erratic policy-learning process which has important implications for future government policy in this area.