Learning Policy: Towards the Certified Society

The emergence of learning policy is traced through a concise history of postwar UK education and training. The 1944 settlement is seen to be replaced by a new settlement marked by the 1988 Education and the 1992 Further and Higher Education Acts. This also signals a change from the classic, postwar welfare state to a postwelfare, workfare or "contracting state". This new state form is illustrated by examining the new system of "Foundation" and "Lifelong Learning" from primary to postgraduate schools.