Training Without Jobs

Book excerpt: For more than a century the state has prohibited children from obtaining full time employment and it has assumed increasing control over the conditions awaiting school leavers in the labour market. This book traces these developments from the introduction of compulsory schooling to the creating of the two year Youth Training Scheme. It draws on a wealth of empirical studies of young people at school and at work both to illustrate how raising the school leaving age to 16 failed to deliver what it promised, and to reveal how the Conservative government elected in 1979 redefined the relationship between education, training and work. Through a detailed critique of the development and politics of the Manpower Services Commission, the book shows how the power of the state has been used to manage and contain the political crisis of mass unemployment. It also reveals, however, that young people are unlikely to accept meekly the new social and economic status that the government has created for them. Many have little confidence in the cynical offers of Training Without Jobs.