Further education (FE) has traditionally been a rather unspectacular activity. Lacking the visibility of schools or the prestige of universities, for the vast majority of its existence FE has had a relatively low profile on the margins of English education. Over recent years this situation has altered significantly and further education has…

The General Election is over. People now know that the policies for lifelong learning will remain as before: to promote competitiveness through skills and access to educational opportunities for groups previously denied them. The list of potential beneficiaries is a long one: (1) working class people in general (especially those with basic skills…

Social class has strongly influenced the development of social policies about adult education. Present policy discourses are a result of weakening working-class interests.

This article focuses on global trends in education policy during the current epoch of imperializing, militaristic, neo-liberal global capital. It is based on an analysis that global capital, in the form of dominant US multinational capital, together with its client governments, uses the repressive and ideological apparatuses of the state to…