Professor Ewart Keep, SKOPE, Cardiff School of
Social Sciences, Cardiff University
"Education and Industry - An Overview and
Critique of Current Thinking"
This seminar reflects on three decades of education and industry
interaction. The aim will be to explore topics that sometimes get
shunted to one side. With youth unemployment high and rising,
public money scarce and about to become scarcer, educational
institutions under severe pressure, and the UK Commission for
Employment and Skills (UKCES, 2009) offering a fresh definition and
analysis of the causes of the UK's 'skills problem' (one based
around weak demand and poor skill utilisation, rather than failings
of supply), the time seems ripe to pose some big questions about
the conceptual backdrop against which the bulk of
education/industry collaboration takes place.
Professor Ewart Keep is one of the most prominent academic
commentators on the subject of employer engagement in education. He
is the Deputy Director of SKOPE (ESRC Centre on Skills, Knowledge
and Organisational Performance) and is based at the Cardiff
University, School of Social Sciences. His research interests
include: lifelong learning policy, learning organisations, the
management of the VET system, employer's attitudes towards skills
and what shapes these, and the nature of the relationship between
skills and performance.
Download Ewart's PowerPoint presentation