Why is academic education triumphant in a skills-hungry labour market?

Governments around the world are increasingly preoccupied with the financial 'returns' to education; and yet are overseeing the destruction of long-established and once-effective vocational education systems. Why is this? And is it inevitable?

Meet our speaker and chair

Alison Wolf is the Sir Roy Griffiths Professor of Public Sector Management, and she sits as a cross-bench peer (Baroness Wolf of Dulwich) in the House of Lords. She specialises in the relationship between education and the labour market. She has a particular interest in: training and skills policy including apprenticeships and the role of universities in modern societies. Alison has been seconded part-time to central government since 2020, as an expert adviser on skills and manpower policy. In 2022 she was appointed to the Advisory Council for the UK government’s Levelling Up strategy.

Richard Layard is co-director of the community wellbeing programme in the Centre for Economic Performance at LSE.

More about this event

The Centre for Economic Performance (@CEP_LSE) is an interdisciplinary research centre at the LSE Research Laboratory. It was established by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in 1990 and is now one of the leading economic research groups in Europe.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEEducation

Podcast & Video

A podcast of this event is available to download from The Paradox of Vocational Education. 

A video of this event is available to watch at The Paradox of Vocational Education. 

Podcasts and videos of many LSE events can be found at the LSE Public Lectures and Events: podcasts and videos channel.