Editorial

Citation

Holden, R. (2004), "Editorial", Education + Training, Vol. 46 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/et.2004.00446aaa.001

Editorial

I used to be an avid "cutter outer" of articles from the press – anything from Lucy Kellaways' column in the Financial Times to case studies demonstrating effective organisational leadership. I tended not to read these properly, but instead leave them scattered over the office floor like some sort of alternative carpet. I now try to read and chuck rather than cut and collect. But if I look over the office floor there are a couple that stand out from 2003. One, from the summer has the headline, "Graduating to a dead end job" and purports to report on a decline in graduate vacancies in the UK. The other, more recently, proclaims "Vocational higher education vital to boost skills" and reports on the need for more people with degree qualifications if Britain's productivity is to be improved.

Something doesn't seem quite right here. Are the articles looking at the same thing? Do they reflect some deep seated political difference? Is one or other of them based on dodgy data? Or, are both just snapshots of a complicated bigger picture? Post 16 learning is complicated. Its purpose, its structures, its relationship with work and employment, is fraught with tensions and ambiguities. If we take the subject of the second press item, foundation degrees, it is not difficult to identify a raft of questions concerning their rationale, their positioning, their credibility and their future. Sometimes the complexity is masked by competing slogans. The university fees debate in the UK seems almost wholly bereft of any consideration of what the wider purposes of higher education might be other than to increase the likelihood that they will get sufficiently well paid jobs to enable them to pay off their debt.

For me the complexity, the tensions and ambiguities, which surface week in week out throughout the worlds of post 16 learning, underpins Education + Training; whether they are played out in the hallowed corridors of Oxford or Cambridge, on the shopfloor of a garage in Barrow, or indeed over the electronic airways. It is the Journal's role to address the complexity, to get beyond the seemingly incongruous headlines and ask the searching questions and report on the relevant detailed research.

This first issue of the year provides an appropriately eclectic mix of articles but which all sit comfortably on the E+T agenda. Reva Brown and Sean McCartney challenge us to think about capability and whether the development of capability is a meaningful concept. Ulla Hytti and Colm O'Gorman's article and Eric Sandelands's interview with Leonard Waks demonstrate powerfully that the issues at the heart of their papers (enterprise in education; the purposes and structures of higher education) are not issues peculiar to the UK. Closer to home Alan Peacock and Rob Bowker address student placements and Margaret Taylor provides a real insight into the sensitive issue of access to HE by disabled learners.

The second headline I quoted above relates to research undertaken by the Learning and Skills Development Agency. I remain a little unsure as to how the LSDA sits vis-à-vis the DfES and its research agenda. Nevertheless, it is encouraging to see this body, in conjunction with the Learning and Skills Research Centre, getting to grips with some of the important research questions in the context of post 16 learning. In this context I am delighted to introduce Dr Vikki Smith as Associate Editor. Vikki is currently Development Adviser for the LSDA's "Raising Quality and Achievement" programme, with a remit for action research development projects across the post-compulsory sector. She has wealth of research experience in vocational education and training both in the UK and in Australia and is a most welcome addition to the editorial team.

I am also very pleased to announce that Dr James Athanasou of the University of Technology, Sydney, Dr Erica Smith of Charles Sturt University, Dr Stefan Wolter of the Swiss Coordination Centre for Research in Education and Amanda Cahir-O'Donnell, Head of Learning & Development at AIB Capital Markets have all accepted invitations to join the journal's editorial advisory board. I welcome them to the team and look forward to working with them over the coming year. I would also like to add a note of grateful thanks to the existing E+T editorial team for their efforts and commitment over 2003.

Here's to a thoughtful and interesting 2004!

Rick HoldenEditor, Leeds Business School, UK