Research On Skills Policy Of England In The 21st Century

Since the end of 1990 s and the beginning of the new century,the training of skilled talents has become the core focus of economic and social development and education reform in the world.As a country with liberalism and elitism as its educational tradition,since entering the new century,the England Labour Party led by Blair has changed the former Ministry of Education and Employment into the Ministry of Education and Skills,and made “skill priority” as the basic strategy of economic and social development.Since the Blair administration,England has experienced the succession of several prime ministers,such as Brown,Cameron and Teresa May,but the training of skilled talents has always been the core issue of economic and social development and education reform in England.In the past 20 years,successive England governments have devoted their wisdom to the training of skilled talents at the height of national development strategy,promoted the reform of the policy of training skilled talents from different angles and in many aspects,and strived to provide citizens with opportunities for lifelong skills training,enhance their qualifications and employability,and the skill base of the country,which aims to achieve the goals of economic development,industrial transformation,social inclusion and individual citizen growth.As a traditional industrialized country with a tradition of liberalism,since the 21 st century,why has England continued to promote the reform of skilled talents training policy from the national strategic height? What are the causes and characteristics of the reform?Around these problems,taking the establishment of the Department of Education and Skills in England in 2001 as a research starting point,according to the ruling party and the replacement of the prime minister,adopting the education policy phenomenon—essence angle and multi-origin theoretical analysis framework,the study analyzed the policy process and characteristics of skills talents training strategy and policies from 2001 to 2018 in England from three dimensions of value choice,profit distribution,power operation.On the above basis,the policy implementation effects of skills talents training policy and its influence are summarized,the main conclusions are as follows.From the perspective of policy changing,the systematic development of England skilled talents training policy in the 21 st century takes the reflection and revision of liberal historical tradition as the logical starting point.From 2001 to 2015,it has gone through a path of gradualism change.The reform,which started in 2016 with the goal of reconstructing and equally recognizing the path of high-level technical education with academic education,has realized paradigm change of training policy.From the perspective of policy essence,the skills training policy in the 21 st century presents distinct characteristics: in terms of value selection,skilled talents have always been regarded as the core lever of economic development and social equity;in terms of benefit distribution,it strives to build a life-long learning,serving the whole people and demand-driven skills system.In the operation of power,it strives to achieve a balance between government regulation,enterprise-led,educational institution autonomy and individual choice.From the perspective of motivation of policy changing,the skills policy reform in England in the 21 st century is the result of many factors,such as political economy,historical tradition,bipartisan politics and international influence.The first is the result of the England government's reflection and lessons learned from its long-standing weak development of vocational education,imperfect training system of technical and skilled talents and the resulting low productivity level and decline in international competitiveness since the 20 th century;the second is the result of its adaptation and innovation to the international trends and foreign experiences in the context of economic globalization,knowledge-based economy and the development of the new scientific and technological revolution.Third,the ruling party has made positive policy choices to cope with the domestic social and economic pressures such as low productivity,financial crisis and unbalanced industrial structure based on the new ruling concept.In this process,the New Labour Party's “Third Way” thought and Cameron's “Great Society” concept have played an important role in this process.From the point of implementation effects,skills talents training policy changes in the the 21 st century has achieved some success in raising the level of the population overall skills and qualifications,building perfect skills talents training system,improving the productivity and employment of the state,and so on,but there are still a certain gap from the desired policy objectives,remains to be sustained,stable push related reform.Nevertheless,in the 21 st century,the England continued to promote the reform of skilled talents training from the national strategic perspective,which can provide us with some experience and reflections.This is mainly reflected in the following aspects: the training of skilled personnel is a major strategic issue concerning the national economic and social development;the training of skilled personnel is a lifelong,civil and hierarchical system of personnel training;the training of skilled personnel should adopt the governance mechanism with extensive participation of stakeholders,especially industrial enterprises;modern apprenticeship is the most effective form of training for skilled personnel.