Skills Governance and the Workforce Development Programme

Overview & Synopsis

In the United Kingdom higher education environment, government may make efforts to encourage institutions to engage in governance structures to secure policy objectives through a steering approach. In this article connections between skills governance structures and the recent Higher Education Funding Council for England workforce development programme are examined in the context of the wider implementation of the Leitch Review of Skills in England. Using analysis of policy documents, submissions to a select committee inquiry, and a series of interviews undertaken at higher education institutions, limited co-ordination between skills governance and institutions is identified, which is likely to have been a consequence both of the open-ended approach taken by government to the implementation of this policy in higher education and the ineffectiveness of governance approaches as mechanisms for steering higher education institutions in the United Kingdom.