The high skills project and the limits of possibility: a response to Coffield

In 2003, we wrote a critical reply to Frank Coffield’s reflections in this journal on the significance of the Performance and Innovation Unit’s project on workforce development for the future direction of skills policy in England. As Coffield made clear in a rejoinder, underpinning our arguments are fundamental disagreements about what would be required to tackle the low skills equilibrium and develop the UK as a high skills society. Coffield criticised our project for being unrealistic and as offering no threat to the status quo. In this reply, we respond to these criticisms before subjecting Coffield’s own policy recommendations to closer scrutiny. The danger with following his approach is that it not only results in academics setting their sights too low but is overly optimistic about what can be achieved by working with policy makers given current political and ideological constraints.