Short‐term policy and the changing institutional landscape of post‐16 education and training: the case of learning partnerships in England, Scotland and Wales

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Abstract
This article assesses the role of Learning Partnerships in England and equivalent bodies in Scotland and Wales, as an example of a post‐16 education and training initiative and its articulation via public sector institutions. The article uses new survey evidence across Britain. It demonstrates that Learning Partnerships have been one further element in the ever shifting landscape of post‐16 education and training and its institutional structures. The initiative has tended to be short‐term, leading to uncertainty and confusion among actors. In England changes are characterized by a tendency for central government to exert more control in an attempt to improve coherence. Each new initiative has tended to be piled upon old ones. For English Learning Partnerships the result has been an emphasis on operational issues such as labour market infrastructure, rather than strategies, with the involvement of business in target setting and management of Learning Partnerships more symbolic than real. In Scotland and to a lesser extent Wales, however, the experiment of Learning Partnerships has been more positive. Nevertheless, their future depends still further on central government bodies, such as the Learning and Skills Council in England, Careers Scotland and the Welsh ELWa. As a result, our assessment shows that in most cases Learning Partnerships, except in Scotland, are peripheral to strategic policy arrangements and are likely to remain so.