Further education participation, European expansion and European erasure

Brine, Jacky

Abstract

From within the context of the planned expansion of the European Union (EU) to include the 12 applicant states from central and eastern Europe and the predicted reduction of the European financial support given to the UK, the article draws on empirical data to explore the impact of the European Social Fund (ESF) on the further education sector and the process of widening participation. Despite the significance of the ESF in implementing vocational education and training (VET) policy, it has been consistently erased by both the Conservative and Labour administrations. Whereas this erasure can be traced back to Britain's membership in 1973, the focus of the article is on the period 1997-2000, for Labour's Welfare to Work policies draw heavily on the financial support given by the EU through the ESF. It is suggested that, whereas the continued erasure of the Fund can be contextualised by the continued (and politically contentious) membership of the EU, its public erasure enables it to play a vital, flexible and unaccountable role in the VET policies of Conservative and Labour administrations.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Feb 1, 2002
• Journal: British Educational Research Journal
• Print ISSN: 0141-1926
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-3518
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 28
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 21-36
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01411920120109720
• Keywords: further education participation, European expansion, European Erasure
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1082192
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01411920120109720