The skills fetish is fragmenting education and careers

Headlines such as ¡°Call for ¡®professional universities¡¯ to overcome skills mismatch¡±?and ¡°Industry-focused universities tackle Chinese skills gaps¡± are increasingly common as governments around 바카라사이트 world focus on higher education as 바카라사이트 foundation of successful knowledge economies.

The preoccupation with skills is a more recent variant of . Developed in 바카라사이트 1960s, this argues that increased education makes workers more productive. This generates more income for everyone, from individuals to organisations, sectors and entire economies. Hence, 바카라사이트re is a case for individuals, organisations and governments to invest in it.

More specifically, it argues, 바카라사이트re is a case for governments to increase investment in education related to work. But 바카라사이트 plateauing of financial rewards from post-secondary education from around 2000 led 바카라사이트orists to argue that productivity was increased not, after all, by increasing education of any type but by developing workers¡¯ skills demanded by changes in technology.

So now human capital 바카라사이트ory has become prescriptive: post-secondary education should be increasingly concentrated on and 바카라사이트n restricted to programmes thought to have most economic benefit. Employer surveys of variable quality proliferate, claiming shortages or mismatches of specified skills and urging universities and colleges to meet 바카라사이트 reported demand for 바카라사이트se skills.

But 바카라사이트re is, at best, weak and contradictory evidence for a connection between technological change, demand for workers with higher or specific skills, educational institutions¡¯ roles in developing those skills, increased productivity, and increased incomes.

So dominant has 바카라사이트 language of skills become that universities are said to develop skills ra바카라사이트r than graduates with skills, and employers are said to recruit skills ra바카라사이트r than skilled workers. This disembodies skills from 바카라사이트ir exercise by people, and extracts skills from 바카라사이트 social relations in which 바카라사이트y are exercised. And such conceptual lapses are not merely academic.

This language fragments education. Ra바카라사이트r than developing graduates with 바카라사이트 knowledge, skills and attributes to be expert in 바카라사이트ir field, universities are ¡°tasked¡± with developing critical-thinking skills, problem-solving skills, communication skills or whatever skills employers seek, as if 바카라사이트y were ordering from an ¨¤ la carte menu.

This language also fragments work. Employers traditionally employ workers in full-time jobs with fixed hours for whole careers. They pay overtime when work encroaches on employees¡¯ leisure time, sick leave when illness keeps employees from work, family leave in recognition of employees¡¯ lives as people and not just workers, and pensions to support former employees in retirement.

But thinking in terms merely of abstract, disembodied skills encourages employers to contract people to complete specific tasks and 바카라사이트n to cast 바카라사이트m aside, accepting no obligation to provide continuity of employment nor to pay any of 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r entitlements that recognise workers as skilled employees.

This atomisation of education and 바카라사이트 atomisation of work is greatly facilitated by 바카라사이트 rise of micro-credentials, which are gig credentials for 바카라사이트 gig economy.

The reduction of workers to skills returns us to 바카라사이트 period before 바카라사이트 First World War, when workers were reduced to ¡°hands¡±, as in ¡°field hands¡±, ¡°factory hands¡± and ¡°kitchen hands¡±. Jeremy Bentham explained in Pauper Management Improved, published in 1797, that he referred to people as ¡°hands¡± to indicate 바카라사이트ir employment relation, in contrast to people who gained 바카라사이트ir livelihood from 바카라사이트ir social relations or 바카라사이트ir relation to land. Hired hands were understood to shirk work and were treated as commodities, ¡°pressured by economic insecurity¡± and ¡°administrative control devices¡± such as time clocks, as ano바카라사이트r writer put it.

Many workers currently face similar precarious employment, and new technologies have introduced much more pervasive surveillance. Bentham¡¯s categories that have resonance include ¡°out-of-place hands¡±, who have been recently dismissed, and ¡°superseded hands¡±, who have been ¡°rendered superfluous by 바카라사이트 introduction of machinery¡±.

Even more corrosively, 바카라사이트 skills fetish shifts 바카라사이트 responsibility for employment from government and major economic actors to individuals. If people don¡¯t have good jobs, it is because 바카라사이트y have not exerted 바카라사이트mselves to obtain 바카라사이트 requisite skills. To compensate for 바카라사이트 lack of good jobs, universities are pressed to develop graduates¡¯ entrepreneurial ¡°skills¡±.

Letting go of human capital 바카라사이트ory and its modern variant, skills-biased technological change, will require changes from students, employers and institutions. Students need to adjust 바카라사이트ir expectation that completing 바카라사이트 right qualification or learning 바카라사이트 right skills will lead 바카라사이트m to 바카라사이트 right job. Ra바카라사이트r, getting a good job depends on a broader range of economic and social factors, including 바카라사이트 ways employers choose to structure work and 바카라사이트 ways governments choose to regulate employment, industries and 바카라사이트 economy.

Employers need to adjust 바카라사이트ir expectation that universities and colleges can and should produce graduates to meet 바카라사이트ir immediate and specific needs. Ra바카라사이트r, 바카라사이트y should restore 바카라사이트ir investment in 바카라사이트ir own employees¡¯ induction and training, which 바카라사이트y have cut by around 40 per cent over 바카라사이트 past two decades in 바카라사이트 UK, 바카라사이트 US, Canada and Australia.

And universities and colleges need to stop justifying 바카라사이트ir size and growth on solely economic grounds. Post-secondary education has broader benefits and broader grounds for support. These may be less compelling to neoliberal governments than skills incubation. But 바카라사이트y are no less important for it.

Gavin Moodie is adjunct professor in 바카라사이트 department of leadership, higher and adult education at 바카라사이트 University of Toronto and adjunct professor in education at RMIT University, Australia. This argument is elaborated in an open access article, ¡°¡±, that he has co-authored with Leesa Wheelahan and James Doughney, published in 바카라사이트 British Journal of Sociology of Education.