Traditionally, skills policies in the UK have focused primarily upon boosting the
supply of skills as a route to improved economic prosperity as well as social
inclusion/mobility. However, some academic commentators have argued that this
approach is insufficient and that more attention needs to be given to addressing
problems of weak employer demand for, and utilisation of, skills. Recently, some of
these ideas have begun to be taken up by sections of the policy community. Issues
around skills demand and utilisation figured prominently in Scotland’s 2007 skills
strategy, and are now beginning to inform new forms of policy experimentation. The
UK Commission for Employment and Skills has also argued that ‘the future
employment and skills system will need to invest as much effort on raising employer
ambition, on stimulating demand, as it does on enhancing skills supply’. In light of
these developments, the paper examines some of the challenges confronting skills
policy in England under the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition
government, and considers the prospects for a more integrative and holistic approach
to tackling the ‘skills problem’. It argues that the political and ideological space for
such an approach is limited in England with skills policy likely to focus mainly upon
skills supply, albeit with vastly diminished state funding/subsidy
