This chapter argues that training may do little to improve the skills of the British workforce where it is undertaken in response to government regulations on health and safety or to occupational requirements, or as the outcome of drives to achieve quality ‘kitemarks’ or standards. The significance of this type of training appears to have grown in the recession. For example, off-the-job training courses have become much shorter during the recession and more qualifications are now being awarded for short courses, suggesting that they may not be of a particularly high standard and certainly not of any depth. Yet these factors have helped to maintain training volumes in economic circumstances which have hitherto seen training cut back.

It would therefore be incorrect to conclude that it was unbridled market forces that held up training activity in the early 1990s, with British employers at last realizing the importance of training for their own and Britain's long-term future. On the contrary, it is argued in this chapter that the force of regulation has served to protect training from the business cycle. While the maintenance of this sort of training should be welcomed, it may well do little to upgrade the skills of the British workforce and thereby lay the grounds for a more prosperous future.

Even where [training] provision exists, it can often be highly vulnerable when recession or restructuring make their demands. Training is costly and may not always be seen as producing a prompt return.