Edinburgh Napier University

  Policy makers in Scotland, the other British nations and across the industrialised world have sought to increase
participation in work-related training as a route to improved competitiveness. However, research conducted in
Britain during the 1990s identified significant differences in participation, suggesting that processes of labour
market polarisation were being played out in unequal access to training. This article updates this work through
an analysis of British Labour Force Survey data.
We found that older workers, the lower skilled and
unqualified, part-timers and temporary workers (among
others) remained disadvantaged in terms of access to
work-related training. Trade union presence had powerful
positive effects on participation, and mitigated some
inequalities for private sector employees. A more detailed version of this article, and the full data analysis, has
been published by the journal ‘Economic and Industrial
Democracy’, and can be downloaded from the journal
website http://eid.sagepub.com/