This is a concise account of the current difficulties in education and employment, offering positive strategies for future policy. Education and training faces its own credit crunch as unemployment rises. The growing lack of legitimation creates a space for an open debate on its future and purpose. The coherent account presented in this book contributes to this debate by concisely explaining how what sometimes appears to be an almost terminal crisis in schools, colleges and universities is related to the changing relationship between young people, educational qualifications and employment in the early 21st century. Uniquely, the authors combine their experience of teaching at all levels to present a comprehensive analysis ranging from primary to postgraduate schools. Accessible and direct in style, it argues that radical alternatives are required and that for the first time opportunities exist to have a wider debate about not only what education is for, but also what it could be for. The book ends with positive proposals for future strategies bringing together students and teachers in new conceptions of education and democracy as the only way to break the impasse in education at all levels.