For many years, British scientific and technical education has been regarded as inadequate and poor in comparison to competing countries. The deficiencies of the British education system and its failure to support and promote vocational education and training to create "human capital" in the labor force have been seen as a large factor in Britain's economic decline since the 1870s. Michael Sanderson examines education's supposed part--or not--in this decline and focuses on those issues where education has been seen to fail the needs of the economy.
