The various efforts to reform the systems that provide for improved levels of education and training have not so far provided a compelling answer to the central paradox of skills in the early 21st century:

While maximising the talents of the whole population matters more than ever in creating economic and social success, the danger is that skills formation becomes a source of greater polarisation rather than an antidote to it.  The paradox, in this situation, is that funding and investment in skill formation still follows a ‘trickle down’ principle, in which those already well endowed and enjoying privileged status within the education and employment system enjoy the highest levels of investment and subsidy both from the state and from employers.