This paper seeks to map the key concepts, images and theoretical bases of the policy story that surrounds education and training policy in England, and to expose the implicit and explicit assumptions that drive the policy discourse(s) on skills. To put it another way, the aim is to explore how the stories that underlie policy serve to structure the geography of the ‘land of the possible’ wherein policy makers come to determine and then promulgate what they can and cannot seek to do in this field. In attempting this, the paper will also address one of the key policy technologies whereby the state (in the shape of national politicians, civil servants and senior staff in government agencies) attempts to maintain control of policy debate and resultant activity in this field – the development and maintenance of a shared explanatory narrative to underpin strategic policy development and resultant interventions.
