In her 2020 book, “Mission Economy”, London based economist Mariana Mazzucato makes a bold attempt to set out a new third way between the opposing pillars of socialism and capitalism. The book’s subtitle, “A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism”, summarises her big idea. Taking as a starting point President Kennedy’s 1960s national mission to get an American on the moon, she argues that government should not confine itself to intervening to fix market failures but should take the lead in coordinating public and private sector to set out and pursue ambitious, forward-thinking missions to tackle major social and economic challenges. Policy goals in health, global warming, digital transformation, inequality – in fact just about everything of national importance – should be re-conceived as missions led by a muscular and unashamedly interventionist government.
Her ideas have been influential, as the arrival of an explicitly mission-driven Starmer government demonstrates. Will it work? Only time will tell, but Mazzucato has certainly come up with some striking new ideas about how we can potentially harness the creativity and dynamism of capitalism for social purpose and collective benefit.
Perhaps we should test these ideas out with the Lifelong Education Institute, which is at heart a mission-driven organisation – read our Vision. The LEI has a clear and ambitious goal: to make adult education in all its forms accessible to as many citizens of the UK as possible. To achieve this will require the sort of wide-scale collaborative action between state agencies, business and civil society that Mazzucato advocates.
It will necessitate mobilising a wide range of government departments – DFE, DWP, Business & Trade, the Treasury – plus devolved nations and authorities, employers, charities, trades unions - to a common purpose over a sustained period. Schools, colleges, universities and private training providers will all need to play a part.
The key challenge will be to define the mission, identify the distinct roles each actor will play, and harness support from all. At the moment, it looks as if, in England at least, the government envisages its new creation Skills England” to be the central mechanism for tackling these challenges. How all the other elements in the skills ecosystem relate to Skills England will be the big question as the new organisation evolves.
But a body preoccupied exclusively with the economic agenda for skills would fall short of the LEI mission. There are several other areas where Lifelong Learning, as well as being immensely beneficial for individual learners, is a collective good. In health, for example, there is growing evidence that continuing to engage in learning improves mental health for everyone and is particularly beneficial in maintaining cognitive health in older adults. Adult education fosters community cohesion and supports active citizenship. Parents actively involved in improving numeracy and literacy skills not only help themselves but are able to provide better support to their children in school. Better thinking skills provides a defence against the kind of misinformation and manipulation plaguing social media channels.
Given the economic challenge facing a post-Brexit Britain, it’s understandable that priority will be given to the economic case for lifelong education, but this should not be allowed to marginalise other important issues.
Nor should the fact that education is a devolved matter prevent us from seeking coordination and collaboration between the four UK nations. Learners, particularly adults, frequently move between UK nations for work or study, and most major industries operate across UK boundaries.
The LEI will continue to pursue its mission, working alongside as many partners as possible, feeding-in policy proposals based on good practice in the field to stimulate change. In doing so, using the ideas and methods Mariana Mazzucato has developed might be very helpful. A moonshot – with its multiple stages and periodic rocket boosters - is not a bad analogy for the learning journey we envisage for adults in the future. Maybe we should think of ours as a “mindshot” mission?
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