| Summary: | Although the current Labour government is committed to developing the UK as a high skills society, there is still much confusion as what such a society might look like and from where it might draw its inspiration. In so far as the government can be said to have such a vision, it tends to aspire towards a US-type model. Recently, a number of academics have also expressed the need for a much clearer vision of the kind of society to which the UK might choose to head for under the banner of 'high skills'. In this paper, the authors discuss whether such a vision is needed and what in their view this vision might look like. The authors argue that Germany and Scandinavia offer the best 'actually existing' examples of high skills societies and consider whether the UK could move towards a British variant of the North European model as part of a long-term project of social and economic construction. Having identified some of the obstacles currently blocking such a project, the paper discusses whether a vision is still needed and why academics must continue to debate what it means to build a high skills society in the UK.
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