Professor Ewart Keep holds a chair in Education, Training and Skills at the Department of Education, Oxford University. He has a first degree in modern history (London) and a PhD in industrial relations (Warwick). He has previously worked at Warwick Business School and at Cardiff University’s School of Social Sciences. He is director of the Centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance (SKOPE).
Ewart has undertaken research and published extensively on the formation of skills policies in the UK, managerial attitudes towards investment in skill, lifelong learning, apprenticeships, workplace training and development, recruitment and selection; higher education policy, youth transitions to the labour market, the different incentives to learn that act upon individuals, the role of skills and work organisation in workplace innovation, and more latterly the marketization and partial devolution of funding for FE.
He has advised the UK Cabinet Office; the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills; the NAO; the Scottish and Welsh governments; UK Commission for Employment and Skills; the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development; the OECD; the Government Office for Science (Foresight); two House of Commons select committee inquiries, and one Scottish Parliament committee inquiry. He has also undertaken work for the Australian Commonwealth Government, the governments of New South Wales and Queensland; and the government of New Zealand. He is currently a member of HEFCW’s Student Opportunity and Achievement Committee; the Scottish Government Strategic Labour Market Group; DfE Skills Policy Analysis Academic Panel; Oxfordshire LEP’s Skills Board; and the Labour Party’s Commission on Lifelong Learning.