Governments worldwide have focused attention on improving educational attainment in order to meet the labour demands of the knowledge economy. I explore decisions taken concerning further and higher education among seventy-one students from a highly successful comprehensive school in North East England, and argue that the postulated links between attainment, higher education, and secure well-paid employment are more complicated than policy documents suggest. Instead, I argue for a greater understanding among policy makers of the specificity of place and of the impact of relative differences in economic, social, and cultural capital.
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