After the failures of manpower planning, research shows that investment in primary and general secondary education yields greater returns than investment in more costly vocational/higher education. To be more effective, investment in vocational education should be more influenced by the individual with greater private sector provision. Macroeconomic policy is the key to reducing unemployment and, it can be argued, the EU has adopted the policy of lifelong education without sufficient reference to research in the field. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)