Social Progress through Education?

During the two-day Berufsbildungsforschungskonferenz in Steyr, Mario Steiner held the presentation "Sozialer Fortschritt durch (Berufs-)Bildung?". The presentations starting point was the observation that an expansion of educational services and rising skill levels on one side are opposed by rising social exclusion and education poverty on the other side. Following this observation the question was raised whether we can speak of social progress in the realm of education over the past centuries. The presentation as well as the book of abstracts are available online.