The area of 14-19 education and training was a significant priority for the Labour Government of Tony Blair and New Labour. Reforms such as the 14-19 White Paper (Feb 2005) were seen as key to this government’s ‘third term’ agenda. This research has at its heart the desire to identify the true drivers for 14-19 education and training reform, and critically analyse the results against alternative ‘aims’ of education. Much of current policy for this phase of education mentions the economic imperative of providing young people with the skills which both they and businesses need to compete in the global economy. This research intends to question the fact that economic goals appear to be inexorably entwined with this area of education, and analyse if this is an appropriate philosophy on which to base reform of the 14-19 phase. To achieve this, document analysis was used to identify the drivers for education reform contained within five policy documents in an attempt to understand the goals of New Labour’s 14- 19 education and training reform policy between May 1997 and February 2005. The conclusions which came from this analysis point to a consistency in the 14-19 reform programme of New Labour around the theme of the economy, with much of the content of the reforms focusing on adapting the phase in order to promote economic objectives. It is argued that by accepting economic objectives as a basis for educational reform, New Labour confused the influence of the economy for an educational aim.