Between first degree and doctorate, he worked for the Confederation of British Industry's Education, Training and Technology Directorate.

Since 1985 he has been employed at the University of Warwick, firstly in the Industrial Relations Research Unit (IRRU), and, since 1998, as deputy-director of a new ESRC centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance (SKOPE). SKOPE is based jointly at Warwick and Oxford universities. It exists to probe the links between skills and organisational performance and can call on a large network of researchers across a range of disciplines (economics, industrial relations, education, labour market studies, continuing education, management) at both institutions as well as other universities in the UK and abroad.

• member of the Working to Learn Group
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
• participant in a number of Institute of Personnel and Development groups on skills
• has contributed to the work of the DfEE's Skills Task Force Research Group

Research has always centred on national skills policy formulation and its rationale

Has written (with Ken Mayhew) about how a learning society might be defined, and also about the weaknesses of an over-emphasis upon the individual in promoting lifelong learning

As part of the STF's research programme, attempts to define the nature of the problem with regard to employer provided learning opportunities for the adult workforce

Keep has published extensively on UK vocational education and training policy, work-based learning for the young, the links between skills and competitive strategy, and the learning society and learning organisation.