Policy Press
Two Fit for purpose? Sixty years of VET policy in England
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Abstract
This chapter assesses the aims and content of recent policy for Vocational Education and Training (VET) in England. Since 1945, the period covered here, VET policy has been discontinuous and piecemeal. We have therefore found it easiest to describe it in distinct sections.
Section One deals with a period of some 30-35 years after 1945, during which initial attempts to deliver policy aims by legislating for individual and employer participation were first diluted and then abandoned. Section Two covers a brief period during which government exerted some influence by means of entering into specific contracts for course delivery with VET providers. And Section Three describes a shift to control of VET through the regulation of qualifications.
In the light of these analyses and the overview in Section Four, Section Five identifies a number of assumptions upon which recent policy appears to have been based, but which continue to receive little if any scrutiny. Our concluding section briefly examines some current initiatives and considers whether or not they indicate that the right lessons have been learned.
Policy makers do not begin with a clean slate, and a consideration of recent history may help clarify the context in which policy makers are framing their proposals for the ‘modernising’ of VET for the 21st century. Also, a failure to take account of comparatively recent experience can lead to the repetition of avoidable mistakes, a failure to achieve intended purposes and unwanted but predictable outcomes.
The dominant characteristic of English VET, in contrast with that in many other industrialised economies, is that it is voluntary.
Abstract
This chapter assesses the aims and content of recent policy for Vocational Education and Training (VET) in England. Since 1945, the period covered here, VET policy has been discontinuous and piecemeal. We have therefore found it easiest to describe it in distinct sections.
Section One deals with a period of some 30-35 years after 1945, during which initial attempts to deliver policy aims by legislating for individual and employer participation were first diluted and then abandoned. Section Two covers a brief period during which government exerted some influence by means of entering into specific contracts for course delivery with VET providers. And Section Three describes a shift to control of VET through the regulation of qualifications.
In the light of these analyses and the overview in Section Four, Section Five identifies a number of assumptions upon which recent policy appears to have been based, but which continue to receive little if any scrutiny. Our concluding section briefly examines some current initiatives and considers whether or not they indicate that the right lessons have been learned.
Policy makers do not begin with a clean slate, and a consideration of recent history may help clarify the context in which policy makers are framing their proposals for the ‘modernising’ of VET for the 21st century. Also, a failure to take account of comparatively recent experience can lead to the repetition of avoidable mistakes, a failure to achieve intended purposes and unwanted but predictable outcomes.
The dominant characteristic of English VET, in contrast with that in many other industrialised economies, is that it is voluntary.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- Acknowledgements iv
- Preface v
- Notes on contributors vi
- Producing skills: conundrums and possibilities 1
- Fit for purpose? Sixty years of VET policy in England 13
- The European policy regarding education and training: a critical assessment 35
- ‘I can’t believe it’s not skill’: the changing meaning of skill in the UK context and some implications 53
- Qualifying for a job: an educational and economic audit of the English 14-19 education and training system 77
- Does apprenticeship still have meaning in the UK? The consequences of voluntarism and sectoral change 101
- Tradition and reform: modernising the German dual system of vocational education 117
- Learning in the workplace: reappraisals and reconceptions 149
- Interests, arguments and ideologies: employers’ involvement in education–business partnerships in the US and the UK 171
- Compatible higher education systems and the European labour market: Bologna and beyond 187
- The expansion of higher education: economic necessity or hyperinflation? 203
- Becoming a chef: the politics and culture of learning 219
- Index 245
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- Acknowledgements iv
- Preface v
- Notes on contributors vi
- Producing skills: conundrums and possibilities 1
- Fit for purpose? Sixty years of VET policy in England 13
- The European policy regarding education and training: a critical assessment 35
- ‘I can’t believe it’s not skill’: the changing meaning of skill in the UK context and some implications 53
- Qualifying for a job: an educational and economic audit of the English 14-19 education and training system 77
- Does apprenticeship still have meaning in the UK? The consequences of voluntarism and sectoral change 101
- Tradition and reform: modernising the German dual system of vocational education 117
- Learning in the workplace: reappraisals and reconceptions 149
- Interests, arguments and ideologies: employers’ involvement in education–business partnerships in the US and the UK 171
- Compatible higher education systems and the European labour market: Bologna and beyond 187
- The expansion of higher education: economic necessity or hyperinflation? 203
- Becoming a chef: the politics and culture of learning 219
- Index 245
