During the 1980s and 1990s the elaboration of a reformed system of vocational qualifications was perhaps the most controversial of all the governments efforts to improve the provision of vocational education and training. Based largely on interviews with nearly 100 individuals who were closely involved with these reforms, this book provides an in-depth account of the origins, development and implementation of NVQ and GNVQ policies. In accounting for the progress of vocational qualifications policy three main areas are covered by the book. Firstly the authors look at the origins of the...

The editors charged contributors to examine individual aspects of policy and practice considering, inter alia, three sub-themes. The first is the competence-based approach and its implementation; the second is an exploration of who are the winners and losers as government has placed national economic development at the heart of its policies and programmers for education and training. A third theme is the process of change and intervention itself. While apparent in all the chapters, it is most easily traced in the case studies where policies initiated at national level by government and other...