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The concept of a Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) as a way for psychologists and educators to think about children's development and the way they learn and develop problem-solving abilities necessary for the performance of a range of developmentally-related tasks was created by Vygotsky. In this article, the focus is on the ways in which Vygotsky's ZPD concept might provide a basis for learning and instruction in adult vocational and technical education and training. It suggests that the ZPD concept has tremendous potential for use as a basis of instruction in cognitive apprenticeship and other forms of vocational and technical education and offers Lave and Wenger's labels for roles and status of apprentice development, underpinned by four ZPD figures, as useful representations of Vygotsky's work.