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This report notes that traditional notions of equity in vocational education and training (VET) are changing. In particular, policy and research in this area need to move beyond a preoccupation with target equity group representation. While past research based on this notion of equity has generated a great deal of knowledge and influenced policy and provision, its focus on the learner has largely excluded a critique of systemic issues, that is, the institutional relationships and policies which determine equity provision. The objectives of the study were: to work with selected technical and further education (TAFE) institutes to identify equity strategies that are being employed to produce outcomes for disadvantaged clients living in their regions; to examine the institutional relationships and policies that structure, contain and enable equity provision; to clarify the relationship between equity strategies and the complex interactions of provider, client and local factors; and to stimulate and contribute to informed debate about the development and management of equity strategies in VET at the state and regional level. The report is aimed at managers and practitioners in the VET sector who are trying to grapple with equity issues. It details the approaches at two TAFE institutes at the time of the study in 1999: South Western Sydney Institute where equity is embedded into all aspects of policy, organisational structure and program delivery and Chisholm Institute which operates under a ‘managing diversity’ philosophy which attempts to take a positive view of disadvantage; that is, one which understands difference as strength.