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This chapter, which is presented in six sections, provides an assessment of the aims and content of vocational education and training (VET) policy in England since 1945. The first section covers the 30-35 years after 1945, a period in which 'initial attempts to deliver policy aims by legislating for individual and employer participation were first diluted and then abandoned'; the second section looks at the period when the government entered into specific contracts with VET providers for course delivery, thereby exerting some influence; section three covers the era of assessment, qualifications and institutional reform; section four provides an overview of the last 60 years; in section five, a number of assumptions on which recent policies appear to be based are identified; and the final section examines some recent developments. The chapter concludes with a set of key lessons learnt from the review of the last 60 years. They include: England still does not have a coherent VET policy and is in need of one; attractive and flexible vocational learning programs are needed, as well as rigorous and relevant vocational qualifications; and there is a need to establish and maintain a properly resourced VET infrastructure.

In recent years, the key strategy employed by governments worldwide to improve national competitiveness has been to develop the skills of the workforce. This introductory chapter looks at the central theme of the book: the desire on the part of policy makers to reform the education and training systems to align them more closely with the perceived needs of the labour market. The increasing focus on the supply side of the skills equation while ignoring the demand side results in neglecting other issues such as 'competitive strategies, labour market regulation, work organisation, job design, and the quality of working life'.

This chapter, which is based on literature, interview and observational data gathered in secondary schools in the US and UK during 1997-98, examines the 'added value' of education-business partnerships. The education systems of the US and UK are compared, showing that both systems share some similarities in terms of challenges to prepare students for the world of work and the use of education-business partnerships to achieve this objective. The themes of isolationism and exploitation are examined from the educator's perspective and graduation and jobs from the student's perspective. The education and training agenda from an employer's perspective is also explored. The chapter concludes that while partnerships are perceived as inherently good for the future and benefits include work experience, equipment donation, mentoring and professional development, there is also uncertainty about the purpose and form of such partnerships. The issue of the shifting burden of paying for education and training from state to business is raised.

The Bologna Declaration was signed in 1999 by 30 European countries committed to the creation of a 'European area of higher education' (HE) that was announced in the Sorbonne Declaration a year earlier. Its aim is to enhance the cohesion and compatibility of HE systems within Europe and their attractiveness throughout the world. This chapter examines the reform of the European HE system through the Bologna Process and the key role of employability in the European labour market in the Bologna Process. Driving these reforms is the same employability and skills agenda that underpins the reform of the vocational education and training (VET) system. The report concludes that the recent review of the Bologna Process undertaken in Berlin in 2003 indicates that 'the Bologna agenda for convergent structural reforms has every reason to continue all over Europe'.

In recent years, governments worldwide have focused on developing the skills of the workforce as the key strategy to improving national competitiveness. This book, which is based on work undertaken by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Research Centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance (SKOPE), examines this high skills agenda at both policy and practice levels. The theme of the book is the desire on the part of policy makers to align the education and training systems more closely with the perceived needs of the labour market by reforming their countries' education and training systems. The chapters are: Producing skills: conundrums and possibilities / Geoff Hayward and Susan James; Fit for purpose?: sixty years of VET policy in England / Geoff Stanton and Bill Bailey; The European policy regarding education and training: a critical assessment / Jean-Luc De Meulemeester and Denis Rochat; 'I can't believe it's not skill': the changing meaning of skill in the UK context and some implications / Ewart Keep and Jonathan Payne; Qualifying for a job: an educational and economic audit of the English 14-19 education and training system / Rosa M. Fernandez and Geoff Hayward; Does apprenticeship still have meaning in the UK?: the consequences of voluntarism and sectoral change / Alison Fuller and Lorna Unwin; Tradition and reform: modernising the German dual system of vocational education / Hubert Ertl; Learning in the workplace: reappraisals and reconceptions / Stephen Billett; Interests, arguments and ideologies: employers' involvement in education-business partnerships in the US and the UK / Suzanne Greenwald; Compatible higher education systems and the European labour market: Bologna and beyond / Guy Haug; The expansion of higher education: economic necessity or hyperinflation? / Cecile Deer; Becoming a chef: the politics and culture of learning / Susan James and Geoff Hayward.