Rhetoric and Reality: Vocational options and current educational policy

Despite some of the things I am going to say shortly, I remain a passionate advocate of good quality vocational education. I am not one of those who want to do away with the term “vocational”. I realise that in parts of our culture
– I emphasise that it is in parts, only – “vocational” has negative connotations. But the implications of this cannot be avoided just by avoiding use of the term. Prejudices need to be faced, and faced down. Just as black people in the USA came to realise that when others claimed to ignore colour and ethnic origins – being “colour blind” – this often meant in practice that minorities were required to fit in with the
dominant culture, so we have seen that re-labelling GNVQs as GCSEs or A levels, or even as “specialist diplomas”, puts the vocational at risk of having academic assessment regimes, curriculum designs and even resource requirements imposed
on them (Stanton and Bailey, 2006).