Government, markets, and vocational qualifications : an anatomy of policy

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 reformed system, then examine the initial implementation of the NVQ and GNVQ policies in the late 1980s and early 1990s and identify the considerable problems that accompanied the reform process. Thirdly, the book focuses on the ways in which the reformed policy was sustained during the 1990s. Book Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Contents......Page 5 List of Tables......Page 7 List of Abbreviations......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 11 Introduction......Page 12 Vocational Qualifications Past and Present......Page 16 Towards a Competence-based System: Contextualizing the Reform of Vocational Qualifications......Page 30 'Motherhood and Apple Pie': The Review of Vocational Qualifications in England and Wales 1985 1986......Page 53 Ambiguity Resolved: The Implementation of NVQ Policy 1987 1989......Page 77 Embedding the Reforms: NVQ and SVQ Policy 1990 1993......Page 101 Coherence for 16- to 19-Year-Olds: The Origins and Development of GNVQ Policy......Page 129 Rigour, Review and Relaxation: Vocational Qualifications Policy 1994 1997......Page 148 The Reform of Vocational Qualifications: An Anatomy of Policy......Page 175 Conclusion: Government, Markets and Vocational Qualifications......Page 201 Methodological Appendix......Page 210 References......Page 212 Index......Page 225 Provides an in-depth account of the origins, development, and implementation of the UK's reformed system of vocational qualifications, the NVQ and GNVQ policies. Draws on interviews with some 100 people who were closely involved in these reforms to look at origins of the reformed system, implementation of policies in the 1980s and 1990s, and ways in which the reformed policy was sustained during the 1990s. Annotation Looks at the initial implementation of NVQs and GNVQs and at the considerable problems encountered. It also examines how the policies were sustained