Vocational Education Matters: Other People’s Children…Not Seen and Not Heard

Kessell-Holland, Paul

Across the world, governments and businesses are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of high quality and relevant vocational education. Yet misunderstanding and underrepresentation of vocational education persists in the UK and elsewhere. Vocational education is widely and publicly applauded as being a ‘good thing’. However, the academic pathway continues to hold a higher status, receive greater public recognition as well as benefiting from privileged access to funding. While a public consensus appears to exist that vocational education is a good thing in private many people prefer their children to follow an academic education. In other words, vocational education is a good thing, ‘as long as it’s for other people’s children’ (Coughlan, Vocational Education’s Global Gap. BBC News, December 16. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35061496, 2015). This chapter is written from the perspective of a UK policy professional. It argues that vocational education matters deeply not only for the sake of the economy but also for the good of education. Through analysis of government policy and other publications, statistical data and a review of the literature, this chapter offers insights into the complexities of the Further, Adult and Vocational Education (FAVE) policy landscape in England. It draws attention to unintended consequences of top-down policy and models of change and improvement that move from the outside-in. Building upon new policy practice relationships established by practice-focused research supported by the ETF-SUNCETT Practitioner Research Programme (PRP) this chapter breaks new ground in illustrating in microcosm how these new relationships are realized in practice in the PRP.