ABSTRACT
This chapter is based on a paper first presented to a conference held in Pretoria for further education and training (FET) college principals and organized by the South African Department of Education and the Human Sciences Resources Council. However, as I hope the chapter will illustrate, although the circumstances and history of South Africa are in many ways unique, the issues facing those trying to reform further education are not (Young and Gamble 2006). A number of policy developments affecting FET colleges in South Africa, and the problems that they give rise to, have significant parallels with the situation in England. Furthermore, they raise many of the questions about the role of knowledge in vocational education that have been discussed in more theoretical terms in earlier chapters.
