ABSTRACT
From the outset consortium collaboration under the auspices of the Technical and Vocational Educational Initiative (TVEI) differed from other types of inter-institutional cooperation. Unlike link courses, CPVE or A level consortia (Dean et al., 1979; FEU, 1985; ACFHE/APTI, 1979), the initial impetus for most TVEI consortia arose not from local initiatives by practitioners, but from a national programme funded by the Employment Department. This was made explicit at the extension phase of TVEI, when the criteria laid down for extension programmes specified that ‘each authority’s extension plan…should normally include the arrangements for grouping of schools/colleges in ways appropriate to each area’.
