ABSTRACT
The last two decades have seen a significant number of government-based initiatives attempting to create closer links between education and employment and to develop vocationally oriented qualifications which have comparable status to academic qualifications. These initiatives have occurred within the context of a traditional emphasis on the value of the academic as opposed to the vocational, with the A-level ‘gold standard’ as the pinnacle of attainment for secondary and further education sectors and the only significant threshold indicator for entry into higher education.
