ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to explore issues related to the drive for competence-based education and professional training promoted by the National Council for Vocational Qualifications (NCVQ) in Britain. The vulnerability of universities in such an intellectual and ideological vacuum leaves higher education open to attack from all sides, perhaps especially from the 'professional training lobby' working towards the 'industrialization of higher education' by means of competence-based education and training (CBET) strategies popularized through the work of the increasingly powerful NCVQ in Britain. The apparent contradiction between post-Fordist demands for high-level skills and the narrow low-level occupationalism which actually characterizes present trends may be explained by considering contemporary approaches as neither post-Fordist nor Fordist but as instances of 'neo-Fordism'. The location of vocational or professional learning in the workplace has been a feature of recent developments in education and industry, though it is important to note the wide range of interpretations of work-based learning currently operating in different sectors.
