The Advanced Vocational Certificate of Education—a general or vocational qualification?

This chapter tells the story of the Advanced Vocational Certificate of Education (AVCE) by examining both its origins and its role within the Curriculum 2000 reforms. To do this we place the AVCE within the wider context of the reform of vocational qualifications since the mid-1980s and draw on the institutional experience of the award in IoE/Nuffield research sites, supplemented by national survey and evaluative data gathered by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), the University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) and the Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA).