ABSTRACT
General vocational education for young people has been overshadowed by high-profile policy interest in apprenticeship and participation in higher education (HE) in England under recent governments. This chapter examines how knowledge is constructed in and through the practices of teaching and learning in general vocational education in England. It focuses on the Knowledge in Vocational Education project, a one-year research project funded by Edexcel, one of the main qualifications awarding bodies in England. The aim of the project was to investigate what is meant by 'knowledge' in general vocational education qualifications in England, who defines knowledge in this context, and how this is translated into practice. The Applied Science setting demonstrates the difficulty of providing opportunities for the workplace recontextualisation of knowledge in the absence of a sustained and high-quality contribution from employers. At Outer London College, students could decide to follow a BTEC route in Applied Science, or they could take A-levels in science subjects.
