ABSTRACT
While I do not wish to dwell for too long on matters that have been considered extensively elsewhere, some account of the historical, social and economic context of post-16 education and the impetus for its development and change is necessary if the problem is to be understood in anything more than a simplistic form. My account will, of necessity, be selective and will focus principally upon the driving forces behind curriculum reforms of recent years, upon assumptions underpinning them, and upon the newly changing conditions in which future plans must be conceived.
