ABSTRACT
The relationship between the world of work and the world of school has come into focus in a new way in this time of economic transition and industrial change. Vocational education, whether it is integrated into the secondary school system, or is obtained by means of an apprenticeship in a kindergarten or in the plastics industry, is at the centre of discussions in the educational reforms currently taking place in Scandinavia. A policy of increasing and developing public schooling to attenuate class contradictions through standard universal education has been characteristic of school systems throughout social democratic Scandinavia in the post-war era. The School Commission of 1965 was created with the mandate to carry out a systematic study of the upper secondary school system. The intention of the school reforms of the 1970s to place all vocational training within the school system was not realized in practice.
