ABSTRACT
Vocational qualifications in the English education and training system have been in a state of constant flux since the late 1970s. This has been due to two interrelated factors: changing patterns of participation and an ideological approach to reform. Responding to the collapse of the youth labour market, broad vocational qualifications have been used primarily to absorb rising levels of full-time participation. The Certificate of Pre-Vocational Education (CPVE) was introduced in the early 1980s, for example, for low-achieving and vocationally undecided students who could not immediately enter the labour market. By the early 1990s, GNVQs were developed as an alternative pathway of progression both to jobs and to higher education.
