ABSTRACT
Most subjects have been added to the school curriculum only when informal education by family, church or community becomes unable to ensure the learning needed for adult roles. Work itself, the newest subject in the curriculum, has a similar history — though demographic and economic events across the world have speeded the historical process. When twentieth century societies first experienced mass unemployment it was believed that this was but a temporary phenomenon caused by short-term 'malfunctionings' of the economic mechanism such as depression or recession. One is that in many countries unemployment, especially for the young, co-exists with unfilled vacancies in many of the areas of work which require skills, understandings and attributes not generally possessed by school leavers. Almost all young people see work as the key to the achievement of full masculinity or femininity. Schools have usually played only a small part in helping young people to achieve vocational identity.
