ABSTRACT
Over the last 15 years, a strong relationship has become apparent between the problems of low levels of participation and achievement for 16–19-year-olds, the nature of the qualifications system and arguments for the reform of the education and training system in England. This chapter will argue that for most of this period, actual changes to the system in this country were largely determined by this relationship rather than by planned local or national reform. It will suggest that throughout the 1980s, the education reform process in England could largely be seen as reactive and piecemeal. However, towards the end of this period, and certainly by the time of the White Paper, Education and Training for the 21st Century (DfE/ED/WO, 1991) there were more concerted efforts by national government to shape the system in a more proactive and wholesale way.
