ABSTRACT
The introduction of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) and General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQs) has been given a very high political profile. This is the latest manifestation of a general shift throughout the education and training system towards a vocationally oriented curriculum. The history of the vocational curriculum in schools and colleges over the past 15 years shows that the assessment systems used in NVQs and GNVQs have their origins in various government initiatives from the late 1970s onward, such as the Technical Vocational and Education Initiative, introduced in 1982, and the Certificate of Pre-Vocational Education, introduced in 1984. Different initiatives emanated from separate branches of government – the Department of Education and Science, the Department for Education, the Employment Department and the Training and Enterprise Councils, and the Department for Education and Employment. A number of common themes in how assessment is designed and organized in the vocational curriculum can be traced through these initiatives, and are now manifested in debates about wider access to learning opportunities and the educational and political role of assessment in NVQs and GNVQs. They are similar to debates about assessment in the National Curriculum and higher education.
