Opinion: Vocational Education and Training in the Post‐School Sector: Learning, Experience and Change in the NCVQ Model

Abstract

Summary Although the competence‐based education and training (CBET) model developed by the National Council for Vocational Qualifications (NCVQ) is now influential at all levels of the system, there are growing criticisms of this outcomes approach within the sphere of vocational education and training (VET). Moreover, there appears to be a mismatch between mainstream CBET approaches, and preferred methodologies within farther and adult education, based on experiential and cognitive theories. In order to enhance vocational studies and to promote the learning workforce called for by the CBI and other relevant agencies, approaches to VET will need to attend to the processes of learning and modify the obsession with employer‐defined competence outcomes. In this respect, the recently introduced General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQs) may offer the possibility of upgrading VET in general, and achieving genuine and lasting post‐16 curriculum reform.