It has become fashionable in the UK in recent years to disparage vocational education that involves a strong initial component. It is instead argued that a rapidly changing economic situation requires that individuals undertake sustained periods of learning related to their presumed constant occupational mobility. This model assumes a low-skill, low-productivity economy which has little need for a skilled workforce. Once one assumes that a high-skill productive economy is desirable, then the case for sustained initial vocational education, followed by further appropriate skill development, becomes irresistible. The Learning and Skills Act and UK government policy is evaluated in the light of these arguments and appears to concede too much to the advocates of multiple episodes of training in a low-skill context.
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