The Influence of the European Communities on the Emergence of Competence-Based Models of Vocational Training in England and Wales.

Funding text 1: contributing to the harmonious development both of the national economies and of the common market' (Foreign Office, 1988). The main legislation to be considered herein is two decisions made under Article 128: the 1963 decision establishing the parameters of a common vocational training policy (Official Journal of the European Communities (OJ) 63, 20.4.1963) and the 1985 decision intended to facilitate mobility of labour within the common market by developing comparable vocational qualifications between member states (OJ L Series (OJL) 199, 31.7.1985, p. 56). EC decisions were curious beasts. For our purposes the key attribute of decisions is that they did not emerge from the Council of Ministers as immediately applicable law. Decisions established parameters within which their goals were to be achieved over a period of time. Within these parameters the member states subsequently negotiated (or politically horse-traded) with the Commission over the manner of implementation (Weatherhill and Beaumont, 1993, p. 32). This was a long, complex process. For example, the 1963 vocational training decision proposed comparable qualifications between the member states. We will see that the 1985 decision established a methodology for this to be achieved. In 1994, the member states were still arguing over how to implement the 1963 decision. The Commission and the Council of Ministers also had an ability to issue resolutions. Resolutions were officially described by Article 189 of the EEC Treaty of Rome as advisory statements with no binding legal force on the member states. As we will see in the next section, when considering the 1983 EC vocational training policy resolution, in reality resolutions were voluntaryist statements, establishing very broad principles within which member states agreed to develop policy. The European Social Fund (ESF) was the main EC instrument providing the member states with financial assistance to develop EC vocational training policy. Even the Thatcher government, renowned for its financial battles with the EC, never criticised publicly the ESF. The few references to the EC in the pre-1987 DE Command papers concern EC finance. In 1984 the government formally accepted a commitment to the 1983 EC vocational training policy, Micawberishly noting that the UK was basing '...the scale and speed of our action, as appropriate, on our expectations of aid from the European Social Fund' (DE, 1984, para. 14). In 1986 the government acknowledged the '...valuable support towards the cost of the new two year YTS from the Fund' (DE, 1986, para. 4.3). By 1983 the UK received £321 million in annual grants from the ESF, of which the MSC disbursed £225.6 million, including £209 million on youth training. The DE estimated that about a third of YTS places was funded by EC monies (Parliamentary Papers, Official Report, Sixth Series, 1983, v.61, C.161W.; ibid., v.63, C.126.W.). We will see that, from YOPs onwards, UK vocational training policy parameters were harmonised with the tenor of ESF regulations.; Funding text 2: Acknowledgements The author gratefully acknowledges the help, advice, insights and encouragement of Dr. Inge Bates and Dr. Paul Sharp of the School of Education, University of Leeds, without which this paper could not have been written. The views expressed, however, are solely those of the writer. The author also gratefully acknowledges scholarship support for the research presented here from the the School of Education, University of Leeds and the Division of Education, University of Sheffield. In addition the author thanks the staff of Crookesmoor Library, University of Sheffield, for explaining patiently the complexities of EC documentation.