Government, Markets and Vocational Qualifications

An Anatomy of Policy

During the 1980s and 1990s the elaboration of a reformed system of vocational qualifications was perhaps the most controversial of all the governments efforts to improve the provision of vocational education and training. Based largely on interviews with nearly 100 individuals who were closely involved with these reforms, this book provides an in-depth account of the origins, development and implementation of NVQ and GNVQ policies. In accounting for the progress of vocational qualifications policy three main areas are covered by the book. Firstly the authors look at the origins of the reformed system, then examine the initial implementation of the NVQ and GNVQ policies in the late 1980s and early 1990s and identify the considerable problems that accompanied the reform process. Thirdly, the book focuses on the ways in which the reformed policy was sustained during the 1990s.