1. Conservative and New Labour policies.
Vocationalism
Conservative and New Labour policies.

2. Learning Objectives
To explain the key vocational education policies of the Conservative and New Labour governments.
To evaluate the vocational education policies.
To explain functionalist, Marxist and New Right views of vocational education.

3. Vocationalism
Read through the first section on the handout on vocationalism and complete the following questions:
Who is vocational education aimed at, what is it intended to do and how does it differ from academic education?
How did the tripartite system show the link between the economy and education?

4. Evaluation of Vocational Education Policies
Read through the vocational policies of the Conservatives and New Labour and complete the following tasks:
How would vocational policies improve equality of educational opportunity for all students?
For each of the following theories, note down what they would think about vocational education and why:
Functionalism
Marxism
Liberal
New Right
Social Democratic

5. Studies
In pairs, complete the evaluation table.