In contrast to the technical elites, specific groups of young people - women, those from the lowest social classes, and those with the poorest educational experiences - are already likely to engage with poorer quality further education programmes, those associated primarily with low-paid and precarious employment. They undergo workplace learning as a much more limited experience, studying in vo…
Technical and vocational education have assumed a significant role in the plans of developed nations to overcome economic crisis, relocating learning into the workplace and extending it to higher levels. Policy discourses are based on the premise that education polarised between universities and low attainment has poorly served the needs of modern economies and young people. This chapter sets o…