At the turn of the 21st century, education and training continues to be a major focus of public policy across practically all countries. However, such policy is now couched in terms that ring with evangelical zeal – a new ‘educational gospel’ (Lazerson and Grubb, 2004) – which espouses the importance of education and training to meet the skill demands of the 21st-century workplace while simultaneously curing a myriad of social ills. Thus, the gospel advocates the importance of more years of formal education, followed by an individual commitment to lifelong learning, as the means to achieve the twin aims of economic growth and social inclusion. This book critically examines the assumptions underpinning this ‘educational gospel’ from a variety of different perspectives.

In some countries, such as the UK and the US, the policy concern – economic growth and social inclusion – is underpinned by a sense of long-term crisis (see Chapter Four of this volume). In others, such as the Nordic countries, a rather more sober approach nonetheless involves a serious questioning of the purposes and arrangements being made for young people. In yet others, such as Germany, a long-cherished set of traditions, such as the dual system, which have apparently served the long-term economic interests of the country well, are being questioned (see Chapter Seven of this volume), while a sense that all was not well with the German general education system had been fostered by the PISA study (OECD, 2001). Furthermore, the concerns spanned the whole gamut of the education and training system from pre-school education through to higher education (HE), although here we have focused on Vocational Education and Training (VET), and HE as it becomes increasingly integrated within VET systems.