The central claim of this fascinating monograph is that strategies for vocational and professional education adopted by the UK over the last two decades are founded upon a number of fundamental and fatal errors. The essential problem is that these strategies derive from a number of philosophical confusions about what it is to be skilled, competent or capable. The aim of the book is to unravel the philosophical assumptions at the heart of current strategies, examine their shortcomings and propose a more coherent account of vocational and professional capability. It will be argued that not only does this have serious practical implications for the vocational curriculum, teaching, learning and assessment, but that it indicates the need for an urgent and radical reassessment of the relationship between vocational, general and academic education.

Author Biography

Dr Gerard Lum is based in the Department of Education and Professional Studies at King's College, University of London. A longstanding member of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, he has written extensively on competence in education.