This Annex contains the technical work which underpins Into the 21st Century. It describes in detail the assessment procedures and qualifications offered in France, Germany, Singapore and USA compared to the UK.

Charles Clarke has recently described England as having "a weak offer for those who want a vocational orientation to their studies." This discussion paper analyzes the weaknesses of vocational education in this country and suggests how to remedy them. <br><br> Vocational education should be about...

This paper compares the supply of specialist ICT skills in Britain and Germany from higher education and from apprenticeship and assesses the relative impact on companies in the two countries. In contrast to Britain, where numbers of ICT graduates have expanded rapidly, the supply of university...

Accurate accounting for annual flows of vocational qualifications by sector of economic activity has been greatly impeded by the data collection methods put in place since the setting up of the National Council for Vocational Qualifications (NCVQ) in 1986. Using unpublished data from a variety...

This paper sets out the extent and defining characteristics of apprenticeship in Europe. Apprenticeship is then situated within the wider context of European provision for education and training of 16-19 year olds and a simple typology is proposed and explained. The German-speaking dual system...

This paper reviews the main characteristics of the provision, organization and financing of appprenticeship in a number of leading European countries - Austria, Denmark, France, Germany and the Netherlands. These are compared to current practice in Britain as exemplified by Modern...

The transition to mass participation in post-16 education, which had occurred considerably earlier in other European countries, has finally taken place in England. However, high drop-out and failure rates persist, particularly on vocational qualification routes. Our hypothesis is that an...