Reformed and reduced: Vocational education and structural oppression

Internationally, vocational education and training (VET) is intended to fulfil important economic and social objectives. There is, however, a concerning discourse relating to funding, esteem, reputation and quality, and questions have been raised about whether social mobility aspirations of the sector’s students are achieved or achievable. This paper argues that rather than resulting from deficiency or fault of VET, these issues are, instead, manifestations of the sector’s structural oppression. Further, unless this oppression is recognised and addressed as an underlying cause, VET’s troubles will remain. While acknowledging the claim may be contentious, the paper applies Freirean philosophy and contemporary critical social theory to examine the case of Australian VET, identifying the oppressive structures and policies which have progressively rendered the sector powerless and lacking the autonomy needed to enact positive and necessary change. It expounds upon Australian VET’s vulnerability to neoliberal educational reform along with the impact of competency based education and training (CBE/T), its reductionist curriculum, and the de-professionalisation of VET, its teachers and the vocations it serves, before proposing that any further reforms must be led from within the sector itself. While the paper focuses on Australian VET, its examination will likely hold meaning elsewhere.