Silk Purses and Sows’ Ears: NVQs,GNVQs and experiential learning

Although criticism of the competence‐based education (CBE) strategy which underpins National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) has grown in recent years, this still receives considerably less emphasis than the general approval and public endorsement of the National Council for Vocational Qualifications (NCVQ) framework at all levels of the system. An aspect of the implementation of NVQs which merits closer attention is the apparent mismatch between the behaviourist‐inspired NVQ system and the dominant modes of learning and teaching in post‐school education derived from the experiential tradition. This relationship is explored in theoretical terms, by examining the concept of CBE against the background of experiential learning theory, and also in terms of empirical research in the field, including an on‐going Warwick University study of the implementation of NVQs in local FE colleges in the areas of catering, business studies and hairdressing. It is suggested that, in spite of the fact that many FE lecturers have managed to accommodate competence outcomes within their preferred approaches to learning, the tensions are such that an exclusive concern with performance outcomes must inevitably thwart and frustrate the objectives and project of experiential learning. The NVQ framework is ill‐equipped to provide the necessary foundation for post‐16 curriculum reform along the lines currently being proposed by almost all relevant agencies. The recently introduced general NVQs (GNVQs), however, can be seen as a means of remedying some of the key problems of NVQs and may help to establish a more solid basis for the desired reforms in vocational education and training.