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The special issue (SI) TVET race and ethnicity in the global south and north closes with a critical review of debates that address race/ethnicity and TVET'. These debates focus on the crisis of care, decolonisation and whiteness as well as the manner in which we conceptualise TVET. The paper was developed in response to the special issue but also by wider debates about race, ethnicity and TVET. In a short review paper, such as this it is only feasible to signal and touch on a number of debates that could contribute towards re-thinking TVET and its wider social purposes.

The paper problematises conceptualisations of Vocational Education and Training (VET) and its relationship to social justice by examining a number of debates. It explores a post-structural policy analysis which is sensitive to the manner in which, through research, we constitute the object of our inquiry and as a result of this process subtly change it. This initial discussion leads into an examination of hegemonic constructions of VET. Subsequently, the paper addresses the contours of inequality as they apply to VET and English further education. This is followed by an examination of conceptualisations of equity, equality and meritocracy. In conclusion, the paper poses a question -- how far can VET be shifted from its occupational moorings in order to contribute towards a socially just society, or is it compromised by its close association with the needs of capital and employers? This is not merely an empirical but also a political question that hinges on conceptualisations of social justice and power as well as the manner in which these are addressed in the struggle for a fairer more just society.

Purpose: The paper explores the relationship between vocational education and training (VET), the labour market and social justice in the current conjuncture. Approach: The paper adopts an approach rooted in critical policy analysis. It consequently sets the discussion within the wider socio-economic and political context. Such an approach enables an exploration of the changing nature of waged labour in current conditions. Results: A critical policy analysis facilitates a discussion of the labour process, waged labour and its intensification. At the same time these processes are allied to the effective expulsion and marginalisation of particular groups of workers from employment. Importantly, such processes need to be placed in their localised and spatial context within particular social formations. Conclusion: Equity models of social justice that emphasise equal opportunities, are restrictive and can be contrasted with equality models which have a more expansive and philosophically rooted understanding of justice. The paper through its examination of the salience of VET in the current conjuncture as well as its significance for a post austerity democratic and radical politics, argues for a relational analysis that seeks to interrupt the patterns of inequality precipitated by neo-liberalism.

The paper brings together a range of debates on the left that address TVET's future in current context. At the heart of these debates rest two issues. The first addresses competing views of capital and the second focuses on the contradiction between the interests of capital and workers. The paper argues that capital is not all of a piece and that decent work that validates human flourishing is not completely unknown. However, as with other forms of waged labour, such work is predicated on capitalist relations and interests and it is important not to overlook waged labour as a site of struggle and contestation. Consequently, when circumstances alter as a result of the development of new technology, itself is a social process, or when the balance of power shifts in favour of capital, such labour may be dispensed with or become so deskilled that it is hardly recognisable. The paper is structured in the following way. The initial sections address the paper's genesis, a discussion of corporate social responsibility and anti-work that enables an engagement with differing conceptualisations of capital. The subsequent sections, Restrictive and Expansive Learning and Thinking about TVET focus on the contradictory interests of workers and capital. The paper closes with a discussion of TVET and considers responses to current conditions that necessitate an engagement with an earlier tradition of adult and community education.

This paper explores the current crises facing neo-liberal capitalism and the call by apologists of capital for a new social contract or what may be described as a political and economic settlement. It considers the significance of these debates for post-secondary education with the initial part of the paper examining three intertwined crises--those of neoliberalism, race, and social care. Following this section, the paper interrogates the call for a new social contract set on a capitalist terrain that seeks to restore the legitimacy of capital. The significance of these arguments for post-secondary education is then explored. The social contract sets a rhetorical agenda for post-secondary education that under capitalism is solely ideological but whose themes could be utilized in the struggle for a transformed society.

The paper addresses the impact of COVID-19 on vocational education and training, seeking to discern the outline of possible directions for its future development within the debates about VET responses to the pandemic. The discussion is set in its socio-economic context, considering debates that engage with the social relations of care and neo-liberalism. The paper analyses discourses that have developed around VET across the world during the pandemic, illustrating both possible continuities and ruptures that may emerge in this field, as the health crisis becomes overshadowed in public policy by the prioritisation of economic recovery and social restoration. The paper concludes that, alongside the possibility of a narrowing of VET to its most prosaic aims and practices, the health crisis could also lead to a re-conceptualisation that develops its radical and emancipatory possibilities in both the global south and north.

This paper engages with and reflects on the arguments developed by contributors to the special issue. These papers serve to provide a corrective to English and, on occasion, European perceptions, which often view the Nordic countries as being all of a piece and beacons of progressivism. The contributors provide analyses that not only point to the impact of neo-liberalism upon vocational education and training but also the different ways in which it is delivered across the Nordic countries. They alert us to vocational education and training's complexity and varied forms. Nevertheless, it appears there are a set of repertoires that can be mobilised to address the relationship between vocational education and training and youth transitions to work and vocational study, which seem to circulate across time and place. The circulation of these models suggests they fail to address the deeper issues facing vocational education and training, namely the relation of it in particular and 'academic' education in general to capitalism, and, importantly, the salience of these processes in the current conjuncture. These relations raise questions about the reproduction of class relations and the specificity of the socio-economic contexts. This leads to a consideration of notions of social justice and an interrogation of vocational education and training with this particular question in mind. An important issue that needs to be explored is the way in which the curriculum opens up or closes down access to powerful knowledge. Whilst education, in Bernstein's words, 'cannot compensate for society', can it nevertheless be a resource in the transformative struggle for a just society?

This paper has set itself a number of tasks. The starting point is with Smyth and Simmons' discussion of the affective dispositions of the working class. Rather than exploring the dispositions of members of the working class, the paper examines the attribution of these, not only to the working class but also to other groups. Research addressing the capitalist division of labour in the early years of the twenty's century has illustrated the arbitrariness of this process. This leads into a discussion of the attribution of dispositions and the salience not only of the corporate gaze, but also the white gaze as well as those related to the class, age, race and gender. Research that has addressed aesthetic labour has often attributed 'looking good' and 'sounding right' to people who are assumed to be middle class, the consequence is that an understanding of class as a relation to capital is underplayed as is the resulting politics. A homogenised view of the working class is debilitating and leads to a restrictive understanding of class. Such as stance ignores the re-composition of class relations and the potential for alliances that include members of this putative middle class. An engagement with the affective dispositions of the working class may serve to construct an image of a homogeneous potentially radical class, yet at the same time it serves to exclude constituencies that could play an important role in the struggle for a just society. Such as struggle would presage alliances in the pursuit of a socially just society.

This literature review engages with a diverse and sometimes contradictory body of work, employing an analytic stance rooted in policy scholarship. It discusses rhetorical constructions of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4th IR), locating these in understandings of the economy rooted in a neo-liberalism which rests upon a capitalist terrain. The 4th IR is an ideological construct which reflects specific material interests and has particular implications for education and training. The 4th IR's association with digitalisation and artificial intelligence is ambivalent. For some writers, this leads to technological unemployment while for others, even though there is labour market disruption, there is no employment crisis that cannot be resolved. The strong connection between the 4th IR and labour market requirements is softened by those writers who adopt a qualitative analysis of advanced manufacturing work. These scholars suggest that the relationship between technology and skill is rather more complex than the protagonists of technological unemployment describe. Neo-Marxist writers develop a qualitatively different account of the current conjuncture to the imaginary of the 4th IR. In this instance, the analysis turns towards the elimination of labour from paid employment, together with the falling rate of profit and bypasses the former arguments. This review concludes by arguing that technology and artificial intelligence are entwined with social relations, being sites of class struggle. How this is played out is an outcome of the balance of power, not only within the social formation but also globally. How far the development of the forces of production is compatible with capitalist relations is a moot point, as this is also a site of struggle. The paper draws out the implications for VET and considers progressive educational responses. However, such a practice needs to be set within a broader politics that is committed to the development of a socially just society.

The paper places youth transitions and vocational education and training (VET) within the global policy context in which economic competiveness is hegemonic. It compares research from the 1970s/80s, which explored young peoples' lived experiences of VET and youth training schemes with contemporary work on similar themes. It argues that there are continuities and discontinuities in the conditions that young people face in their transitions to waged labour. Continuities can be seen in constructions of working class youth, but also by the way in which policy views the economy as characterised by upskilling. This is called into question when set against the existence of significant numbers of low-waged, low-skilled jobs in the English economy. There are also discontinuities that are the result of changes in class and employment structures. As a result, precariousness has become ubiquitous, with this existing in tandem with labour that is surplus to the requirements of capital. The paper reconsiders youth transitions and re-evaluates the notion of serendipity, suggesting these concepts need to be rethought and reworked in current conditions.

Black and minority ethnic students (BME) are a significant constituency in vocational education and training (VET) and FE in England. Despite this recent research on race and VET has become a marginal concern. Insofar as current VET research addresses social justice, race appears to be a supplementary concern. Although there is a substantial literature addressing race and education, this focuses primarily on schools and higher education. This paper examines why there is a need to develop a research agenda that analyses participation, outcomes and experiences of BME VET students, particularly those on "non-advanced" programmes (equivalent to European Qualification Framework Level 1-3) with uncertain labour market outcomes and who are arguably being "warehoused" in low status courses. The paper reflects on the historically specific reasons for the dearth of research on race and VET, drawing on a scoping exercise of the literature to evidence this. We conclude by offering a provisional analysis that identifies recent shifts in participation among BME groups, locating this in its socio-economic and historical context. Our analysis reaffirms that VET remains a significant educational site for BME groups, but it is a complex racialised site which makes the current neglect of race and VET in academic research deeply problematic.

The paper draws on the Wolf (2015) report ("Heading for the Precipice: Can Further and Higher Education Funding Policies Be Sustained?") and other quantitative data, specifically that derived from HEFCE's Participation of Local Area (POLAR) classifications. In addition it explores key literature and debates that associate higher education in further education (HE in FE) with the pursuit of social justice. This enables an interrogation of conceptualisations of vocationalism as well as a consideration of its articulation with class and gender. Whilst the paper is set within a particular and English socio-economic context, it addresses issues that have a much broader global significance. The paper argues that whilst HE in FE has limited traction in facilitating social mobility it does serve as a resource in the struggle for social justice.

The special issue (SI) TVET race and ethnicity in the global south and north closes with a critical review of debates that address race/ethnicity and TVET'. These debates focus on the crisis of care, decolonisation and whiteness as well as the manner in which we conceptualise TVET. The paper was developed in response to the special issue but also by wider debates about race, ethnicity and TVET. In a short review paper, such as this it is only feasible to signal and touch on a number of debates that could contribute towards re-thinking TVET and its wider social purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the current crises facing neo-liberal capitalism and the call by apologists of capital for a new social contract or what may be described as a political and economic settlement. It considers the significance of these debates for post-secondary education with the initial part of the paper examining three intertwined crises - those of neoliberalism, race, and social care. Following this section, the paper interrogates the call for a new social contract set on a capitalist terrain that seeks to restore the legitimacy of capital. The significance of these arguments for post-secondary education is then explored. The social contract sets a rhetorical agenda for post-secondary education that under capitalism is solely ideological but whose themes could be utilized in the struggle for a transformed society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses the impact of Covid-19 on vocational education and training, seeking to discern the outline of possible directions for its future development within the debates about VET responses to the pandemic. The discussion is set in its socio-economic context, considering debates that engage with the social relations of care and neo-liberalism. The paper analyses discourses that have developed around VET across the world during the pandemic, illustrating both possible continuities and ruptures that may emerge in this field, as the health crisis becomes overshadowed in public policy by the prioritisation of economic recovery and social restoration. The paper concludes that, alongside the possibility of a narrowing of VET to its most prosaic aims and practices, the health crisis could also lead to a re-conceptualisation that develops its radical and emancipatory possibilities in both the global south and north. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]