This paper will argue that whilst the expansion of British education and training systems has been primarily driven by a form of instrumental Vocationalism the outcome has been a decline in the quantity and quality of vocational learning on offer to young people. Following a brief outline of the qualification and institutional frameworks for vocational education and training (VET) in the United Kingdom, the ultimate and proximate goals of education and training policy are described. These will be set within a historical framework that will draw out the main trends in the international discourse of vocationalism. Ultimately, the paper will argue, the justification for vocationalism can be analytically separated into two main trends: a need for upskilling to promote economic growth and a need for compensatory education and training to reduce the risk of social exclusion. The first leads, in the UK context, to renewed calls to develop work-based apprenticeship routes and the second to the development of weakly vocational qualifications.Data is then presented which indicates that whilst a key policy target is to increase the supply of intermediate vocational and technical skills, especially to meet skills shortages in traditional manufacturing and construction sectors, the pattern of participation in vocational learning over the last twenty years has worked against this policy objective. First, the paper demonstrates that overall participation rates in vocational learning have declined as a greater proportion of 14-19 year olds follow vocational routes. This, it will be argued, is the result, at least in part, of the interpretation placed by young people and their families on the debate about upskilling through the expansion of Higher Education. This effect is amplified by the evolution of educational markets in the UK. Second, analysis indicates that where there has been some growth in vocational learning this has occurred within the schools system as a result of expansion in the number of learners taking weakly vocational programmes. Such programmes, and the qualifications obtained as a result of participating in them, have limited value in the labour market (as judged by rates of return analyses), they are increasingly associated with provision for the less able and their design principles to cope with the needs of lower attaining students means that they have lost any real meaningful connection with the world of work. In addition, evidence indicates that young people construct the curriculum of these school-based vocational qualifications primarily to meet their perceived general education needs; in particular their potential for progressing to Higher Education.The paper concludes by considering two longer term problems. First, the hollowing out of the skills profile that is likely to result if viable work-based routes cannot be developed, with graduates having to fill the intermediate and technical vocational skills gap, rather than, say, learners graduating from rigorous apprenticeship programmes. Second, the UK's continuing inability to construct a viable work-based vocational route is traced to weaknesses in the policy making process, and in particular to the types of instruments being employed to make VET policy