In post-war Aotearoa New Zealand there was a long-established and widely accepted belief in free and universal access to education. This often discussed and much celebrated egalitarianism was seen as a central and distinctive aspect of New Zealand’s national identity as part of an established welfare state developed in the 1930s (McCulloch 1988). A 1962 national report, The Report of the Commission on Education in New Zealand (1962) known as The Currie Report named after the chair of the commission provided a picture of education as being provided fairly and equally by a benevolent state (McCulloch 1988). However, the report was accused of avoiding issues relating to differences and inequalities and of maintaining the status quo by extending the current conditions (Ewing 1972). For vocational education and training the status quo included support for the move to provide technical education through post school technical institutes and the broadening of a common core curriculum to manage equality of opportunity in secondary school provision (Scott 1996). No major submissions occurred under technical education (Scott 1996) and vocationalism was effectively moved to technical institutes. By the 1990s, however, post compulsory education was completely transformed. The Report of the Working Party on Post Compulsory Education and Training in New Zealand (1988) known as the Hawke Report made recommendations that led to the reform of tertiary education based on neo-liberal, market-based principles. Subsequent legislation including the Education Amendment Act (1990) allowed polytechnics to offer degree level programmes. The changes, accused of being hasty and lacking in consultation (Patterson 1991) creating a deregulated and liberalised, laissez-faire, market model saw polytechnics change at a rapid rate. Academic drift, combined with a drop in the number of apprentices (Department of Labour 1989) through prior deregulation of the state sector, saw degree level provision outnumber sub degree provision by the early 1990s (Abbott 2000). This paper considers the idea that the marginalisation of VET in Aotearoa New Zealand came about over 40 years through seemingly egalitarian goals presented in two key national reports on education; firstly, in secondary schools through the broadening of a common core curriculum to provide for all; and secondly in polytechnics through the stated ideal of consumer choice. What is clear however, is that there were a range of missed opportunities. Did a collective complacency for working class education and jobs form the basis of a current and much reported under skilled workforce that now seems almost insoluble?

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