Unifying academic and vocational learning and the idea of a learning society

Unifying academic and vocational learning and the concept of a learning society are two of the most important ideas shaping current debates about policies for post‐compulsory education. This paper offers a critical appraisal of the two ideas and their origins, and suggests how they might need to be reformulated if they are to play a more constructive role in policy formulation and analysis. The paper argues that both concepts are multidimensional and that they need to be seen in relationship to each other. It suggests that unifying academic and vocational learning can be seen as a possible means of achieving the goals of a learning society, and that the idea of a learning society itself is a way of conceptualizing future learning demands and their implications for the process of unification.