This paper explores the relationship between changes in the labour process, recent developments in the vocational curriculum and challenges that these changes present to the preparation of further education lecturers in England and Wales. Firstly it will be argued that the economy is moving from a Fordist to a post-Fordist phase and that this change is affecting the vocational education curriculum. Previous attempts to relate post-Fordism to education have tended to analyse the relationships in terms that are too general. When a specific aspect of education and training is examined such as the introduction of National Vocational Qualifications and General National Vocational Qualifications in England and Wales, more light is shed on the question of 'correspondence'. This in turn reveals issues such as divisions between mental and manual work and issues of conception and execution which tend to be ignored or overlooked in debates about changes in the curriculum and changes in the economy. Secondly it will be argued that the new curriculum demands a new kind of professionalism for vocational teachers and a new kind of teacher preparation and expectation. © 1996 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
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