Higher educational aspirations, the ongoing academic drift and the widely discussed shift towards a knowledge society are putting increasing pressure on vocational education and training. The often higher level of academic qualifications within national qualifications frameworks also suggests that these are to be regarded as more valuable than vocational qualifications. However, few studies to date directly compare vocational and academic qualifications. Using the example of the occupation ‘Dispensing Optician’, this study compares an academic with a vocational qualification approach. Employing a document analysis of the respective intended curricula in Germany and the UK, the areas of competence, competence levels and the scope of content in both countries are analysed and compared. Finally, the results are discussed in terms of their possible implications concerning the trend towards higher qualifications, the categorisation of qualifications in qualification frameworks and the constitutive characteristics of vocational and academic education. © The Author(s) 2025.
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