The paper aims to contribute to the European education policy literature through an analysis of what I refer to as "discretional policies", which are now instrumentally used by the EU but that have so far been largely overlooked by this literature, and to the literature on transparency of qualifications. The paper argues, first, that the…

Located differentially (and to its detriment) within a status hierarchy of knowledge, vocational education has been called upon to satisfy an increasing range of political and social needs, including meeting the needs of industry and government and catering for increasing pupil diversity. Faced with stubbornly immobile rates of school completion…

Maintains that efforts aimed at the development of a European dimension to the general education curriculum offered in individual nations' schooling have increased in recent years. Asserts that the immediate goal is to provide young people with opportunities beyond their national borders. (CFR)