This classic essay--Die Schulwerkstatt als Grundlage der Organisation der Fortbildungsschule--by George Kerschensteiner (1854-1932) is here published for the first time in English, in a translation by Stephanie Wilde and Christopher Winch. The essay was highly influential in the formation of the successful economy in modern Germany. It has had a bearing on the development of modern conceptions of the place of work, career and profession in a human life, and of the significance of this or the development of both the society as a whole and the individual's "Bildung." It provides the means to question again some of the assumptions embedded not only in contemporary thinking about vocational education but about the idea of education as a whole. Much turns in the discussion of differences between German and English expressions, and these are discussed in the complementary essay, 'Re-Reading Kerschensteiner today--Doing VET in German vocational schools', by Peter Sloane. An introduction to the broader context is provided in 'Founding German Vocational Education: Kerschensteiner, Spranger and Fischer as key figures in the classical German VET Theory' by Christian Steibe, Dina Kuhlee and Christopher Winch, the Editors of this Special Issue.