2 RIVAL CONCEPTIONS OF VOCATIONAL-EDUCATION - SMITH,ADAM AND LIST,FRIEDRICH

Two different versions of capitalist political economy are explained. The first is the classical model of Adam Smith. The second is the soci al capitalist model associated with Friedrich List. Smith's views on e ducation and training are clearly articulated in The Wealth of Nations while List's National System of Political Economy, although it does n ot deal explicitly at any great length with education and training, is pregnant with implications for vocational education. Two different va rieties of vocational education emerge from a comparison of these two political economists. Smith proposes a market-led low skill model of t raining, while List proposes a high-skill model sustained by the state and institutions of civil society, such as craft guilds. The two mode ls follow directly from the overall contrasting conceptions of politic al economy and are directly relevant to the study of vocational educat ion and training systems in the different varieties of capitalist econ omy extant in the contemporary world.