From Business Education Council to Edexcel Foundation 1969-96: the short but winding road from technician education to instrumentalist technicism

This study accounts for the formation in England of the Business Education
Council (BEC) in 1974, and its development and transitions into the Business and
Technology Education Council (BTEC) in 1983, and Edexcel Foundation in 1996. The
article outlines the background and response to the 1969 report from the Committee on
Technician Courses and Examinations (the Haslegrave Report), paying attention to its
conceptualisation of the notion of ‘technician’. It is argued that this further entrenched the
class-based ideological subtext that would continue to deny ‘parity of esteem’ to vocational
education. The BEC/BTEC curriculum is characterised as one that, presenting a detour
through a form of progressive vocationalism, transformed pedagogic practice in further
education. By 1993, however, BTEC was, in practice, constrained by the National
Council for Vocational Qualifications and its innovative role in curriculum development
was lost.