'Bridging' the gap between VET and higher education: permeability or perpetuation?

Demands for admission to higher education from vocational routes are widespread across Eu-rope but take different forms, depending on the recognition of tertiary VET or whether sharp-er distinctions between VET and higher education exist. In England, alongside policies pro-moting more employer-responsive tertiary provision, opportunities for ‘bridging’ from voca-tional routes to general university education, and vice versa, have been discussed. The study reported here examined four cases of existing provision supporting transitions into higher edu-cation, potential sites of practices supporting bridging across pathways. Each case provided valued support for progression to higher levels of study; yet these practices focused on exist-ing routes rather than transitions between more academic or vocationally-oriented sites. It is suggested, therefore, that the explicit denotation of separate tertiary provision may be more likely to constrain ‘bridging’ provision than for the latter to help students move beyond their existing route into substantially different forms of higher education.The paper draws on a study funded by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation GAT3398/J