5 PART One setting the scene Introduction In Part One we cover: governmental, economic and educational changes that affect vocational education and work-based training; an overview of vocational qualifications, including the QCF; the organizations involved in the development, delivery and quality assurance of national standards and vocational qualifications. In the 4th edition of this book, written during 2007/08, we wrote that: `The urgency of the need to qualify the workforce must surely drive those in posi- tions of influence towards enabling the early creation of a coherent system with minimum bureaucracy and a comprehensive qualifications framework.' The publication coincided with a change of government. Since then, there have been significant changes to the organizations that develop and accredit qualifications, and to the funding of both deliverers and of learners. The introduction of the Qualification Curriculum Framework (QCF) has meant a radical revision of the structure and content of most vocational qualifica- tions, including those for assessing and quality-assuring those qualifications. Change is still occurring: consultations are underway on developing a single qualification for teacher training and assessment across the whole sector. The system is still complicated and could do with further rationalization, and there will be a further review in 2013. The following sections give the background to these developments.