Why the ‘capabilities approach’ is not helpful for researching vocational education and training

This paper is one side of a debate with Leesa Wheelahan on the value of the capabilities approach for researching vocational education and training (VET), held on 22 May 2026 to celebrate the 250th issue of the Journal of Vocational Education and Training. I argue that the approach, which is increasingly used in VET research, does not offer much to the field. Its emphasis on human flourishing, and on education as more than preparation for work, is important but not new. Many educational traditions and theories specific to education in general and VET more narrowly share these aims. But unlike the capabilities approach, they also offer resources for conducting research and taking positions in debates about curriculum, knowledge, work, occupations, and educational provision. I suggest that while the approach is often positioned as an alternative to human capital theory, it is also at its core based on individualism. Structure, power, and the social relations of education are used additively as ‘conversion factors’, where they can no longer do meaningful theoretical work. Further, its evaluative, outcomes-focused stance carries risks: it gives weak VET systems new ways to fail, while diverting attention from the economic and institutional arrangements that real educational change requires.