Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) has a well-established vocational education and training (VET) system that contributes towards the country’s economic standing and social outcomes. As in many countries, however, current and imminent challenges have led to a reconsideration and reconfiguration of our system. This chapter provides an overview of successive shifts as economic, political, and social factors have impinged on the connection between education and work. The chapter presents an overview of VET’s development over time and its place in the wider Aotearoa NZ educational framework, including the impacts of socio-political-economic changes across the last 50 years. Additionally, the chapter presents and discusses the rationale for the range of topics and focus of this book. The NZ government’s reform of vocational education (RoVE) as part of a wider review of NZ educational systems to meet the challenges posed by ‘industry 4.0’ on work are proposed as major reasons. The many difficulties RoVE seeks to ameliorate are not unique to Aotearoa NZ. As such, Aotearoa responses are likely to be of interest to many other countries seeking to ensure their VET systems provide for equitable and sustainable measures to meet the demands wrought by contemporary and future global and local issues. The chapter closes with brief overviews of the chapters in this volume. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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