Vocational colleges' social role has been under-developed because they have been marketised and privatised, and because the idea of the vocational college has not been advanced and institutionalised. The paper describes this for public vocational colleges in Australia, which are at the vanguard of competency-based education and in being disciplined with neoliberal policies. The paper bases an institutionalisation of vocational colleges on the capabilities approach and an extension of their social role to anchor the development of communities' collective education, social and economic development, and their capacity for collective action.