In January 1982 the Further Education Curriculum Review and Development Unit (FEU) published a discussion paper dealing with the issues involved in expanding and improving Great Britain's vocational training and educational system. Following its publication and dissemination of the paper, the FEU sent a letter asking the major further and higher education (FHE) validating and training bodies to respond formally to the discussion paper. Responses were received from 17 FHE validating bodies concerning the extent to which they supported the points set forth in the discussion paper and the role that they hoped to play in the progression of the country's vocational education and training system. The responses indicated a general support for the notion that the issue of the progression of vocational training is crucial to the success of the vocational program. Analysis of the various practices that individual agencies both hope to and are currently implementing to facilitate progression reveals two major obstacles to progression, the lack of a coherent government policy on vocational preparation and the persistence of the idea that vocational preparation is a temporary phenomenon. (Appended to the report are the text of the FEU document, the individual agency responses to the document, and a common core of skills for vocational preparation.) (MN)