The essays in this publication are intended to stimulate thinking about how the current appetite for vocational education and training (VET) reform can be harnessed to shape a bright future for vocational education. The editors approached six writers and commentators on VET to give their views on the future of VET. The editors asked Robin Ryan, both an historian of and commentator on vocational education, to pull together themes emerging from the various essays. He has articulated five themes: (1) the need for a new "settlement" to address the federal governance of vocational education and, over time, improve funding mechanisms; (2) the better articulation of VET's purposes to serve individuals and communities and VET's role in the tertiary education sector; (3) a more successful marriage of curriculum and competence, including addressing the place of training packages; (4) the use of the history of VET--what's worked and what hasn't--to inform the current reform effort; and (5) the importance of maintaining an employer and industry voice in VET. This publication contains the following essays: (1) Thinking about the future: A medley of views (Robin Ryan); (2) The future of VET: The case for a new VET settlement (Peter Noonan); (3) Who will make it happen for VET? (Myree Russell); (4) An opportunity to be grasped (Robin Shreeve); (5) From VET to tertiary: The future of VET in Australia (Virginia Simmons); (6) Is there a future for the "V" in VET? (John Hart); (7) Curriculum, monitoring and the ladder of opportunity (Gavin Moodie); and (8) The future of VET: or, Allen Ginsberg revisited (Tom Karmel). Individual essays contain references, tables, and figures.