By making visible certain entities, phenomena, changes and continuities as being relevant to vocational education, researchers are joint definers of work and education at their sub-national, national and supranational levels. Which stories and mappings are going to have currency in transnational discourses on VET? Studies about transformation of vocational education in Europe speak about systems, even when based on sector-specific perspectives. VET is seldom considered as an internally complex field and as an outcome of wider educational, political and social programmes. The aim of the article is to show the need of cross-cultural research on emergence of meanings and functions of vocational education. Critical to this may be studies on historical periods when VET has been confronted with other forms of education. Through discussion on continuing education in Finland, Nordic countries and Germany, historicisation and contextualisation of models of VET is suggested. (Contains 1 table and 10 footnotes.)