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Vocational training is an imprecise term in the Canadian context. In English-speaking Canada, a variety of terms have been used in place of vocational training, such as labour force development, work-related training, technical education and the very general term post-secondary education. In Quebec, the French term ‘formation professionnelle et technique’ has remained in use over the years to refer to preparation for the practice of a trade or occupation as a technician, although a variety of other terms have also been used. The lack of a clear reference to vocational training in Canada is not simply a question of terminology, but is also indicative of a lack of co-ordinated focus on vocational training in this country and of its low social value. As the first children born in the post–World War II baby boom reached early adulthood, governments, and the federal government in particular, became concerned about the capacity of the economy to absorb all the young people about to enter the labour market. Massive investments in colleges and universities were made to ensure that these large numbers of young people were integrated more gradually into the labour market and to better prepare them for a labour market that was shifting from natural resource extraction and manufacturing to services. Vocational training became the poor second cousin of these new institutions as the focus shifted to preparing young Canadians for the sophisticated future world of work.