It’s fashionable to suggest that there needs to be an increased emphasis on vocational routes to individual career choices — on education serving the economy. I would argue, however, that this reflects a philosophy which involves ‘putting the cart before the horse’ (heretical as that may sound in the current climate), and that a distinctively Christian vision of what education is, and what it is for, offers a far better hope of a well-educated and effective workforce than its secular equivalent.