The prevalence of vocational courses in secondary schools is seen in National Certificate statistics which show that about 85 per cent of fifth-year pupils are taking modules.
More than half of all NC modules (52.6 per cent) are school based, with fourth-year registrations contributing most of the recent increase.
A Scottish Office statistical bulletin for 1995-96 shows that further education students accounted for 39.4 per cent of modules.
The total number of pupils and students enrolled increased by 2 per cent compared with the previous year, but the number of modules taken dropped marginally. Full success was achieved in 68.6 per cent of enrolments.