This thesis considers the extent to which the hegemonic, socially and economically hierarchical principles of private enterprise were channelled through school-business links. School-business links take many forms, and the one I have highlighted is a neo-vocationalist programme which was aimed at rendering low-achieving senior secondary students 'employable'. In the process, the importance of private enterprise as generators of wealth is emphasised, while that of labour is overlooked. That is, the interests of employers are paramount in the programme, while those of the students are marginalised. In my discussion and conclusion, I find that the programme can be seen to be exploitative, because the rhetoric that legitimates it obscures the ways in which the interests of unequal social classes are met in an hierarchically differential fashion.