The transformation of Western societies has lead to focus on knowledge as the key factor for development. Knowledge economy, society, work, management, sharing etc. are all notions that seem to capture what the changes are about and where the resources should be invested. Knowledge workers are the important agents in this process and more and more work is defined as knowledge work. Knowledge work is work where knowledge is the commodity, and is often understood as anything but traditional manufacturing jobs or low-skilled jobs in the service sector.

This simplified picture of how knowledge is presented in dominating discourses calls for discussion of what type of knowledge we are talking about. Embodied or tacit knowledge is part of all human action, and not least in many jobs in manufacturing and service industries the tacit dimension is an important element. This is not the type of knowledge seen as the new economy's driving force, but when the knowledge becomes explicit and develops in to more complex analytical understandings, it becomes interesting for management as a commodity. It opens for another type of divorce of knowledge of the knower than Taylorism launched. The separation can only partly be successful because the production of new knowledge is dependent on whether the individuals find the process meaningful for themselves.

With the expanding emphasis on personal skills and competencies, interest is also directed towards knowledge embedded in individuals' personalities, their everyday life and experiences. Often tacit, this knowledge will have other forms of collective, societal, cultural and aesthetic dimensions than the knowledge demanded by production. For the individual the division between different forms of knowledge supports not least for the lowly skilled an instrumental attitude to work. If different forms of personal, embodied knowledge were brought together, societal and potentially democratising perspectives could change the meaning of work. The call for development of personal skills and competencies has lead to changes in VET. For example have new teaching methods like project work and more non-technical subjects opened for more personal involvement. The accreditation of skills and competencies has become a well-integrated part in VET. The logic that frames the accreditation and the type of knowledge involved in the process is important to analyse.

Many lowly skilled workers will find that knowledge economy does not develop their jobs into new types of interesting knowledge work. For those, unemployment or deskilling will be the result. The question is what role VET has to play in the knowledge economy. Will VET loose its societal importance, will it be able to develop jobs for the lowly skilled, will it be able to integrate different types of knowledge - knowledge that draws on personal and embodied knowledge and with the potential of linking working life with other life spheres and society.

In the first part of the paper discourses of knowledge economy will be presented and it will be discussed how lowly skilled workers and their jobs fit in these discourses. In the second part of the paper it will be discussed how different types of knowledge exist coherently, as part of different types of jobs and as part of everyday life. In the third part of the paper the role of VET in knowledge production is analysed. It will be discussed whether VET can integrate different forms of knowledge and through this play a role in developing better jobs and more democratic organisations. In the fourth and final part of the paper perspectives for knowledge production will be outlined with emphasis on the link between subjective motivation and societal sustainability.