This paper identifies three, overlapping, phases of restructuring of New Zealand's system of vocational education and training (VET). These are the meritocratic, the market and the managed. In very different ways, each phase has been designed to increase the propensity of students from all social backgrounds to participate in VET. This paper contributes to debates about the impact of reform of VET in New Zealand by reporting on the results of a study that assesses the propensity of students from different social backgrounds to progress to VET in New Zealand. In doing so, the paper assesses the extent to which VET is "for other people's children" and responds to recent calls for research in VET that foregrounds ethnicity, gender and social class. (Contains 7 notes and 6 figures.)