In vocational education, collaboration between the educational institution and the workplace is essential. With a view to developing cooperation between vocational education and working life and assuring the quality of vocational education, vocational skills demonstrations (competence-based tests) have been developed in Finland (Räkköläinen 2005, 21 Stenström, 2001; 2005) Competence-based examinations have been used mostly in countries where vocational education is driven by working life (Wolf, 1995; Eraut et al., 1996). The recent enhancement of the work- based learning system and pilot projects to try out performance-based tests (vocational skills demonstrations) are developments reflecting the current process of change in the relationship between working life and VET. The effort to raise the level of VET participation has made the question of reorganising assessment to meet the demands of both HE institutions and working life an acute one also in other European countries (Green et al., 1999). The paper is based on a study whose aim is to examine students’ practice-oriented learning as a part of VET provision in authentic situations at workplaces. The context is the experimental introduction of skills tests in Finland. The data have been collected by interviewing social welfare and health care and construction students, their teachers, and representatives of enterprises operating in these fields.