Traditional education teaches you about academic subjects. You learn some theory and facts on various subjects or, in higher education, a lot of theory and facts on a particular subject. In vocational education, on the other hand, you learn how to complete a particular task. It is procedural knowledge. Of course, this is not as absolute a division as it sounds; one learns some procedure in traditional education and some theory in vocational education, but the emphasis of the former is on theory, whereas the focus of the latter is on procedure.