Reaching out to the researcher

NCVER’s Building Researcher Capacity Program is in full swing. It includes academic and communities of practice scholarships, a mentoring program, and the newly announced NCVER fellowships.

The academic scholarships support individuals already employed in the VET sector to undertake postgraduate study, under the supervision of a university supervisor plus an additional VET supervisor.

These scholarships, coordinated by Roger Harris of the University of South Australia, provide opportunities for participants to deepen their passion for research and expand their personal networks. Four people received an academic scholarship in 2008 and seven in 2009, as listed below.

In addition, the communities of practice scholarships, managed by Berwyn Clayton from the Victoria University, assist novice researchers already working in the VET arena to solve a workplace issue while learning about research techniques at the same time. In 2008, seven participants were funded under this initiative and eleven will go through this program in 2009, as listed below.

An important element to the communities of practice scholarships is a mentoring scheme coordinated by Llandis Barratt-Pugh from Edith Cowan University on behalf of AVETRA. It links the novice researchers with an experienced VET researcher to help guide them through the research process.

Additionally, a new fellowship scheme was recently announced by NCVER to encourage researchers to use NCVER’s wealth of data.

For more information about the fellowships, please contact Joanne Hargreaves on (08) 8230 8678 or email joanne.hargreaves@ncver.edu.au.

These initiatives will produce a series of papers throughout the year. To be alerted when they become available, subscribe to NCVER News at www.ncver.edu.au/newsevents/news.html.

Academic scholarships*

2008
Stuart Anderson	Linking flexible VET delivery to community development in the context of an Indigenous community
Jennifer Davids	Where to from here? Exploring retention of experienced teachers in TAFE, roles of lead vocational teachers and their career development needs
Joe Pagnoccolo	Emotional intelligence and apprentice achievement: Factors influencing learning on and off the job
Jim Plummer	Researching mobile learning at the Adelaide Zoo
2009
Lyndall Cooper-Smith	Small/medium enterprises in regional industry: How the VET sector could enhance workforce development using e-based workplace competency assessment
Jane Court	How effectively does the Certificate IV TAA prepare trainers/teachers to work in the VET sector?
Robert Ford	How to engage industry to accept new pedagogy for trade teaching: Cooking as a case study
Meaghan Leith	Aims and effectiveness of Australian and Canadian government-funded ESL programs for adult immigrants
Terry O’Hanlon-Rose	Effective ways of organising work-based programs in senior secondary schools
Paul Rodney	What are the socio-economic influences on subject selection and student performance in NSW Catholic schools? (VET curriculum)
Stefan Schutt	Development of a pilot storytelling website system that supports VET professionals to share their professional practice

 

 Communities of practice scholarships*

2008
Sue Goodburn	Online staff development programs in the VET sector: Tracking the progress of a blended delivery staff development program that uses e-learning
Simon Hamm	What is wrong with a career in hospitality? An explanation of student enrolment in Hospitality and Event Management courses at a city TAFE in Melbourne
Regan Harding	Experiences of early VET programs for young Aboriginal learners: Perceptions of practitioners and young people
Sherridan Maxwell	Looking at ‘rubrics’ (a scoring tool for subjective grading) to support competency-based assessment
Mark Mossuto	Problem-based learning: A study of student engagement, student learning and contextualised problem solving within VET
Melinda Randall	Looking at the documentation of completion rates and implementing strategies to continue to improve completion rates annually
Ruth Wallace	Exploring learner identities through e-portfolios
2009
Cheryle Barker	What learning practices embed learning from training programs for individuals in the health industry?
Sandra Cotton	What factors contribute to module completion rates of apprentices and trainees with identified learning disabilities?
Kath Curry	How important is supporting employees in undertaking VET as a workforce retention strategy? A case study in local government
Coralie Daniels	What are the components of an effective VET leadership development tool? A CIT case study
Neil Hauxwell	What effective English language learning practices can be readily incorporated into vocational training programs to improve outcomes for culturally and linguistically diverse students?
Jeanette Learned	To trial a tool to track student course engagement and identify factors critical to completion. What factors are useful (in a tool) to track student engagement with learning?
Ann Leske	Evaluating the impact of adult literacy teaching in partnered programs: Partners’ perspectives
Virginia Waite	What is an ecologically sustainable solution to managing end-of-life technology in NCTAFE?
Ruth Walker	Examining the intent and outcomes for graduates of TAA40104 from NSW ACE RTOs
Graeme Watson	How should training and assessment of creativity based units be focused to meet the needs of WA Screen industry?
Alan Woods	Meeting the emerging training needs of diverse groups of farmers and future farmers: What do they want to study? How do they want to study?

 

 

*These topics are subject to change