A huge learning curve: TAFE practitioners' ways of working with private enterprises
Authors:
Roger Harris, Michele Simons, Julian Moore
Publication date: 
4 November 2005
Type:
Research report
Themes:
VET in context > Lifelong learning > General
Industry and employers > Training within the enterprise > General
Industry and employers > Training within the enterprise > On-the-job
Industry and employers > VET/Industry partnerships > General
Teaching and learning > Learning > Workbased learning
VET system > VET providers > Partnerships with industry
VET system > VET providers > Private providers
VET system > VET providers > TAFEs
ISBN:
1 920896 89 9 print; 1 920896 90 2 web
Increasingly, vocational education and training (VET) practitioners work with industry and within private enterprises in arrangements that provide training for workers. This report, based on interviews with TAFE practitioners and managers, enterprise managers and on-the-job learners, highlights the expanding roles of TAFE practitioners in these training arrangements. It finds that in private enterprises TAFE practitioners introduce new elements to learning, provide support to managers and workers, build links between the organisation and TAFE and raise training standards. They also foster a learning culture, support individual workers, and act as a model of lifelong learning. The impact of TAFE practitioners' work is also analysed from the perspective of the enterprises, and findings indicate that it is valued by industry counterparts. However, the success of the training arrangement, which can significantly improve learning in the workplace, depends on establishing effective relationships between TAFE and industry.