Research
The five national research priorities
- Skills and productivity
- Structures in the tertiary education and training system
- The contribution of education and training to social inclusion
- Learning and teaching
- The place and role of VET
Skills and productivity
To investigate how skills contribute to economic growth
The tertiary education and training sector has a role to play in improving productivity through skill development and enhancing employment by enabling individuals to gain or upgrade skills. Better matches are required between the skills individuals have or seek to acquire and those in demand by enterprises. It is important to ensure that individuals and employers get the highest return on their investment in education and training and that productivity is not constrained by skill shortages or lack of flexibility in skills training. From the point of view of productivity, it is necessary then that the labour market as a whole and all forms of provision, covering skills obtained at school, in vocational education and training, university and the workplace, is understood. Growing demands for higher-level cognitive and analytical skills, in addition to foundation skills, such as literacy and numeracy, and technical skills, means we need to know more about what generic skills are required and how these are imparted.
Fundamental concepts
- Skill utilisation, over-skilling and mismatch
- Supply of skills—shortages and responsiveness of training
- Role of skill sets and qualifications
- Skills market
- Match between education and training and occupational labour markets
- Structure of the labour market and the role of education and training
- Labour mobility
- Generic vs technical skills
- Return to skills
- Attrition
- Workforce development and participation
- Types of skills
- Foundation, technical, employability, ‘green’
- Return on investment
- Role of enterprises in converting skills to productivity
- Employment patterns
Structures in the tertiary education and training system
To examine the impact of policy, funding and market frameworks on the provision of education and training
The efficiency of the institutional structures in which education and training is delivered has a significant effect on the provision and acquisition of skills. Post-compulsory education is facing a period of restructure, one that begins with ministerial and advisory arrangements: the Ministerial Council for Tertiary Education and Employment has an explicit focus on both VET and higher education as well as on employment, and significant governance reforms are underway, including the introduction of a national regulator for the VET sector, eventually to be merged with the university regulator. Markets are also at work in the education and training sector. We need to understand these better to assist policy-makers to determine the extent of state regulation and to assist providers to offer high-quality services that realise good returns on investment to both individual learners and employers. This points to the need to examine funding models and also how consumers can get the best available information about the training system.
Fundamental concepts
- Funding models
- State vs private contributions and student entitlements
- Quality assurance
- Planning
- Workforce planning and the role of industry
- Training packages
- Markets and market structures
- Governance and architecture
- Regulation of registered training organisations
- The cost of doing business
- Contractual training arrangements
- Provision of information
The contribution of education and training to social inclusion
To explore the reduction of disadvantage through education and training
Tertiary education and training plays a significant, but not singular, role in contributing to an inclusive society. The aim of this priority is to prompt thinking about the design of an education and training system which supports all learners to achieve their potential and to investigate how education and training can achieve good economic and social outcomes for disadvantaged groups. Understanding the motivations of individuals and the role of learning and qualifications in enhancing social mobility, creating opportunities and opening up pathways are key concerns. We also need to know more about the barriers to participation, completion and outcomes for disadvantaged learners. Importantly, there is a need to consider the capacity of the tertiary system to respond to the requirements of a range of individuals who experience disadvantage, or who are at risk of disengagement from learning and employment opportunities. How can tertiary education and training best cater to all individuals, build resilience in our youth and play its part in redressing social exclusion? Crucial here will be consistent definitions and appropriate measures.
Fundamental concepts
- Defining disadvantage and appropriate measures
- Low socioeconomic status
- Disengagement
- Reconceptualising equity
- Individual motivations and nature of pathways
- Institutional capacity to respond
- Accommodating disadvantage
- Incentives to reach ‘hard to reach’ learners
- Role of different learning environments
- Learning communities
- Social mobility and the role of qualifications
- Youth at risk and scarring effects
- Language, literacy and numeracy skills
- Equity groups
- For example, low socioeconomic status, youth, mature age, migrants, Indigenous, rural and remote, disability, gender
- For example, low socioeconomic status, youth, mature age, migrants, Indigenous, rural and remote, disability, gender
Learning and teaching
To understand how, why, where and when people learn
The adult learner is at the heart of any education and training system, but we still do not know enough about their characteristics and motivation. What will work to engage and retain the modern learner? How do we convert information into knowledge? How do we encourage innovation and creative thinking? What effect does learning in cyberspace have on the social aspects of learning? The rapidly changing requirements of teaching and learning deserve analysis and reflection, especially as we continue to debate the merits of broad vocational education as opposed to more narrowly focused technical training. These new teaching and learning contexts have also served to intensify the spotlight on quality—of various teaching and learning models, assessment and reporting approaches and where learning occurs.
Fundamental concepts
- Effective models of learning and impacts on the practitioner and the learner
- Competency-based training
- Knowledge acquisition
- Mixed on-the-job, institutional trade training (apprenticeships and traineeships)
- Work-based learning
- Using technology in learning delivery (information and communication technology, e learning)
- Informal and non-formal learning
- Non/un-accredited learning
- Applied learning
- VET in Schools, ACE and VET in higher education „c Development of learning cultures
- Quality
- Outcomes
- Assessment and recognition
- Reporting
- Completion and non-completion
- Learner engagement and retention
- Characteristics and motivations of the learner
- Needs of specific learners
- For example, youth, mature age, migrants, international students, Indigenous, rural and remote, disability
- For example, youth, mature age, migrants, international students, Indigenous, rural and remote, disability
The place and role of VET
To consider VET’s role in the tertiary education sector, world of work and community
A perennial question for the VET sector is how it fits into the broader world—the post-compulsory education and training sector, the world of work and community. There are a number of aspects at play here, compounded by the necessity for VET to better define its role within a tertiary education context and within the various institutional elements of public, private and enterprise providers. The boundaries may be blurring but still need definition, as do the implications for VET of a renewed focus on equity and improved access to tertiary education for disadvantaged learners. How the sector copes with these emerging trends will depend upon its capacity to respond, adapt and renew itself. At the crux of the sector is the VET, and ACE, workforce: we need to know more about their dynamics and capabilities to meet, amongst a range of things, demands for imparting higher-level skills, to teach in a global education and labour market and to be involved in workforce development, design and learning on the job.
Fundamental concepts
- Institutions
- TAFE
- Private registered training organisations
- Enterprise registered training organisations
- Adult and community education providers
- Universities
- Private higher education providers
- Dual or multi-sector providers
- Pathways, cross-sectoral delivery and articulation
- Interface between sectors
- Competition, collaboration and ‘who delivers what’
- Thin markets and challenges in the regions
- Internationalisation (impacts on domestic operations and learnings from offshore delivery)
- Responsiveness of VET providers
- Supporting innovation
- Impacts of fluctuations in the business cycle (labour market/small business/industry considerations)
- Environmental, technological and demographic challenges
- VET and ACE workforce
- Recruitment and qualifications
- Industry currency
- Professional development in teaching, learning and assessment
- Succession planning
- Participation in research
