This project will investigate employers' judgements about the 'relevance and responsiveness' of provision through a collaborative investigation with four different networks of employers and industry representatives. The study will 'collect the views of employers and industry' and facilitate comparative analysis.
In order to explore the research questions, it is essential to better understand employers' expectations and their conceptions of the issues and challenges they face. There is a need to move beyond broad generalisations and simplistic conceptions of these skills - as research has shown such conceptions are virtually meaningless at the grounded, practical level - which is where employers, adult worker-learners and VET/ACE practitioners have their concerns. We need to get to the 'nitty-gritty' of employer expectations.
This project provides a design to engage groups of employers in dialogue on these issues. It will investigate how industry perceives, identifies and addresses literacy, numeracy and employability skills issues - and it will explore the implications for policy and practice in workplaces and in adult and vocational education.
* How do employers understand workplace literacy, numeracy and generic/employability skills requirements and the current arrangements for the provision or development of these capabilities?
* How well, (or to what extent) do employers' perceptions and understandings reflect contemporary research findings about the nature of adult/workplace literacy, numeracy and generic/employability skills?
* What are the consequences and/or implications of employers' understandings of these issues?
Subsidiary/follow-up questions:
* How do employers make their judgements about these capabilities with respect to work and workers?
* How do employers' understandings affect their judgements about the current provision(s) for the development of these capabilities?
* What role do their understandings play in enabling and/or disabling capacities to address literacy, numeracy and employability skills development within the workplace?
* (In the spirit of appreciative enquiry) what potential exists to facilitate and encourage the development of these skills within workplaces? What are the constraints to realising this potential?
* (From the point of view of employers) what strategies, models, resources and/or programs might be developed and/or improved to enhance the provision, growth and demonstration of these capabilities?
* What are the implications of these findings for workplaces and for VET and ACE policy and practice?
Overview: The proposed study is qualitative in nature but not case study, survey, or interview based. We propose to design, develop and implement a series of four customised 'search conferences' as data gathering events. Each event will be designed collaboratively with our research partners with their particular employer constituency - and their respective literacy, numeracy and employability issues - in mind. Through these search conferences, including structured focus groups, we aim to engage employers in dialogue on these issues and solicit rich qualitative data across a broad range of industry and employment contexts.
Data Sources/organisations/key people to be targeted
The principal data sources will be a wide range of employers involved in the networks auspiced by:
* GTA Vic - Group Training Australia (Victoria)
* MLV- Manufacturing Learning Victoria
* CS&H ITB - Community Services & Health Industry Training Board
* VLGA - Victorian Local Governance Association
Planning and Preparation
The actions of this initial stage include the following:
* Conduct literature review,
* Engage consultations and project planning with research partners, including data gathering schedule, venues, catering & logistics.
* Identify, with research partners, through strategic purposive sampling, participants for the search conferences,
* Develop outline program(s) and guiding questions/activities for data gathering conferences,
* Prepare introductory/explanatory packages for conference participants (tailored to each industry/employer network)
Data gathering and analysis
The principal activities of stage two will be data gathering and subsequent data analysis.
How data is to be gathered: As discussed above, the purposive sample will be recruited through our research partner networks. Usually, search conferences are conducted over 2-3 days. We propose a modified and more intensive approach involving one-day of exchange, dialogue and data gathering (including structured focus groups) with each group of employers. The approach will be time and cost-effective. Each event will be carefully planned with our partners, to ensure that the approach is tailored to the constituent group and that quality data is gathered.
We anticipate the conferences, as data gathering events, will evolve as the project proceeds. The qualitative data from the conferences will be recorded via extensive field notes, mind-maps and text records from each event. In addition audio recordings and digital images will be captured where possible.
The Data Analysis process will be inductive. It will entail working and re-working through the materials generated from the conferences to identify and clarify key themes, issues, insights and the implications - for workplaces and for adult and vocational education policy and practice. The literature review will be re-visited in light of the emerging data.
Workplace Learning Initiatives is an organisation now well known to NCVER given its contribution to VET research and the role that the company has played in the debates within the VET field. Much of the company's work, including its research, has had a strong focus on issues concerned with adult literacy, empowerment and employability. The company continues to grow as a training, research and consultancy organisation, to articulate interaction between these areas of operation and to sustain a credible and critical voice to further adult learning and its links with employment and community. (See www.wli.com.au).
