Work in Progress
Learning collaborations between ACE and vocational education and training providers: Good practice partnerships
Summary
- Item:
- 10351
- Title:
- Learning collaborations between ACE and vocational education and training providers: Good practice partnerships
- Type:
- Managed research project
- Project no:
- NR5005
- Status:
- Finished
- Date commenced:
- 1 August 2005
- Contact:
- Tom Stehlik
- phone: +61 8 8302 6241
- email: tom.stehlik@unisa.com.au
Purpose
The research will increase understanding about the processes and the outcomes that can enhance connections between ACE and VET, in order to increase lifelong learning, community capacity building and industry skill needs in communities and regions. This project will investigate and identify in qualitative terms both the positive and negative features seen to engender or hinder the building of cooperation and collaboration in ACE-VET partnerships among a number of organisations across Australia. Further, it will analyse the outcomes of such partnerships as perceived by their various stakeholders. This investigation will therefore be able to inform policy, practice and research by providing suggestions for good practice and analysis of outcomes that can further fundamental connections between ACE and VET in communities across outer urban, regional and rural localities.
Approach
Interviews
Research questions
In order to understand how both partnerships (formal collaborations between organisations), and connections (more informal collaborations, perhaps among staff across organisations), between ACE and VET can be maximised to achieve the broad goals mentioned above, the following key questions (with indicative sub-questions) will drive this research.
1. Where are examples of successful and unsuccessful ACE-VET partnerships and/or connections in outer urban, regional and rural localities across Australia, and how do they work?
* Why and how were they initiated?
* What are the key stakeholder roles?
* What are their responsibilities?
* How are the partnerships and/or connections sustained and managed?
* What role do community development officers have in building connections or partnerships?
* Are there alternative partnerships and/or connections beyond ACE-VET involved?
2. What outcomes do the respective stakeholders in these examples expect from these partnerships and/or connections, and to what degree are these expected outcomes achieved?
* What evidence is available? And from where is it derived?
* What outcomes are identifiable within the partnerships and/or connections?
* What, if any, are the differing roles of ACE and VET in achieving these outcomes?
* Are there barriers to both/either sector becoming acquainted with linkage concepts and recognition of each other's VET provision?
* To what extent do the stakeholders judge these outcomes are being met?
3. What good practices currently underpin partnerships and/or connections in these examples?
* What examples of good practice can be identified?
* What processes should be avoided?
* Are there regions and/or circumstances where ACE-VET organisations work better alone or together?
* What enablers and barriers are there to the connections?
* Are there contexts where ACE-VET undertakes non-traditional roles (e.g. ACE in economic development and VET in community capacity building)?
* If so, how do these non-traditional roles benefit either the connections or their local context?
* In what ways could these good practices be replicated and implemented elsewhere?
4. What are the implications of the research findings for policy, practice and research?
Methodology
Notes on Scope and Design
Research will be undertaken in a series of inter-connecting stages that will progressively build evidence and directions for good practice in partnerships/collaborations and outline qualitatively from the evidence gathered what benefits might accrue from such connections. The qualitative methodology to be utilized follows a previously successful national research design undertaken in the ACE-VET area (see Gelade et al. 2003). The researchers also intend to make use of a large ACE-VET database accrued through the projects as a means of initial contact with possible participants. It is planned to investigate the good practices within, and the benefits from, ACE-VET collaboration in both regional/rural and urban areas across six Australian states to ensure national relevance.
The result will be a total of 14 organisations and, with each having either successful/unsuccessful partnerships to describe, a minimum of 28 case organisations will be available for analysis. Where personnel from other stakeholders are available, further interviews will be undertaken. Following the first stage analysis, a smaller selection of site visits - likely to be five or six - will involve one case in each locality in order to obtain further in-depth qualitative information.
Organisations
CREEW (Centre for Research in Education, Equity and Work) began in 1994, and has been a recognised research centre within the University of South Australia since 1998. Since late 2004, it has also been a constituent centre within the Hawke Research Institute for Sustainable Societies (HRISS). Its website www.unisa.edu.au/creew lists previous projects undertaken which provide a background for the work indicated in this proposal.
