NCVER News #382

15 July 2016

Webinar series

TVA data: a more comprehensive picture

Later this month, NCVER will release Total VET students and courses 2015 data, based on training delivered nationally and overseas by Australian training providers last year. This release of data builds on the first release ‘total VET activity’ (TVA) data which began to tell the fuller story of Australia’s VET system. We invite you to join our free webinar on Thursday 28 July at 1pm ACST to gain a better insight into TVA data from 2015 and the full range of TVA products and services. The webinar will include time for Q&A.

More information and to register

Vulnerable workers and occupational mobility

Transferable skills are increasingly important for occupational mobility and securing employment in a changing labour market. Register for our free webinar on 11 August to hear how workers who are facing redundancy or who have been made redundant understand the importance of transferable skills and seek to apply them in finding new jobs and/or making choices to retrain.

More information and to register

RTO survey: improving student participation and success

Staff at TAFE, skills institutes, polytechnics, private RTOs and community RTOs are invited to take part in a short online survey that aims to identify policies and practices that are most effective in improving student progress and outcomes, particularly for disadvantaged groups.

This national survey is being conducted as part of a research project commissioned by NCVER and undertaken by the Centre for International Research on Education Systems (CIRES) at Victoria University. Responses will be used to build a national database of strategies and initiatives used by RTOs to support students, in particular students belonging to key equity groups.

Take the survey now

Fewer people in government-funded training

The number of people enrolled in government-funded training declined 10.7% to 1.6 million students in 2015 compared with 2014. Of these students, 1.2 million were Commonwealth or state-funded students with the remainder fee-for-service students at TAFE and other government providers. If you’re after a snapshot of this data, see our infographic!

Government-funded students and courses 2015

Government-funded students and courses 2015: infographic

That’s a wrap… 25th National VET Research Conference

Thank you to presenters and delegates who attended the 25th National VET Research Conference ‘No Frills’ at CQUniversity in Rockhampton last week. Recordings of keynotes will be available on our Portal shortly and presentations that are submitted to us will be available on VOCEDplus.

Highlights from the conference were keynote addresses from:

  • Professor Scott Bowman, Vice-Chancellor and President, CQUniversity opened the conference and spoke about how CQUniversity made sure their ongoing growth and development was sustainable and based around community needs
  • Ms Linda Brown, CEO, Laureate Australia & New Zealand, exhorted us to “not waste a good crisis” and use our opportunities to change the sector for the better
  • Ms Jodi Schmidt, CEO, TAFE Queensland, urged us to tackle the ongoing disruption of skills and labour market by focusing on upskilling, lifelong learning and re-conceptualising our delivery
  • Professor John Buchanan, Chair, Discipline of Business Analytics, the University of Sydney Business School, discussed the need to better prepare and equip students to “handle uncertainty” in the labour market

This event would not be possible without the ongoing support of our co-hosts and sponsors. Thanks again to:

Co-host:

CQUniversity

Sponsors:

AAIR
Allen & Unwin
AVETRA
Velg Training
VET Development Centre
VETnetwork Australia

New look ‘Special collections’ in VOCEDplus

VOCEDplus contains a number of special collections compiled by the VOCEDplus team that allow users to quickly browse sets of records within collections. The Special Collections page has been given a new, more user friendly look and the Key research and policy by region collection now has its own landing page. The Equity in Australia resources have been transferred to the Pod Network and feature in the Resources section of the Equity Pod.

The special collections are a diverse group with varying purposes and backgrounds. One of the most used collections is the Australian landmark reports comprising selected key documents that have influenced the development of vocational education and training (VET) and higher education (HE) systems in Australia over the past six decades. This collection comprises three categories of reports: national VET, State/Territory VET, and national HE.

Other special collections have been commissioned by government or other agencies to compile and/or provide access to specific sets of resources. These include the adult literacy resources of the Adult Literacy National Project (ALNP) and Workplace English Language and Literacy (WELL) Programme. Other examples are the Reframing the Future resources and the Pathways for practitioners resource.

VOCEDplus also plays a key role in the archiving and preservation of research. Historical documents from collections not previously available in digital form, or not available in any other location, have been digitised and made freely available online with copyright permission. One example is the collection of resources published by the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA), which ceased operation in 2005.

Take some time to explore these new pages and let us know what you think.