This report identifies what individual learners and industry clients want from vocational education and training (VET) and proposes how these needs can best be met. It also identifies a tension between compliance and creativity which needs to be addressed in quality frameworks at the system level. In addition, providers need to reshape their structures and modify their cultures so they are open to creativity and flexibility but also able to meet compliance requirements. At the practitioner level, ongoing funding for the professional development of staff is needed so they have the time and space to develop innovative strategies for teaching, learning and assessment.
Australia's technical and vocational education and training (TVET) system is highly reliant on individual workers and firms making decisions about whether and how to participate in skill formation. For effective workforce development to occur, sophisticated labour market information systems are required to provide signals to workers and firms so they can make optimal choices. This also allows governments to monitor and evaluate labour market policies and programs. This paper describes the role that NCVER plays in this process.
These two-page research overviews summarise the 13 reports which make up the research project, 'A well-skilled future: Tailoring vocational education and training to the emerging labour market'. The project has been undertaken by a consortium of researchers from the National Institute of Labour Studies at Flinders University and the Centre for Post-compulsory Education and Lifelong Learning at the University of Melbourne. The various overviews in this suite address questions relating to changing work skill needs and work organisation arrangements, and their implications for the vocational education and training sector.
This study examines the nature of the impact of vocational education and training (VET), and its project-based activities and partnerships, on the development of sustainable communities in regional Australia. It finds that VET plays a critical role as the entry point to learning and builds considerable social and other forms of capital in regional communities. The study points to new opportunities to integrate these assets into strategic regional development.
This study, undertaken for the National Electrical and Communications Association, profiles the electrotechnology workforce and focuses especially on how the industry is adapting to the rapidly changing environment. Through analysis of data and interviews, the study found that the electrotechnology industry has adapted well to its customers' demands to integrate the electrical and communication skills into a narrow range of occupations. Skills shortages remain in the industry but tend to be region or occupation specific.
This study investigates where certificate I and II qualifications lead people aged 25 and over. The main aims of these qualifications are to provide vocational outcomes, generally at lower skill levels, as pathways to further study and/or jobs requiring supervision. Findings indicate that, while the qualifications were not particularly useful in terms of gaining employment, there were some modest career advancement benefits. It was projected that low proportions of people aged 25 and over will complete these courses. Notably, further study pathways were not among the outcomes of these courses.
Presented to the Second Sino-Australia Vocational Education and Training Conference at Chongqing on 3-5 August, 2005, this paper looks at linkages between the Australian vocational education and training system and the labour market--the formal legal and administrative structures, general skills development, and the dynamics of the labour market.