The early childhood education and care sector in Australia has traditionally been characterised by low skill/low pay jobs and high staff turnover. Some employers, however, have attempted to combat high turnover through careful recruitment and skill development. This research overview describes the approaches of innovative employers who have excelled in the delivery of early childhood education and care services, while also providing staff with a high-quality workplace and attractive employment conditions.
The early childhood education and care sector in Australia has long been characterised by low skill/low pay jobs. The current policy environment, however, may offer scope for the sector to toward a path of skill growth. This report, based on case studies of four early childhood education and care providers, investigates how innovative employers are overcoming challenges in the sector to improve workforce development.
The national research priorities for tertiary education and training 2011-2013 were endorsed by the Ministerial Council for Tertiary Education and Employment (MCTEE) in June 2010. This document sets out the context for the priorities, what was learnt from the consultations and the final advice on the priorities by the NCVER Board to MCTEE. The five priority subject areas endorsed are: skills and productivity, structures in the tertiary education and training system, the contribution of education and training to social inclusion, learning and teaching, and the place and role of VET.
This good practice guide is based on research that looked at how to teach adult literacy and numeracy using a social capital approach. The guide suggests ways VET practitioners can adopt a social capital approach to their teaching practice. A social capital approach refers to the process in which networks are drawn on or created during the various stages of the literacy and numeracy program. The guide also outlines indicators of social capital outcomes.
Having a choice of transition pathways from school to work, further education or training gives young people the best chance of success. Using the 1995 cohort of the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth, this study looks at the role post-school qualifications play in the year-by-year movement between labour market states by young people. Higher post-school qualifications are found to increase the chances of being permanently employed and provide protection against being persistently unemployed or out of the labour force.
Education is generally seen as enhancing people's lives. However, previous research has reported an inverse relationship between education and happiness or satisfaction with life: as education level goes up, happiness goes down. Using data from the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY), this report examines the relationship between education and happiness. The impact of factors such as family circumstances and personality traits are also considered. The report finds that undertaking vocational qualifications such as an apprenticeship has a positive impact on happiness both during the training period and after completion. For university graduates, however, happiness declines following completion of their study.
Research messages 2009 is a collection of summaries of research projects published by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) in 2009, including conference papers and occasional papers. It also has an overview of the research highlights for the year. The summaries are clustered under five broad themes used by NCVER to organise its research and analysis: Industry and employers; Students and individuals; Teaching and learning: VET system; and VET in context.
In this interview, Steve Davis talks with researcher Cain Polidano about his report on the role of vocational education and training in the labour market outcomes of people with disabilities. Low levels of education generally among people with a disability is one of the factors contributing to their lower rate of labour market participation. What role vocational education and training (VET) plays in ameliorating this is the focus of this report. Using data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics of Australia surveys, the report finds that for people who are not working, completing a VET qualification does increase the chance of employment and more so for people with a disability.
The NCVER Apprentice and Destination Survey collected, among other things, data on reasons for not completing an apprenticeship or traineeship. This paper finds that poor working conditions or non-sympathetic bosses or workmates have an immediate effect for many. By contrast, the desire to do something different (such as study at university) or better (such as getting a better paid job) remains constant throughout the duration of the training contract.
The traineeship model is currently targeted at a broader group of people compared with the original target group of young unemployed persons as envisaged by the Kirby Enquiry. This report aims to assess the effectiveness of the model for young people, particularly young early school leavers. The findings suggest that traineeships are an important pathway for female early school leavers. However, traineeships are poorly targeted if the target group is disadvantaged young people.
One focus of the Australian Government's social inclusion agenda is to help people with a disability into work. For this to succeed, employers must be willing and able to productively employ people with a disability. The purpose of this study was to answer the question 'what would it take' to enable employers to employ people with a disability. Based on focus groups with select employers from small-to-medium enterprises, the research found that, while employers were quite positive about employing a person with a disability, they lacked confidence in dealing with disability employment issues.
This is a compendium of three reports. The first examines the size and attributes of the vocational education and training (VET) workforce using a variety of data sources. The second looks more specifically at TAFE's workforce. The final report considers the feasibility of a national VET workforce collection. The compendium updates earlier NCVER work on VET workforce numbers and characteristics. A short overview integrating the key messages from the body of work is also provided.
Diana Wilkinson, Chief Social Researcher with the Scottish Government, assisted NCVER to facilitate a forum to discuss the development of national research priorities for the vocational education and training sector. This paper summarises Diana Wilkinson's impression of the forum and uses two contrasting case studies of Scotland and Australia to consider the extent to which it is feasible to align academic research investment with medium-term priority-setting.
TAFE institutes offering higher education degrees is a relatively new concept, but the practice is expected to grow as a consequence of government policies aimed at increasing the percentage of Australians holding a bachelor degree. Five research overviews have been developed to accompany the research report on this issue. These overviews draw out the implications of the research for TAFE teachers and managers, staff development and public policy, as well as the issues raised in relation to the status of TAFE degrees.