This report explores the relationship between vocational education and training in (VET) in Schools and the labour market.
This report looks at the impact working while studying has on students' intentions to go to university and their actual enrolment in university.
The focus of this paper is on the factors, other than access, that influence the decision for Indigenous Australians to participate in education.
This exploratory piece of work aims to illustrate the potential of matching methods in vocational education and training (VET) research.
Do pre-apprenticeships help individuals to obtain an apprenticeship?
This report aims to throw some light on the role that skills sets play in meeting the needs of clients compared with full qualifications, which are seen as the foundation of the vocational education and training (VET) system.
In this interview, Steve Davis talks with co-author Kaye Bowman about the report ‘Workforce skills development and engagement in training through skill sets’.
This report explores the movements that workers make in the workforce and whether there are any commonalities.
In this phone interview, Roger Harris and Michele Simons talk about how leaders in private providers juggle the educational and business imperatives of their organisation.
This discussion paper introduces the overarching concepts for the three-year research program, 'Vocations: the link between post compulsory education and the labour market'. The paper also outlines the key findings from the initial investigations of each of the related research strands in the program. Overall, initial research has found that, due to the fragmentation of pathways within education and within the labour market, the relationship of pathways between education and the labour market are also fragmented. In order to understand this more clearly, the authors explore the concepts of transition systems, skill ecosystems and capabilities. A number of dilemmas for further research are also put forward.
What would prompt people to undertake education and training in their mid-20s and beyond and what are the benefits? The authors investigate what motivates people to undertake education and training at more mature ages and the impact of this on their labour market outcomes. They found that males who undertake further education and training after the age of 25 years did so for reasons related to their current employment (for example, towards promotion or a different job), whereas for females a key motivator was simply getting a job. For both males and females, a sustained increase in job satisfaction following completion of the study was also found. Data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics of Australia Survey and the Survey of Education and Training was used in this report.
This report explores the transitions students make in undertaking a second qualification (i.e. whether they change field of education and/or move between the VET and higher education sectors).
The distinction between VET and higher education in Australia is blurring. The purpose of this paper is to examine – through the conduct of a case study of engineering qualifications (AQF6) delivered in Victoria – how education and training providers and students are likely to respond to different fees and funding arrangements under the student entitlement model.
Using data from the 2009 Student Outcomes Survey, this report looks at the pay-offs of completing of a vocational education and training (VET) qualification on a range of outcomes, and identifies the groups for whom completion is particularly important.
This report compares the outcomes for young people who complete certificate I or certificate II qualifications with the outcomes for similar individuals who are not participating in post-school education and training, using data from the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth.
In this podcast, Sue Webb, a researcher, talks about the initial findings from work looking at the use of migrant women's skills in regional areas.
Lorraine Dearden talks in this podcast about work she has co-authored on widening participation in higher education in the United Kingdom (UK).
An increasing and important requirement of any funded research program is the ability to demonstrate that it is relevant and useful to public policy and to practitioners. This study takes the framework NCVER developed for measuring research impact to assess the outcomes from research and activities funded under the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth Research Innovation and Expansion Fund. It finds that the purpose of the fund, to start a ripple effect in the use of the LSAY data, was met, and that the research undertaken had strong resonances in the media as well as proving useful to government officials and practitioners working in the area of youth transitions.
Assessing the impact of research in the social sciences is important in demonstrating that the research is useful and has been used. This good practice guide firstly provides indicators of how to best assess impact across four domains - producing knowledge, building the capacity of researchers and end users, influencing policy, and influencing practice. The guide secondly discusses ways to maximise the impact of research such as approaches to dissemination, using contacts and networks (including end users), knowledge translation, and developing programs of research.
This paper provides a conceptual basis for a three-year (2011–13) research program exploring the capacity of individuals and groups to make transitions through learning, training and work across locations. Three research projects will examine how regional or community factors and social capital affect those transitions. The three projects are: the influence of job conditions on geographic labour mobility; migrant women in regional Australia; and neighbourhood factors in the decision to participate in post-school education and training and the labour market. A synopsis of each project is given in this paper.