Validation of assessment tools, processes and outcomes is an important element of the quality of assessment in vocational education and training (VET). This research explores how registered training organisations (RTOs) conduct independent validation of assessment (IVA) and what industry involvement they have in these processes.
This guide suggests ways the vocational education and training sector can develop an applied research capability to help secure its place in Australia's innovation system.
This document explains the VET Applied Research Developmental Framework, created as part of a project that explored how the vocational education and training (VET) sector could broaden its engagement in Australia’s research and development (R&D) and innovation systems.
Through investigations into how the VET sector can contribute to innovation, we find opportunities for innovation through an applied research agenda.
This paper captures the views arising from a symposium held on 9 August 2016, at which participants considered training product reform from the perspective of industry, educators, students and regulators.
What are the key issues and possible solutions identified by Australian VET research from 2011–14?
The gap is widening between knowledge generated through Australia's training system, and the skills demanded by employers.
Looking at the past can teach us about what directions the future can take. A group of prominent thinkers reflected on the Committee on the Future of Tertiary Education report (the Martin report) to offer thought-provoking ideas to spark debate and further fresh thinking on tertiary education.
In this audio interview, Francesca Beddie discusses her paper, What next for tertiary education? Some preliminary sketches, which presents some thought-provoking ideas from prominent tertiary education thinkers who came together to reflect on the Committee on the Future of Tertiary Education report (the Martin report).
Imagine a new landscape for education. Reflecting on the past, through the Martin report of the binary education system and the Dawkins reforms which unified the tertiary education system, Francesca Beddie looks at contemporary policy and future possibilities for tertiary education.
In this interview, Steve Davis talks to one of the authors, Francesca Beddie, about this eclectic collection of papers considering the complexities of the tertiary education system and its underlying structures.
In this eclectic collection of papers, 13 essayists and four high-profile discussants consider the complexity of the tertiary education system and its underlying structures.
Undertaking research in the vocational education and training (VET) and disability area is not easy. The challenges include the limitations of the available data, accessing people with a disability and the diversity of disability type and severity. This discusses these issues and also presents a snapshot of recent data and a summary of recent research in this area.
One of the significant challenges facing Australia is the ageing of the population. This challenge has led policy-makers to consider how older workers can be kept in the workforce. To help generate discussion on older workers, NCVER commissioned six researchers to draft essays on various issues around keeping older Australians engaged with the workforce. These essays, and responses by six additional discussants, were presented at a roundtable held in Canberra in May 2011. Themes to arise from the roundtable included the need to consider the diversity of older workers, the challenges of low literacy and numeracy skills for some older workers, discrimination and stereotypes, and the recognition that not all older workers want to keep working.
The main impetus for the interest in innovation is that it is seen to improve productivity at the firm level and therefore improved economic prosperity and living standards. This edited volume was commissioned by the Department of Employment, Education and Workplace Relations. The authors contribute a variety of views on innovation from different perspectives. Some of the main themes running throughout the book are reasons for firms innovating, the skills required for innovation and how innovation and skills development is supported by the training system, the firm and government. Innovation is seen as moving beyond research and development, to include new products, services and operational/organisational processes.
This paper was presented at the Professional Historians Association (NSW) Islands of History conference held on Norfolk Island in July 2010. It argues that the reliance on overseas workers to address skills shortages has been present ever since the first white settlement of Australia and suggests some areas for primary historical research.
Half a dozen VET researchers and commentators contemplate the future of the VET sector. Their thoughts point to the need for more effort to articulate the role of VET in tertiary education and to streamline its governance.
This paper was delivered as a keynote address on 24th March 2010 at the VISTA annual conference: VET - The Invisible Sector.
The governments of India and Australia are working to enhance cooperation on training, at both official and industry level. As part of the exchange of ideas, Francesca Beddie, General Manager, Research, National Centre for Vocational Education Research, visited India in August 2009 at the invitation of the Australia-India Council. This paper explores some of the common challenges the countries face in reforming their vocational training systems.
This study examines where and how NCVER's research has influenced vocational education and training (VET) policy and practice.