This paper assesses the fitness-for-purpose of the existing Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) instruments as a source of information on the determinants of youth transitions in Australia.
This paper was presented at the Skills Australia, Academy of Social Sciences seminar in Sydney in September 2008. This paper examines the demand for training. It concentrates on the factors that affect individual and employer demand, and points out that accredited vocational education and training (VET) need to be considered in the context of extensive use of non-accredited and on-the-job training.
The linkage between tertiary education and the labour market in Australia is examined in this paper presented, in 2004, to the Korea Research Institute of Vocational Education and Training at the 7th Anniversary International Seminar on Linkage between Higher Education and Labour Market.
Using Australia as an example, this paper shows that globalisation poses distinct challenges for technical and vocational education and training (TVET) systems as nations adjust to their areas of comparative advantage. Other challenges that are less often taken into account are the internationalisation of training markets and the entry and exit of skills embodied in people due to migration flows.
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.
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.
Two well-established findings about employer-provided training form the backdrop to this research. First, the provision of training and its associated expenditure are highly variable across employers, notably by industry and employment size. Second, employer engagement with the formal system of VET is substantial, and growing, but a number of employers are not entirely satisfied with the system. This publication consolidates and synthesises a body of research conducted over the past few years on the topic of training provided by employers for their workforces.
This study focuses on the general question of the value of vocational qualifications to employers by considering three areas in which the economic value of vocational qualifications to employers is evident: in prerequisites specified in job hiring, in employment levels of people with different qualifications, and in the wage levels of people with different qualifications. The findings indicate that employers want people with qualifications when recruiting for some jobs, but experience is more valuable. Employers are more likely to employ people with qualifications but this depends on the level of qualification, age and sex. Employers pay more for people with qualifications but again, this depends on the type of qualification - schooling matters more than low-level vocational qualifications. Revised 20 October 2005.
This presentation was made at the national conference of the National Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services at Southern Cross University in Lismore in December 2003.
This study based on analysis of Census data in 1986 and 2000, looks at how the occupational structure of the Australian labour market has evolved over recent years. The study includes a detailed look at occupational change and identifies the fastest growing occupations as well as jobs on the rise and jobs on the decline. The central question the study investigates relates to knowledge of work - whether jobs now demand more knowledge of workers and what this means for vocational education and training.
This report investigates the reasons why apprentices and trainees do not complete their contracts of training. It involved telephone interviews with a national sample of non-completing new apprentices and their employers. The study also investigated what those who did not complete their contracts were doing at the time of the survey - whether they were working, in study, unemployed or not in the workforce. The study concludes with some suggested strategies to reduce non-completion.