This report investigates the role that vocational education and training (VET) can play in the transition from welfare to work. Case studies showed that VET can, and often does, help people move into paid work. However, target groups have varied needs and the study concludes that the VET sector has more to do in catering for these subgroups.
Remote Indigenous communities are under increasing pressure to share responsibility for community well-being and capacity building. Their challenge is to achieve social and economic sustainability without losing core values of Indigenous law, culture and language. Education, training and employment are essential elements to this future scenario. This report is based on a study of a remote Indigenous community in its quest to implement a culturally appropriate health service, and integrate training and employment of local Indigenous people as a means of strengthening community capacity. The authors find education and training, including literacy, must be linked to community goals and aspirations. Literacy, in particular, is more likely to be adopted if linked to cultural and religious activities, and community responsibilities.
The processes of leadership - the event, situation and context - in vocational education and training (VET) are the focus of this report. Leadership in this context is not seen as an attribute of a particular person, but a process that has four stages for solving a problem - the trigger stage, the initiating leadership stage, the developmental leadership stage and the sustainability stage. The study finds effective leadership occurs collectively and continuously.
The report outlines the major research into literacy and numeracy as related to VET carried out during the 1990s. To do this, it brings together work relevant to the development of notions of literacy and numeracy generally, but focussing on the adult context. It deals with the complexities of the relationships between VET and workplaces and schools as well as the language, literacy, numeracy relationship. The report includes relevant policy developments and practice in the field. All this is seen within a framing of human and social capital and lifelong learning.