This study of school students in workplaces looks at their perceptions of what they learned, why and how. It also examines the application of learning from school in the workplace and vice versa. An extension of the report by Smith and Green, "School students' learning from their paid and unpaid work".
This report builds on and extends earlier work examining the key drivers that affect the quantity and nature of training undertaken by Australian enterprises. It focuses on enterprises in the entertainment related and process manufacturing industries and explores how they view training and its importance within their overall operating structure.
An exploration of possible reasons why some students who enrol in VET do not complete their courses. Using interviews with past students and statistical evidence of course enrolments, author Peter Grant provokes an in-depth discussion of the factors that complicate any analysis of course completion. His report makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the issue of course completion in the VET sector as well as the methodological issues that need to be considered in any such study. The pattern that emerges shows a complex interaction of personal and practical factors why students leave vocational courses before they have completed their qualification.
This report provides an outline and discussion of the support needs and services required for students to achieve successful outcomes while studying online. The findings of the report are based on a literature review, surveys and follow-up interviews with students studying online and with teachers/co-ordinators delivering online. The focus of the surveys and interviews is on students' expectations of the services either currently provided or required to be provided to ensure their success.
Ten industry training packages are investigated to assess how much focus they give to the attainment of generic skills. Author Susan Dawe draws on recent case studies of ten Australian industries where generic skills are taught in companies and TAFE institutes using training packages. This in-depth study also examines approaches that can enhance the delivery of generic skills so that students are better prepared for the new demands of the workplace.
This report describes the support that informal and formal learners need in order to help them successfully complete VET. It includes two types of indicators deemed necessary to provide effective learning support: those relating to organisational features and learning culture, and those that relate specifically to teaching and learning practices.
There is evidence to indicate that a culture of training and learning is developing in Australia's enterprises. The report utilises the data from a range of Australian Bureau of Statistics surveys to develop a picture of the state of enterprise training in Australia and identifies the key factors that are associated with the provision of industry training. The report concludes that the future challenge for Australia's training system is to meet the fragmented demand for training created by an individualised training market.
The study compares the relative costs and effectiveness of online learning with traditional face to face teaching methods through six case studies. These case studies provide rich detail about the operating conditions under which different types of online delivery are likely to be cost effective.
This resource contains practical material to help assessors maintain the quality of their assessment systems. It includes an overview of how registered training organisations can develop a validation or moderation process, and a range of checklists that assessors can use as part of the assessment review process. Also included is a sample of a code of practice for assessors, guidelines for set-up simulated assessment and gathering evidence, and guidelines for training organisations on documenting partners and collaborative assessment arrangements. The resource is designed as a series of strategies with case study examples and scenarios of how particular RTOs have dealt with assessment issues.
The encouragement of lifelong learning is one important aim of the Australian vocational education and training (VET) system. The recognition of the concept of 'module' enrolments in VET, in addition to enrolments towards qualifications, gives practical effect to that aim. A student undertaking VET modules only or a 'module enrollee' may be thought of as an individual enrolling in a program with a VET provider, but not intending to proceed to a qualification. Similarly a 'module completer' is a student who is not a graduate but has successfully completed some training in a VET program of study and then left the VET system. This report provides information on the employment and industry characteristics of module enrollees and completers in VET. Their reasons or motivations for module (as opposed to course) enrolment and the employment and lifelong learning outcomes associated with the types of module providers and training programs are also examined.
This project reports the approaches used by six Australian organisations to build and maintain a learning culture. The research study identifies pressures which have contributed to the participating organisations' commitment to learning as well as the similar and dissimilar characteristics which allow these organisations to consider themselves as learning organisations.
This brief report describes new developments and initiatives in the UK on the issue of employability skills. The report focusses particularly on: *The Enterprising Skills Development Movement *A brief history of employer involvement and government partnership initiatives regarding employability *Future development of both key skills and enterprise skills in vocational education and training An appendix for this report is now included, updating the content of employability skills development in the UK. It concentrates on the wider key skills programs, and enterprise skills and education.
This is a report of research undertaken to investigate the current linkages between schools and small enterprises. In particular it examines the literature on structured workplace learning (SWL), identifies the issues and concerns common to the schools and enterprises that took part in the study and develops a model framework for SWL.
The financial benefits of gaining a VET qualification are calculated and assessed in this report. Using data from a representative sample of Australian employees, author Chris Ryan compares the wages and after-tax returns for individuals with different qualifications and with different levels of experience and labour market participation.
The long-term benefits of a VET qualification are compared with the long-term employment outcomes for university graduates and for individuals whose education ceased at Year 12. Also looked at are the long-term effects for VET graduates with disabilities and from non-English speaking backgrounds and what differences exist for males and females over time. Author Chris Ryan uses data from two major surveys to assess the value of various VET qualifications for lifelong learning and longer term employment opportunities.
This study builds on earlier work by one of the authors that identified strategies for effective flexible delivery in workplaces. Training managers and focus groups with supervisors/trainers in 12 enterprises in Victoria were interviewed and their opinions examined on the feasibility of these strategies.
How lifelong learning and vocational training are currently being implemented in Australia and in Germany is explored by educational specialists from both countries in this edited anthology of conference papers. They compare the methods and effects in both countries. The papers also reflect the importance of lifelong learning in the work of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung, the Australian National Training Authority, the National Centre for Vocational Education Research and the Monash University, ACER Centre for the Economics of Education and Training. The conference in Potsdam in 2000 was organised for the Australia Centre in Berlin, by the Centre for the Economics of Education and Training.
The focus of this report is on the nature of the uptake of web-based technologies and the quality of teaching and learning that is emerging. The report provides an overview of selected online vocational education and training delivery sites and explores a model for evaluating web-based flexible learning practices.
This study examines the evolving nature of work in the process manufacturing industry. It considers the changing political philosophies and especially the enterprise-based industrial relations system that has enabled much of the job redesign examined in this study to occur. In addition, the report looks at recent social theory on the nature of work.
A discussion of the vocational education and training system in Sweden, which has developed from being primarily industry-based in the 1960s to a structurally uniform system that is integrated with general education in the present day.