This conference paper was presented to the Third International Congress on Technical and Vocational Education and Training, 13–16 May 2012, in Shanghai. It argues that there are two key factors behind Australia's good record of employment for young people: high levels of post-school education with the consequence that there is not a large cohort of people in their mid-to-late teens flooding on to the labour market; and a flexible education system which gives individuals multiple choices.
This paper was presented to the 2011 TAFE Governance and Regulations Forum, 1 March 2011 in Melbourne. Tom Karmel argues that neither a simple definition of vocational education and training (VET) nor qualification levels are helpful. He suggests that VET is distinguished from higher education by different funding and regulatory arrangements, and teaching and learning styles. What confuses the issue is that many providers deliver both higher education and VET courses.
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 paper discusses a number of aspects of this tertiary education sector: the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF), which describes the qualifications offered by the three education sectors: schools, higher education and VET; student characteristics of the two sectors; a characterisation of higher education and VET; and student movement between the two sectors.
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.
Recent trends in the provision of vocational education and training (VET) diplomas and advanced diplomas are outlined in this paper. The paper also looks at how people with diplomas and advanced diplomas are faring in the labour market. The picture is rather mixed, suggesting that those with diplomas and advanced diplomas fare, on average, better than those with other VET qualifications or no post-school qualifications.
This paper presents some thoughts on the concept of the Tasmanian Polytechnic, drawing on a range of research mostly undertaken by NCVER. It considers a number of 'goals' that are relevant to judging the success of the endeavour, including Year 12 retention and the completion of Australian Qualifications Framework qualifications, before making a number of observations on relevant issues.
It is argued that workforce planning should be built on an understanding of how the labour market works and the links between it and education and training. Workforce planning is particularly difficult for the resources and infrastructure industry because the demand for resources is difficult to forecast and the industry is made up of relatively small employers and draws workers from a wide range of occupations.
This paper provides an overview of the factors which influence and drive Australia's technical and vocational education and training (TVET) sector. It details the objectives of Australia's national strategy for TVET from 2004 to 2010, and key initiatives of the sector to meet the changing economic and technological environment: a review of training packages, and a review of the national standards for training providers. It also discusses issues facing the TVET sector, as identified in a paper published by the Business Council of Australia (2004). Further, an overview of the apprenticeship and traineeship system, which has expanded considerably in recent years, is provided. This paper was presented to the International Vocational Education Conference, October 2004, in Tianjin, People's Republic of China.
This is a workshop presentation given by the then Managing Director of NCVER, in August 2000 in Beijing, China.