Tag: vocational education

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Crafting youth work training: synergising theory and practice in an Australian VET environment

Author/s: Andrew Wojecki

Edition: Volume 47, Number 2, July 2007

Summary: In the Australian vocational education and training (VET) context, attention is often given to what youth work training programs should consist of, resulting in less attention on how youth work education and training programs might be imagined, constructed and implemented. In this paper, a particular South Australian youth work training program is explored with the purpose of investigating the particular educational methodology employed and its impact in the structuring and delivery of a VET youth work education program. It emphasises that, in conceiving a competency-based youth work curriculum and its contribution toward the development of professional youth work identities, how the youth work educational program is delivered is just as important as what it should consist of.

Keywords: vocational education, youth work, training programs, competency-based

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The origins of competency-based training

Author/s: Steven Hodge

Edition: Volume 47, Number 2, July 2007

Summary: This article attempts to trace the origins of competency-based training (CBT), the theory of vocational education that underpins the National Training Framework in Australia. A distinction is made between societal and theoretical origins. This paper argues that CBT has its societal origins in the United States of America during the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Public debate and government initiatives centred on the widely held view that there was a problem with the quality of education in the United States. One of the responses to this crisis was the Performance-Based Teacher Education movement which synthesised the theory of education that became CBT. The theoretical origins of CBT derive principally from behaviourism and systems theory – two broad theoretical orientations that influenced  educational debate in the United States during the formative period of CBT. Most of the component parts of CBT were contributed by specialists with a background in one or both of these theoretical orientations.

Keywords: competency-based training, vocational education, National Training Framework, performance-based teacher education, behaviourism, systems theory

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Human capital development: reforms for adult and community education

Author/s: Sarojni Choy & Sandra Haukka

Edition: Volume 47, Number 1, April 2007

Summary: The adult and community education (ACE) sector is consistently responsive to changing community needs and government priorities. It is this particular function that has drawn ACE into the lifelong learning debate as one model for sustaining communities. The responsiveness of ACE means that the sector and its programs continue to make valuable contributions to the quality of social and economic life, particularly in local communities. Although a major focus of ACE is on non-vocational outcomes, there is potential for the sector to make a greater contribution to the human capital stream of the Council of Australian Governments’ National Reform Agenda. This paper briefly describes the ACE sector and its current provisions, and proposes ways in which it could make a greater contribution to the human capital stream of the National Reform Agenda. Reforms to ACE are critical at a time when the Australian Government is planning activities for the Reform Agenda, when there is an urgent need of skilled workers, when the ageing population is seeking pathways and opportunities for economic outcomes, and when traditional vocational education and training providers are unable to meet the skill shortages experienced by industry across Australia. This paper attempts to initiate debate around an enhanced role for ACE, in terms of not only the Reform Agenda, but also a rather more defined position in meeting the learning and skilling needs of the broader community.

Keywords: ACE sector, National Reform Agenda, ageing population, skilled workers, vocational education

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Faces in tertiary places and spaces: experiences of learning in both higher education and VET

Author/s: Roger Harris

Edition: Volume 48, Number 3, November 2008

Summary: The development in today’s society of knowledge workers for tomorrow is of critical importance. Worldwide, there is considerable interest in the respective roles of higher education (HE) and vocational education and training (VET) in building human capability. This paper is designed to provoke such questions as: what kinds of learning places and spaces are Australia’s HE and VET institutions? and how do individuals make sense of the learning and teaching in these sectors? The paper focuses on the experiences of those learners who have studied in both sectors – faces who are therefore in a unique position to analyse them as learning places and spaces. A survey was undertaken of 556 learners who commenced study in technical and further education (TAFE) and universities in South Australia. Subsequent interviews with 69 of these students explored their educational histories in greater depth. The data reflected important differences in the learners’ experiences within the sectors. The findings can provide policy-makers and institutional leaders with insights into how best to position these two sectors to the advantage of learners with changing needs, expectations and desired pathways. They suggest that greater recognition could be afforded to the different but increasingly complementary roles that HE and VET play.

Keywords: learning places, survey, role, higher education, vocational education

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Foucault’s toolkit: resources for ‘thinking’ work in times of continual change

Author/s: Molly Rowan and Sue Shore

Edition: Volume 49, Number 1, April 2009

Summary: This paper was prompted by our interest in two issues associated with Australia’s vocational education and training system: recurring declarations for universal access to vocational education and training (albeit in different forms across different epochs) as the right of all Australians and the continual processes of change associated with the sector over the last two decades. As we approach a time of yet more change in vocational education and training, we call for a rethinking of these two characteristics of a training system, as ‘problems of the present’, situations which in their present form are ‘intolerable’. Reflecting a notion of ‘thinking’ work as personal,  political, historical and practical, the paper offers a glimpse of Foucault (1926–1984) as a person. We explain his use of the term discourse as an overarching frame for understanding ‘problems of the present’. We review two major aspects of his analytic toolkit: archaeology and genealogy. We close with reflections on  the usefulness of these analytic practices as tactics of engagement for researchers interested in historical approaches to vocational education.

Keywords: vocational education, access, Foucault, engagement

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 49_1. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.