The new VET professional: culture, roles & competence

Australian education and training has experienced unprecedented levels of change in recent times. Government educational policies are dominated by economic discourses that point to the need for all education and training systems to contribute to economic development by increasing the knowledge and skill levels of the present and future workforce. The contemporary discourses of new vocationalism and new economics have transformed Australian educational systems. Furthermore, the emergence of new knowledge discourses has also problematised traditional views on what counts as knowledge in education and training. However, the effects of this transformation on vocational education and training (VET) practitioners, working in this rapidly changing environment, have not been adequately examined. This paper examines this issue and proposes that the VET profession is confronted with a radical reconstruction, not only in terms of the new work VET professionals are expected to perform but also in terms of the new culture and professional roles that have emerged out of the diversifying sites of professional practice.

Australian education and training has experienced unprecedented levels of change in recent times. Government educational policies are dominated by economic discourses that point to the need for all education and training systems to contribute to economic development by increasing the knowledge and skill levels of the present and future workforce. The contemporary discourses of new vocationalism and new economics have transformed Australian educational systems. Furthermore, the emergence of new knowledge discourses has also problematised traditional views on what counts as knowledge in ...  [+] Show more