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This chapter discusses the changing and emerging characteristics of work, work practice and work requirements, and their consequences for vocational education. Changing patterns in work and working life are proposed as comprising: (1) the kind of work available; (ii) how individuals participate in work; (iii) what constitutes competence within that work; and (iv) those participating in work. The consequences for vocational education are systemic in terms of the kinds of occupations that need to be developed, variations in and complexity of work requirements, shifts in employer/employee relations, and the demographic shifts in those who will need to be supported by vocational education. The chapter examines these patterns of change to work and working life, and discusses policy and curriculum practice associated with each. Overall, it argues that the changes to work make it more demanding, and the frequency of change in work and how work is carried out demands careful, comprehensive and targeted preparation and on-going development. Moreover, with broader participation in the work force and longer working lives, the arrangement for this preparation and on-going development will need to be targeted, differentiated and sustained.

Published introduction.

The book from which this chapter is taken is indexed at TD/TNC 100.51. Individual chapters are indexed from TD/TNC 100.52 to TD/TNC 100.244. Show less

This paper discusses theorising and empirical work which proposes that the dispositions underpinning cognitive activity need to become more central to deliberations about how individuals think about and engage in skilful vocational practice. Such activity has consequences for how and what is learnt, as well as individuals’ ongoing development. Having reviewed ideas about the dispositional underpinnings of skilful knowledge, the paper reports a study examining how individuals construct knowledge associated with their vocational practice. This study provides tentative findings about the source of dispositions and their role in vocational activity. The paper concludes by advancing some implications for instruction. Show less

There are growing expectations that tertiary education graduates will be ready for working life, that is, possessing the capacities to participate effectively in an occupational practice in a specific work situation. Yet, graduates are often unprepared to fulfil this expectation. In response, tertiary education increasingly includes workplace experiences (i.e., practicums, internships, and work placements). It is necessary to understand these experiences' efficacy and their optimisation to promote work-life readiness. Drawing on students' experiences of internships, this paper discusses what constitutes the value of internships in post-secondary diploma courses in Singapore.

A quantitative analysis of interview data identified the contributions afforded through these experiences in workplaces - students' intentional engagement, and their readiness for working life. Central here is how these contributions promote the development of the adaptability required for effective participation in contemporary working life. The analysis identifies challenges including students' adapting to new work environments, navigating workplace practices, and developing occupational capacities. Workplace supervisors' and host educational institutions' support suggests interns' adaptability can be enhanced by promoting the relations between the support they received, on the one hand, and their engagement with challenges during internships, on the other. These findings offer an understanding about the experiences and outcomes of interns' learning through workplaces and offer implications for supporting and augmenting transitions into working life.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

This bulletin summarises the findings of a research project on how to improve the status of vocational education and training (VET) so that it can be viewed a more worthwhile and viable post-school option by both young people and those who influence their decision-making about post-school pathways. The relatively low status of VET and the occupations it serves is a significant impediment for realising VET's economic and employment goals. This status influences young people and parents' decision-making about post-school pathways, and government, community and employer support. In an era of high aspiration, VET is often seen as an option only for those unable to secure university entry. This perception can lead to mismatches amongst the kinds of skills young people are learning and employment opportunities, with what employers seek in employees, and potentially lengthy and sometimes unproductive tertiary education experiences.

Excerpts from publication. Show less

This article reports on a recent study which examined skilled workers’ perceptions about the characteristics of their work, and how they acquired and developed skills. Modes of acquiring vocational skills are varied. Some learners initially acquire their skills in formal learning settings, such as TAFE colleges, others acquire their skills in the workplace, whilst still others enjoy the integration of formal and workplace learning experiences.

In this article a view of learning that values the construction of knowledge through socio-cultural mediation is used to evaluate three common modes of skill acquisition. The significance of the authenticity of learning experiences and engaging learners in a culture of practice is emphasised within this study.

It is suggested that formal pre-employment modes of learning provide substitute experiences which may develop conceptual, procedural and dispositional knowledge that are not readily transferable to vocational practice. It is argued that access to authentic learning experiences be included within formal learning provisions. The on-the-job mode of situated learning which engages the learner in a culture of practice, is highly valued. However, not all work settings or situations are able to provide access to the conditions which maximise this approach to learning. Show less

Recent studies of learning through work have included how professional identities are formed through participation in work. However, we need a more elaborated understanding of how professional identities are negotiated at times of rapid change in working practices. This chapter examines the personal strategies that vocational teachers adopt, and the professional identity negotiations that occur, in response to requirements to change professional practices. [The authors] report on a study in which open-ended narrative interviews were conducted with sixteen Finnish vocational teachers. From the teachers' accounts, [the authors] identified distinct personal strategies that were adopted to engage with change. The strategies were labelled as follows: (i) professional development, (ii) passive accommodation, (iii) active participation, (iv) a balancing act, and (v) withdrawal. The strategies were aligned to the teachers' individual concerns, and were bound up with the personal resources available in negotiating with the changing character of the work. An account of these strategies offers a new way of understanding how identities are negotiated through an active, personally-shaped process. The study also illuminates how to promote individuals' management of the self and of learning at work.

Published abstract. Show less

Changing personal and societal sentiments about the status of vocational education and the occupations it serves requires information, education, action at societal and local levels and will, inevitably take time. With entrenched issues such as the standing of occupations and the education systems that they serve, it is more likely incremental and focused initiatives are required to bring about this change. It has been consistently identified that there are 'zones of influence' shaping young people's decision-making about postschool pathways. These zones comprise the aspirations and advice of parents, the intended and unintended press of schoolteachers, the views of peers and suggestions arising from within the community. Consequently, advising and shaping young people's decisions about postschool pathways, including an informed and impartial consideration of vocational education, are not restricted to those students alone. Instead, it is necessary that those comprising these zones of influence also need advice and information so that young people's decision-making can be supported by informed and impartial advice.

A series of workshops with teachers and administrators, and presentations to policy and practitioner groups were used to evaluate the findings from focus groups and interviews, and a national survey that are elements of an Australian study. Those events were directed to identify how key institutions of government, schooling, vocational education institutions and industry could work to shape these zones of influence in ways that promoted broader and more informed considerations about post-school pathways, including vocational education. This led to strategies that could be used to reshape and enhance the standing of vocational education as a worthwhile post-school pathway across these zones of influence. These strategies were proposed as being directed broadly to inform that decision-making, and that includes perspectives, aspirations and interests of school students, parents, teachers, other familiars and members of the community, who in different ways shaped those perspectives.

This chapter sets out some initiatives that might be enacted by government, schools, employers, and teachers to offer experiences and informed and impartial advice about potential post-school pathways through engaging with the zones of influence.

Published abstract. Show less

Understanding what constitutes learning across working life and how negotiating worklife transitions can be best supported has never been more important for working age adults, their workplaces and communities. The kinds and frequencies of changes in occupational and workplace requirements have consequences for personal goals, workplace viability and communities' economic and social wellbeing. Hence, for both individual and societal purposes we need to elaborate the goals for and processes of that learning and what constitutes educative worklife experiences. Drawing on a three-phase investigation of adults' worklife learning the kinds and qualities of the educative experiences directly or indirectly guiding, supporting and extending individuals' learning and development are elaborated. This includes pathways of experiences across working life: personal curriculums. The paper reports and discusses the data from: (i) worklife narratives and follow-up interviews, and (ii) 18-month monitoring of work and learning of a cohort of workers. It furthers the case for viewing lifelong learning and lifelong education as being distinct and seperate phenomena, the interdependence among the contributions of adults, their educational experiences and those provided by their communities, leading to the explanatory concepts of personal curriculum and educative experiences to illuminate and elaborate learning and development across working life.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner.

Forthcoming article first published online 15 June 2023 by Taylor and Francis. Show less

This chapter contributes to a discussion of pedagogic implications and actions with respect to the development of smart workforces. The author explores the dimensions of performance in the workforce as a way to understand what constitutes a smart workforce. Technical skill, work practice and organisational structure are aspects important to an understanding of workforces but the way in which workers engage in work practices must also be considered. The author suggests that a cognitive perspective, comprised of a socio-cultural approach based on activity theory, be used to analyse work practice. Work practice is therefore best understood when implanted within a specific community of work practice. To support this proposed analytical approach, a spectrum of nine dimensions of work practice is identified.

The volume from which this chapter is taken is indexed at TD/TNC 67.101. Individual chapters are indexed from TD/TNC 67.102 to TD/TNC 67.109. Show less

This volume considers, rethinks and reorganizes how support for learning across working life can be best conceptualized, organized and enacted. It considers educational and learning support processes that include approaches that fit well within working lives and workplaces, and support work and learning as a co-occurrence. These are the key focuses for individual and collective contributions to this edited volume, which provide discussions about what constitutes learning across working lives and how this differs from lifelong learning and lifelong education. Accounts of learning across the working lives of social workers, doctors working in hospitals and in general practice, teaching, aviation, nursing, mining, aged care amongst others. These accounts advance a range of ways in which workers' learning across working lives is being supported and how this support is also linked to other changes, such as to the occupational practice in which they engage. The book comprises four parts: (1) supporting learning across working life; (2) models, processes and practices for supporting lengthening working lives internationally; (3) towards a national model of continuing education and training: an Australian case study; and (4) learning across working life.

Edited excerpts from publisher's website and publication.

The chapters are as follows: Part one, 'Supporting learning across working life', contains the chapter: Conceptualizing learning across working life, provisions of support and purposes / Stephen Billett and Steven Hodge. Part two, 'Models, processes and practices for supporting lengthening working lives internationally', contains: Employee strategies for organising professional development / Rob R. Poell and Ferd J. Van Der Krogt; Learning to work together through talk: continuing professional development in medicine / Walter Eppich, Jan-Joost Rethans, Pim W. Teunissen, and Tim Dornan; Organizing for deliberate practice through workplace reflection / Gunilla Avby; A sociocultural model for mid-career post-secondary teacher professional learning / Annique Boelryk and Cheryl Amundsen; Driving forces of welfare innovation: explaining interrelations between innovation and professional development / Charlotte Wegener; On nurses' learning from errors at work / Johannes Bauer, Veronika Leicher, and Regina H. Mulder; Sustaining and transforming the practice of communities: developing professionals' working practices / Christy Noble and Stephen Billett; Models for and practice of continuous professional development for airline pilots: what we can learn from one regional airline / Timothy J. Mavin; Learning at the frontier: the experiences of single-handed general practitioners / Peter Cantillon.

Part three, 'Towards a national model of continuing education and training: an Australian case study', contains: Continuing education and training: needs, models and approaches / Sarojni Choy, Stephen Billett, and Darryl Dymock; Workers' perspectives and preferences for learning across working life / Raymond Smith and Ann Kelly; The critial role of workplace managers in continuing education and training / Mark Tyler, Darryl Dymock, and Amanda Henderson; Towards a national continuing education and training system / Sarojni Choy and Raymond Smith. Part four, 'Learning across working life', contains the chapter: Conceptions, purposes and processes of ongoing learning across working life / Stephen Billett, Darryl Dymock, and Sarojni Choy. Show less