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Schools, vocational education and training, and partnerships: capacity-building in rural and regional communities

Rural and regional schools are becoming increasingly involved in vocational education and training (VET). This often occurs as a result of schools developing partnerships with registered VET providers, industry groups and/or local employers; these partnerships present both opportunities and challenges for everyone involved. This research project looks at how school-VET partnership members analyse local issues and harness the unique features of their communities, develop models and processes that work for all partnership members and utilise the partnership to make a real difference to young people's educational and work opportunities and thus contribute to community viability. It focused on successful examples of school-VET partnerships in rural and regional communities, conducting case studies in three rural and four regional schools from three states which were perceived as operating successful school-VET partnerships. It explored how communities demonstrated the building or strengthening of social and economic capital, as reported by school-VET partnership members, and how different stakeholders experienced the partnership. The research identified three different models that these seven rural and regional communities used to organise a school-VET partnership. A regional cluster or specialised program model was found in regional communities, while a whole-of-community model was characteristic of rural communities. The main differences between the models relate to their structure, the main leadership driver, and the size and nature of their target population. The research raised several implications for policy and practice with three main areas of consideration being: choosing models to respond to community needs; organisational cross-cultural work in VET; and special needs of rural and remote schools. The project found that from the perspective of transferability, there is value in sharing the diversity of lessons learned from different locations and, in drawing on and adapting successful models and strategies to a community's unique circumstances, this learning can prevent schools from reinventing wheels, and save time and effort in the processes of trial and error.

Rural and regional schools are becoming increasingly involved in vocational education and training (VET). This often occurs ...  Show Full Abstract  

Authors: Stokes, Helen; Stacey, Kathleen; Lake, Murray
Date: 2006
Geographic subjects: Oceania; Australia
Resource type: Report
Subjects: Research; Providers of education and training; Culture;

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