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The vocational education and training sector plays a critical role in the provision of educational opportunities for young adults who have left school prior to completing a qualification. Some research has found that a major factor that supports student re-engagement in formal education is the 'adult learning environment' that characterises institutions such as TAFE. Other studies have questioned the suitability of the adult learning environment for some students. This study explores how students and teachers in five foundation TAFE courses view the adult learning environment, and how they respond to this environment. The paper argues that the adult learning environment can in some instances be a 'double-edged sword', in that it can both enhance and limit student engagement.

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Re-engaging young adults who have 'dropped out' of school is an important and challenging task for educators. The purpose of this study was to explore the teaching practices that encourage young people to re-engage in further learning. Through interviews with teachers and students, the study identified five major interrelated teaching strategies that were effective in re-engaging young adults in education. These strategies were: strong concern for student welfare; positive teacher-student relationships; relevant course content; a mastery-based approach to learning; and an overarching goal of building students' confidence in their ability, and more generally, in themselves. Together, these strategies address the behavioural, emotional and cognitive components of student engagement.

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In this paper, young people enrolled in foundation skills courses compare their experiences at [Technical and Further Education] TAFE with their experiences at school. Interviews were conducted with 30 early school leavers who were enrolled in foundation skills courses at two TAFE campuses. The students spoke with passion about their often-negative experiences of school and, in contrast, their positive experiences at TAFE. They highlighted the greater flexibility and freedom, the respectful relationships with teachers and peers, and the opportunities for academic achievement at TAFE. The research demonstrates the important role that foundation courses at TAFE can play in re-engaging young people with education and learning.

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This report begins with the premise that, in order to participate effectively and with satisfaction as a citizen in the post-industrial information societies and knowledge/service economies of the 21st century, an individual needs to be better informed, to have greater thinking and problem-solving abilities, to be more self-motivated, to have a larger capacity for cooperative interaction, to possess more varied and more specialised skills, and to be more resourceful and adaptable than ever before. Rapidly changing circumstances and opportunities in contemporary work, social and recreational environments, demand the continuing acquisition of new knowledge, new skills and new abilities and their efficient application. This demand can be met satisfactorily only through a process of continual learning. For young people in particular, there is an urgent need to develop the confidence and the knowhow required to deal with the uncertainties and complexities which many of them face now in adolescence and which all will face as adults. The report presents the findings of a project undertaken to address the broad question of how to ensure the engagement with learning of all middle years students and how to encourage in them a higher order of learning objectives and outcomes both now and throughout life. It builds on current nationwide and international efforts at school reform, intended to provide learning programs that are intellectually demanding, connected to the real world, socially supportive, community linked, and engaged with the wide diversity of student abilities, preferences, circumstances, and needs. The project addressed the research question: What practices, processes, strategies and structures best promote lifelong learning and the development of lifelong learners in the middle years of schooling? The project and the report consist of four elements: (1) a literature review; (2) case studies of selected school sites; (3) a student survey; and (4) a discussion paper. The study demonstrates that schools can make a difference for students by encouraging them to have positive attitudes towards lifelong learning and to want to become lifelong learners. But it also indicates that the process of reforming a school so that it is more likely to achieve these outcomes is a long and usually difficult one. Show less