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This research explores the potential for developing instruments that assess and acknowledge the wider benefits of learning for adults participating in non-accredited community adult language, literacy and numeracy programs. The research comprised three stages: (1) a review of national and international research; (2) a number of potential assessment instruments that could be used to assess and acknowledge the outcomes of learners in non-accredited adult language, literacy and numeracy programs were identified; and (3) the selected instruments were trialled and evaluated in the field at the partner sites. The instruments tested in the study take account of the diversity of learner needs and motivations. The study found that a range of instruments and approaches would probably be required to assess and acknowledge learning outcomes that are specific to particular learners or cohorts of learners. It highlighted that these assessment methods can bring benefits both to the learner and the tutor, especially when they are completed jointly in ways that inform learning plans and aim at building self-confidence. Show less

This project investigated how best to utilise school students' experiences in paid part-time work to enable them to have a better understanding of post-school pathways, as well as the ability to make wise decisions about these pathways. In this context, paid work experiences are regarded as being more 'authentic' and informative than school-organised work experiences, since paid work entails an employment arrangement, immersion in workplaces and the exercise of the obligations and requirements on the part of both employees and employers. The specific questions addressed by the project were: In what ways can school students' engagement with paid work experiences assist them and their peers to understand work, working life and post-school pathways? What kinds of teaching practices might secure these outcomes? How can schools best organise experiences to inform students about work, working life and post-school options? The study found that it is not clear the degree to which, despite all the interest expressed by school systems and statements about the centrality of vocational education and training (VET) programs, there are adequate resources, support and organisation to ensure successful programs. Some of the difficulties in negotiating classroom-based activities designed to reflect on the students' paid work experiences were a product of the standing and status of vocational programs within the schools. The research provided evidence that a reluctance to recognise the value of paid employment and its rigours placed additional demands upon students. For instance, students engaged in vocational options were often forced to negotiate inflexible arrangements within the academic programs. Hence, for students seeking both pathways, there were impediments that added to the complexity and stress of their study programs. This leads to a question about the capacity of schools to support the full range of post-school options for students through effective vocational education provision. Show less

The aim of the project reported here was to examine the nature of social partnerships and how they may be relevant to the vocational education and training (VET) sector. VET, which supports industry, individuals and communities, is increasingly identified as an important means of strengthening local communities. This relatively recent role for the VET sector complements its long-standing role in the development of skills and attitudes necessary for work. This sector also offers ‘second chance’ opportunities to those who had been unsuccessful at school or university. In this study, social partnerships were documented through a desktop review and a phone survey. In-depth case studies were also conducted in three states (Queensland, South Australia and Victoria) to provide a detailed view of how these partnerships actually work. The project identified community partnerships, which grow out of community concerns and commitments and are formed to address local issues or problems, and enacted social partnerships, which are initiated by agencies external to local communities, but with a view to developing and/or supporting particular functions within those communities. VET is characterised by both community and enacted social partnerships which are often constructed in ways which support vocational learning, particularly for young adults, through a range of diverse local initiatives. Social partnerships also contribute to broader objectives aimed at strengthening communities by building relationships, working productively with a diversity of partners, and enhancing capacity for local governance. The project findings provide a basis for considering how community-building through social partnerships might be used to support vocational education and training goals. The findings reveal dangers inherent to the community-building approach and how they might be negotiated as community-building proceeds. The report also offers suggested strategies for advancing community capacity-building and monitoring performance through social partnerships. Show less

The integration of workplace and school-based experiences is necessary for effective vocational education and training (VET) in schools programs. Access to authentic workplace experiences are likely to be important for programs which both aim to develop an awareness of the world of work as well as to develop specific vocational knowledge. The utilisation of students’ paid part-time work in conjunction with classroom activities has the potential to enrich learning about the world of work and develop the knowledge required for working life. Show less

This paper reports on the views of 20 teachers who were involved in designing and delivering higher education programs in TAFE institutes. It is part of a broader National Vocational Education and Training Research and Evaluation (NVETRE) funded project that examined the growth of, and implications for, higher education in TAFE. The aim of the project was to understand the purposes of such programs, how they have been developed and implemented, the impact they are having on institutional partnerships, how they are perceived by participants, and whether they open opportunities for students. One set of project interviews explored teachers' views of the nature of higher education programs in TAFE. In this paper, issues associated with the identity, concerns and professional positioning of teachers who are responsible for delivering higher education programs in TAFE institutes are explored. It is argued that this identity is a bifurcated one. On the one hand, these teachers are situated in a VET environment, with its attendant physical, industrial and resource implications, and a mandate to liaise closely with industry. Yet, simultaneously, they are expected to have completed post-graduate qualifications, provide course content and assessment regimes that are current but more intellectually demanding than those in the VET sector and find time to engage in scholarship and research activities. The paper is divided into three sections. It begins with a brief literature review of the phenomena of higher education in anglophone vocational or further education institutions. Next, the Griffith University project, 'Higher education in TAFE' is described. This is followed by a consideration of the four specific forms of tension, namely, epistemological, pedagogical, industrial and institutional, that were found to impact on the work and identity of the teachers who were interviewed in the study. The paper then concludes by considering the upshot of these tensions within the broader and changing landscape of higher and vocational education. Show less

This paper reports some initial findings of an investigation which seeks to understand the consequences for vocational education and training (VET) provisions and policy of the changing relationships among the four key VET client groups, industry, enterprise, individuals and regions. While over the last decade industry's needs have dominated vocational education policy and provisions, the initial findings of the study include evidence that the shift to an enterprise focus is being enacted, with consequences and concerns for industry goals and the aspirations of individuals and regions. Evidence is furnished of how an enterprise based approach to VET may jeopardise the realisation of individuals' and regions' goals as well as the potential erosion of transferable knowledge. Show less

This report presents the findings of a research project on learning in and for small business with the aim of identifying effective approaches to small business learning and validating those approached with other small businesses. It used the recent implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) and its associated business activity statement (BAS) to study how small business learn and develop the capacities to respond to new tasks and challenges. It was anticipated that there would be no single or uniformly viable approach. Case studies were developed and semi-structured interviews were conducted in thirty small businesses representing a diversity of locations, sizes and specialities, across two states. The project proceeded in four phases: (1) small business learning about and implementing the GST; (2) identifying and delineating a model for learning in small business; (3) appraising a model of learning in small business; and (4) reporting and dissemination. The project found that small businesses had different capacities to learn the ‘same’ task and the scope of the learning task was also different across the small businesses. However, despite the diversity there were some identifiable patterns of responses which assisted in the development of a model of learning in and for small business. It is recommended that vocational education and training (VET) policy and practice be more invitational to small business. Show less

This report describes the results of a two-year effort to understand better the rationale and processes that underlie schools' course offerings and students' coursetaking and draws implications from these for the reform of vocational education. At present the matching of students to different high school programs carries with it racial, ethnic and social class overtones. The study suggests that there is a strong need for the reforms, and that there are obstacles in the culture of schools that will confront them. Further research and experimentation are recommended. Show less

This article examines how different forms of vocational knowledge are constructed from social sources. Using a Vygotskian framework it is claimed that in different ways vocational knowledge is shaped by history, community and ontogeny through microgenetic development. This process of ongoing problem-solving links social circumstances to the development of cognitive structures necessary to conduct vocational practice. It is held that such findings help explain the limitations of transfer and also the need to conceptualise expertise at the particular community of practice, rather than at some disembedded level of practice. Show less

This paper provides an account of the inter-psychological processes that constitute learning through work. It does this by drawing on deliberations about the relative contributions of the immediate social world (i.e., workplace setting) that individuals encounter and the personal premises for individuals' learning. This account is realised through analyses of workers' experiences of working and learning in both large and small enterprises. Together, these premises and their contributions are used to elaborate how learning through work proceeds as a process of relational interdependence between the affordance of the workplace and the engagement of workers. This relational process is evident in work of different kinds, from the labours of coalminers through to the entrepreneurial activities of small business operators. Instances of learning through work are elaborated through studies that identify how workplaces' affordances - those that invite workers in particular ways to participate, access support and reward - are generated and projected. These contributions to engaging in and learning through work can be conceptualised as the immediate social contribution or experience that is shaped by cultural and situational factors and the social legacies that shape how individuals construe, engage in, and learn through those practices. It concludes by discussing issues related to both the inter-psychological process and outcomes (e.g., inter-subjectivity) arising from learning through work.

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