Search Results

In this article, the author proposes bases for a workplace pedagogy. Workplaces afford opportunities for vocational learning through engagement in everyday work tasks, direct guidance, e.g. interactions with work colleagues, and indirect guidance, e.g. observing and listening in the workplace. However, the quality of learning through these activities ultimately relies on the workplace’s participatory practices. These practices determine the shape and distribution of the activities and support the workplace affordances available to workers from which they learn. These workplace affordances are underpinned by situational and political processes. Participatory practices are reciprocally constructed because individuals make their own decisions about how to engage in and learn from what workplaces afford them. The author proposes that a workplace pedagogy is instituted in these coparticipatory practices and needs to consider how workplaces encourage access to activities and guidance and how the workers themselves choose to participate in what the workplace affords them. Show less

This paper discusses progress in a two-year study of the work, working lives and learning of twelve workers. They comprise four groups of three workers in an emergency service, a gymnasium, a restaurant and IT help desk. The concept of relational interdependence between individual and social agency (Billett 2005), is used to understand their participation, learning and remaking of cultural practices. These are held to be products of the interdependence between social suggestion and individual agency and are enacted at the intersection between the social and cognitive experience comprising the engagement in work. In seeking to elaborate the bases of these interdependencies and their consequences for changes to individuals’ cognitive experience and sense of self, and the remaking of cultural practices, four partially linked and overlapping bases for understanding the processes of interdependencies emerge. These are: (i) reflection and review (i.e. reflection); (ii) performance roles (kinds of selves developed in the workplace); (iii) prospects for dialogue (i.e. opportunities for interpersonal interactions); and (iv) how conceptions of rewards and recognition are constructed. In different but distinct ways these four bases provide a means to elaborate interdependencies at work, thereby providing a platform to analyse processes of individual learning and the remaking of work practices and concepts.

Published abstract. Show less

The concept of employability extends beyond initial occupational preparation into the ability to remain employable as, inevitably, occupational capacities and workplace requirements change frequently across working lives. Hence, the need to continually learn to remain occupationally current and respond to changing workplace requirements becomes paramount. The evidence suggests that much of that learning arises through individual efforts and the support of co-workers through work activities. So, there is a need to understand how that learning can be supported to sustain employability across lengthening working lives.

Drawing on an Australian study, reported here are perspectives from managers and workers in diverse workplaces about current modes of continuing education and training and about how workers are assisted with their learning to meet personal needs and those of employers. Employers want an occupationally current workforce that can meet specific workplace needs; workers want the capacities to remain employable, which may extend to advancing their careers elsewhere. The data indicate differences in perceptions about what is being provided, how frequently the provisions are used, and the worth of its certification. Whilst the findings indicate shared concerns about the importance of learning, there were clear differences in views about the models and processes used to support that learning. Across both sets of informants can be seen distinctions between 'training solutions' and 'learning solutions'. A more nuanced analysis suggests that the training solution is appropriate and effective at some point in workers' worklife trajectories but in other circumstances, learning through practice is proposed as being more efficacious.

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

In this paper, the author examines factors that affect the process of learning in workplaces. The focus is on how workplaces provide opportunities for learning and how individuals choose to take part in learning activities and with support and guidance supplied by the workplace. These dual bases for participation at work (co-participation), and the relations between them, are key to understanding the kinds of learning that workplaces are able to provide. Consequently, the disposition of the workplace to provide opportunities for employees to take part in work activities and reap the benefits of both direct and indirect support, are key determinants of the quality of learning in workplaces. These workplace opportunities are important to the learning outcomes of both structured workplace learning arrangements such as mentoring, and the learning accessed through daily participation at work.

The volumes of collected papers are indexed from TD/TNC 69.351 to TD/TNC 69.353. Individual papers are indexed from TD/TNC 69.354 to TD/TNC 69.445. Show less

A more holistic continuing education and training system, one that acknowledges, supports and recognises the value of work-based learning, would better address the ongoing needs of Australian workers. But a widespread learning culture with support from policy-makers, employers, training providers and employees is required to make the most of such a system. These are some of the findings to emerge from a three-year program of research that aimed to investigate what might form the basis of an effective continuing education and training system. This report discusses the final stage of the project and proposes ways forward.

Published abstract. Show less

Interviews with workers and managers show differences in preferred models of training, depending on the purpose of the training. When the purpose is to remain current and employable, to advance careers or to bring about workplace change, then workplace and practice-based models are the most valued. However, when the purpose is to secure employment or change jobs then educational institution-based models are more favoured. This is the second report coming out of a three-year program of research which aims to investigate how the tertiary education and training system might best be organised to maintain the employability of workers across their working lives.

Published abstract. Show less

The aim of this report is to identify and discuss policy options to promote employers’ increasing their contributions to employees’ training and development. This includes outlining the level of employer sponsorship of training identified through different statistical data, comparisons between Australia and other countries, highlighting models that seek to account for different approaches to and mechanisms for employer sponsorship of training, and consideration of policy options to lever greater commitment from Australian enterprises. The report seeks to establish the conceptual terrain for advancing policy in the area of employer sponsorship of training. The research involved a two-step methodology. In the first phase, an extensive literature review was conducted on the policies used by governments in Australia and overseas to encourage employers to invest in training. In the second phase, interviews were conducted with major stakeholders in Australia and a range of overseas experts to appraise the effectiveness of policies in more detail.

A range of policy goals were identified which have the potential to be met through an enhanced commitment by enterprises to training. These goals include fulfilling specific enterprise needs as well as building the national base of skills. Given the uncertainty of policy goals, and the evidence of inconsistent commitment to investment in training across sectors, and between enterprises of differing sizes, it was concluded that, in the short term, at least four policy mechanisms might be used judiciously to secure different kinds of goals and in different circumstances. These mechanisms are: levies; partnerships; leverage; and regulation. Enhancing the status of vocational practice and vocational education appears to be a key goal for the Australian context however the report suggests that it is important that governments take on this role, rather than industry, since the latter might well experience difficulty promoting arrangements which have the potential to jeopardise industrial processes. Show less

Increasing enterprises’ expenditure on their employees’ vocational education and training (VET) is of concern for governments in many countries. This article identifies and discusses policy goals for increased enterprise expenditure on VET and elaborates options for achieving these goals. Throughout, measures that attempt to mandate and regulate enterprises’ responses are contrasted with those attempting to address and change the sentiments - beliefs about and values of - decision makers within enterprises about the worth of skill development. Given that decisions about expenditure will largely be made within enterprises, ultimately the governmental goals for enhanced expenditure may only be met through the development of a sentiment within enterprises that favours this expenditure. Therefore, policy planning and enactment might be best directed to that purpose.

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

The study reported here used high school students' paid part-time work experiences to assist them to reflect upon work, working life and post-school pathways. Because many high school students engage in paid part-time work, in any Australian senior school classroom there is a range of experience that can be used to assist students to consider working life and post-school pathways. These experiences are more readily available and authentic than those provided through school-organised work experience programs. In order to understand how the students' experience of paid work might be best engaged, students and teachers in six schools in Victoria and Queensland participated in processes of reflecting on these experiences. Consistently, across all cohorts of students, authentic workplace experiences were identified as assisting a range of educational purposes associated with students' consideration of learning about work, the world of work and to consider post-school options and pathways. Key variables in the likely success of this initiative were the facilitative capacity of teachers, their knowledge and valuing of working life outside schools, and students' capacities and readiness to engage in reflection of their paid work and the resourcing and privileging within the school of vocational education and training (VET) provisions.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner.

Volumes of papers are indexed at TD/TNC 90.212 and TD/TNC 90.213. Selected individual papers are indexed from TD/TNC 90.214 to TD/TNC 90.264. Show less

As many, perhaps most, high-school students engage in paid part-time employment, there is available in any Australian senior school classroom a range of work experiences that can be used to assist students to consider and reflect on working life and post-school pathways. Furthermore, these experiences are more readily available and authentic than those provided through school-organised work experience programmes. In order to understand the effectiveness of such experiences, students and teachers in six schools across two Australian states participated in processes of guided reflection on these experiences. Consistently, across cohorts of students in all of these schools, the authentic workplace experiences of paid part-time work were identified as assisting in securing a range of educational purposes associated with students’ learning about work, the world of work and post-school options and pathways. Key variables in the likely success of this initiative were the facilitative capacity of teachers, their knowledge and valuing of working life outside schools and students’ capacities and readiness to engage in reflection on their paid work.

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