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As part of a three-year program of research, the authors are investigating how the training system might be more effective in providing continuing education and training across workers’ lives, since the tertiary education and training sector is currently geared to entry-level training; that is, getting young people ready to enter the labour market. This working paper sets the scene for the next stage of research. It provides a description of current models of education and training which offer a framework for understanding the continuing learning needs of Australian workers. 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.

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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

Governments are encouraging enterprises to enhance their expenditure on vocational education and training to assist with maintaining and developing further national skill bases, while sharing the cost with those enterprises. However, there are clear differences between what government intends and enterprise practices. This paper reports a review of the recent literature which focuses on the expenditure by enterprise on vocational education and their interest in securing returns on that expenditure. Enterprise expenditure is far from uniform and is influenced by factors including the size of the enterprise, its speciality and location. Moreover, enterprise interest on returns on its expenditure is focused on goals that are of a different kind from those of government and may not be aligned to achieving long-term national goals of maintaining and developing the skilfulness of the workforce. 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

Understanding how best to assist mature-aged workers (i.e. those over 45) maintain their employability across extended working lives, and what workplaces, educational institutions and government agencies can do to sustain that employability, is now central to many countries’ national social and economic goals. In most countries with advanced industrial economies and those aspiring to develop such economies, mature age workers are now likely to need to engage in longer productive working lives and, potentially, engage increasingly in more demanding kinds of employment such as professional, managerial, executive, and technical work. As a case study, this paper discusses interviews with mature-aged Singaporean workers, some of whom are also employers, about how sustaining their employability should be realized. First, it describes something of the current circumstances (i.e. constraints and opportunities) for workers aged over 45 in Singapore through accounts of their experiences in workplaces and educational institutions. Second, it advances views that can inform policies and practices to improve workplace practices and also the provision of lifelong learning (e.g. [continuing education and training] CET) in both Singaporean workplaces and educational institutions. In all, it argues that both workplace and educational provisions need to support mature age workers in ways that are commensurate with their skills, confidence, and capacities to progress. Yet, beyond what workplaces and educational institutions can provide, the active and pro-active (i.e. agentic) engagement of these mature aged workers is also essential.

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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.

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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 book discusses how the Dutch vocational education system has undergone significant waves of reform driven by global imperatives, national concerns and governmental policy goals. Like elsewhere, the impetuses for these reforms are directed to generating a more industry-responsive, locally-accountable and competence-based vocational education system. Each wave of reforms, however, has had particular emphases, and was directed to achieve particular policy outcomes. Yet, they are more than mere versions of what had or is occurring elsewhere. They are shaped by specific national imperatives, sentiments and localised concerns. Consequently, whilst this book elaborates what constitutes the contemporary provision of vocational education in the Netherlands, it also addresses a broader concern of how vocational education systems become formed, manifested within nation states and then transformed through particular imperatives, institutional arrangement and localised factors.

Excerpt from publisher's website.

The contents are as follows: Part one, 'Introduction', contains the following chapter: Vocational education in the Netherlands / Elly de Bruijn, Stephen Billett, and Jeroen Onstenk (pages 3-36). Part two, 'Policies and organisations', contains: Vocational and professional education and lifelong learning / Jeroen Onstenk and Ruud Duvekot (pages 39-56); Transforming vocational education: encouraging innovation via public private partnerships / Marc van der Meer, Jan Peter van den Toren, and Tammy Lie (pages 57-82); Great expectations: VET's meaning for Dutch local industry / Anneke Westerhuis and Marc van der Meer (pages 83-102); Improvement of educational quality in VET: who is next? / Louise van de Venne, Marlies Honingh, and Marieke van Genugten (pages 103-118); Professional development of teachers in vocational education / Marcel van der Klink and Jan Streumer (pages 119-136).

Part three, 'Educational programmes: teaching and learning', contains the following chapters: A dialogue worth having: vocational competence, career identity and a learning environment for twenty-first century success at work / Frans Meijers, Reinekke Lengelle, Annemie Winters, and Marinka Kuijpers (page 139-155); The role and nature of knowledge in vocational programmes / Elly de Bruijn and Arthur Bakker (pages 157-174); Designing competence-based vocational curricula at the school-work boundary / Renate Wesselink and Ilya Zitter (pages 175-194); Pedagogic strategies for improving students' engagement and development / Truus Harms, Aimee Hoeve, and Peter den Boer (pages 195-218); Work-based learning (WBL) in Dutch vocational education: connecting learning places, learning content and learning processes / Jeroen Onstenk (pages 219-243); Assessment in Dutch vocational education: overview and tensions of the past 15 years / Liesbeth Baartman and Judith Gulikers (pages 245-266). Part five, 'End piece', contains: The Dutch vocational education system: institutional focus and transformations / Stephen Billett (pages 269-294). Show less

This paper examines how the learning of new practices occurs in small businesses and identifies and elaborates the role played by localised support in: (1) developing an understanding of a new practice; (2) its implications for the particular small business; and (3) providing assistance with the implementation, monitoring and refinement of small business operators’ and workers’ capacity to be able to enact the practice independently. The key role played by the agentic actions of the small business operators is also identified. Together with the localised support these actions constituted instances of learning spaces that are distinct and remote from the provision of taught courses within educational institutions. These interactions suggest the need for a broadened conception of what constitutes legitimate learning situations and pedagogic practices.

Selected papers from this conference are indexed from TD/TNC 77.35 to TD/TNC 77.50 and from TD/TNC 77.215 to TD/TNC 77.218. Show less