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TRAC (Training for Retail and Commerce) was established by the Dusseldorp Skills Forum. It is an employer-school program which requires employers to pay for their placement students and to assess students for Higher School Certificate (HSC) marks.

Erica Smith explores the reasons behind the dramatic success of the program including its professional approach, the focus on improving skills, not job-seeking, the liaison between schools and industry and the criteria used for selecting students. Show less

This article uses the findings from a qualitative study of Australian young people in their first year of full-time work to examine the nature and utility of off-the-job training in apprenticeships and traineeships. The findings confirm the conclusions of earlier studies about the importance of off-the-job training as a supplement for workplace learning. It was found that, while initially not attaching much value to off-the-job training, the young people gained more of an appreciation, during the course of the year, of what off-the-job training had to offer. Other findings about off-the-job training included: the superiority of face-to-face training as opposed to other forms of delivery; the importance of young people’s relationship with their off-the-job trainers; the ‘implicit contract’ of expectations of the parties to the training contract; the different viewpoints of the parties; and the dissatisfaction of those in traineeships with the lack of intellectual challenge in their competency-based curriculum.

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This paper presents and analyses results from a research project on current trends in employer training in Australia. While the formal vocational education and training (VET) system is well-researched, the everyday training that happens in workplaces is relatively under-researched in Australia. Using some of the results of an employer survey undertaken in 2015, the paper describes and analyses employer-based training across a range of industry areas. The survey included groups of questions on a range of matters, including the reasons why employers train, and how these relate to employers' perceptions of their operating environment, and the structures they have in place to manage and organize training. Detailed data are provided about three specific forms of training: in-house training and learning; the use that employers make of external providers of training; and employers' use of nationally recognised training - training from the VET system. Finally the paper reports what managers said about the barriers to providing more training. The paper analyses the findings in relation to the literature and also identified changes over time in training practices in Australian companies. Implications for training policy and practice, as well as for future research, are identified.

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

TRAC (Training for Retail and Commerce) is a work experience scheme set up by the Dusseldorp Skills Forum, which requires employers to pay for their placement students, and also requires them to assess students formally for Higher School Certificate (HSC) marks. Although the project began in the retail trade, office administration, hospitality, and communication and media strands are now offered. This article describes the scheme, and its successful outcomes. Show less

Much of the recent discussion around employability skills in the post-compulsory education sector has been based upon a deficit model of young people. While peak industry bodies propound this view, there has been comparatively little empirical research into the attitudes of individual employers. This paper reports on part of the findings of a research project carried out in 2002 into young people and employability skills. A considerable amount of data was generated that described employers’ experiences of, and opinions about, young people as potential employees.

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This paper focuses on the evolving concept of training market views about those factors that necessitate intervention in the market. User choice in apprenticeships and traineeships is the latest policy response in Australia to the challenge of increasing the responsiveness of the vocational education and training (VET) system to the needs of clients. It does so by the channelling the flow of public funds to individual training providers to reflect the choice of training provider made by the client. Several policy issues are raised and discussed: the provision of continuous access to training in rural and remote areas; the impact of user choice on equity groups; the extent to which user choice will increase the choices available to apprentices and trainees; the competitiveness of training markets under user choice; the adjustments required of private training providers and the publicly funded VET system; and tensions between stakeholders that are likely to be experienced in the introduction of user choice. Show less

When enterprises decide to employ apprentices and trainees they do so as alternatives to other forms of labour, such as already-skilled workers or unskilled workers who will not be offered contracts of training. In their decisions, particularly in the increasingly tight Australian labour market, they will consider specific labour shortages which may be at the entry level or may be at more senior levels, and they think about whether apprenticeships and traineeships may help to meet those shortages either immediately or in the future. This paper uses a number of case studies carried out as part of an international research project to examine this decision-making process and the reasons that employers give for placing their trust in the New Apprentice system to attract and develop the right sort of worker to meet their current or projected shortages.

Published abstract.

Available papers from the 9th Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA) Conference are indexed from TD/TNC 86.226 to TD/TNC 86.262. Show less

Part-time working while studying full-time is now the norm for young Australian students, whether they are at school, TAFE or university. Australian research in this area currently comprises one body of research looking at learning from part-time jobs, and a second focusing upon the problems that time spent at work may cause with young people's study load. To date there has not been any major Australian research into the ways in which employers utilise student-working as part of their management strategies. This paper draws upon part of the research carried out in the first year of an Australian Research Council Linkage project on student-working. Case studies carried out with three major employers of part-time student labour and focus groups with university students have shown how the needs of young people for suitable work at convenient times and those of some employers coincide remarkably well. These employers have learned to shape their human resource management strategies around the nature of their student workforces, and continually adapt their strategies to make themselves more attractive to their current and potential workforces.

Published abstract.

Available papers from the 10th Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA) Conference are indexed from TD/TNC 89.401 to TD/TNC 89.447. Show less

This research study aimed to find out how teenage workers developed their employability skills in their first formal jobs and set out to document the processes by which first-time workers develop these skills while at work. During mid-2002, case studies were carried out in 12 Australian enterprises (including three group training companies) of varying size, and drawn from different industry areas. The enterprises were located in four states: New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Queensland, and included examples of novice workers who were part-time student workers as well as school leavers in their first jobs. Industry areas chosen were indicative of those employing the majority of novice workers, and included fast food, retail, electrical, electronics, hairdressing, hospitality, administration, local government, manufacturing and newspaper delivery. The study found that although employability skills may be developed through a range of activities and at a variety of locations, there are reasons why workplaces are appropriate and even vitally important sites for their development. Employability skills are developed throughout a person’s working life and hence employers need to view the process of employability skills development as a whole-of-workforce issue. Finally, there was little indication from the research that employers desired novice workers to be any different from the way they were already. They accepted that, in employing a teenager who had never worked before, they would have to put some effort into making the employee a functioning worker. The report is therefore not advocating any radical departure from existing practice, but merely an extension of such practice to more workplaces. The report also offers a number of suggestions for formalising many of the strategies which already exist. Show less

Apprenticeship has evolved over time in all countries, gradually adapting to changes in industrial processes, the economy, the labour market and education systems. However recent changes in the economy and the labour market have the potential to disrupt apprenticeship systems quite radically. Changes in apprenticeship systems themselves have partly met some of these challenges. In this chapter, the readiness of apprenticeship systems and practices to address developments in the 'new world of work' is explored: there is currently little empirical research in this area. Case study research in five Australian companies is used to indicate the potential of individual workplaces to attend to, and to incorporate, necessary changes to their apprenticeship training; and the potential role of apprenticeship intermediary organisations is discussed, as a facilitator for companies that need or would like additional support.

This chapter draws together the data from two pieces of research to present a generally optimistic view of current developments and the potential of apprenticeship to address future developments. It provides examples of good practice from employers and from intermediary organisations. It recognises the desire, and sometimes need, to change apprenticeship systems, such as the use of intermediary organisations, but also cautions against hasty developments which may later be regretted and difficult to undo.

Published introduction.

The volume from which this chapter is taken is available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 143.412. Show less