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This paper is about the way in which young people are increasingly adopting dual identities - worker and learner - during the long transition from full-time student to full-time worker. Part-time jobs undertaken while in full-time education provide opportunities for learning about work and may lead to full-time careers in the same industry area. Those who enter full-time work directly are increasingly likely to have a job with a formal training contract. The paper is based on a series of Australian research projects, undertaken over seven years by the author and colleagues, using quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The data were used to construct six hypothetical case studies of young learner/workers typifying the multiple roles of young people in the working and educational arenas. The case studies illustrate the complex and often under-planned arrangements that may be redefining how young people think about education and jobs and how they conceptualise their movement into the full-time workforce.

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This study explores the common features of high-quality traineeships using case studies from the cleaning, child care, construction, retail, finance and insurance, and meat processing areas. Interviews were also carried out with 13 high level stakeholders: senior officials in government, employer and employee peak bodies, and other major players in the traineeship system, such as Group Training Australia. The research identifies a range of policy measures that could improve both the practice and image of traineeships. There was clear agreement among all stakeholders at all levels about what constitutes a high-quality traineeship: it involves good training delivery both on and off the job, a qualification that is respected by industry, high levels of current underpinning knowledge and skills, and pathways into higher-level jobs and qualifications. It provides appropriate support for disadvantaged learners. The benefits of traineeships to industries and enterprises were found to include a larger and more mobile skills pool, improved productivity and quality of output, the assurance of consistent skill levels among workers, compliance with national and international industry standards, and safer working practices, increasing the competitive edge of companies and Australia in the international marketplace. For individuals, traineeships were found to improve the status of occupations by making explicit the knowledge and skills involved, through the award of a qualification.

A good practice guide has also been developed to assist in ensuring that all traineeships are of equally high quality. It is indexed at TD/TNC 97.23. Show less

The literature has identified some potential problems and challenges associated with teenage part-time workers and the nature of the workplaces that employ them. However a large national project on student-working found few problems in the two companies researched because these companies had policies in place that addressed the potential problems. Some suggestions are made about how problems and challenges could be avoided in a wider range of adolescent workplaces.

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This good practice guide is based on research that set out to identify the features of high-quality traineeships and those factors that either facilitate or inhibit their quality. To assist providers and employers offering traineeships, the guide sets out the features of good traineeships, starting from the recruitment phase through to completion.

The research study on which this guide is based, ‘High quality traineeships: identifying what works’ is indexed at TD/TNC 97.09. Show less

This paper examines the Australian phenomenon of Enterprise Registered Training Organizations (RTOs). These are organizations that do not have training as their main business but that are accredited to deliver training and award qualifications, primarily to their own workers. Although Enterprise RTOs have been in existence in one form or another for around 15 years they have not been previously examined in the scholarly literature. The paper uses qualitative and quantitative data from two recent research projects to describe the nature and experiences of these RTOs and their workers. The findings are analysed using a framework recently used in an evaluation of the pilot of a similar English scheme: quality concerns, resource intensiveness, impact on the training market, and restriction to larger firms. The paper concludes that enterprise RTOs have been beneficial to workers and companies alike, although not without problems, and that the Australian system appears to present fewer risks than the proposed English system.

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Most people would agree that an objective measurement of skill in work is not possible. Many perceptions of what is skilled work privilege 'male' over 'female' occupations, and pre-1950 industrial and craft jobs over more recently-established and service sector jobs. Theories of social construction of skill centre around claim-making by interest groups, structural conditions that allow or prevent such claims, and the institutionalisation of those claims. As skill cannot be measured objectively, the social construction of skill takes on immense significance in defining what are worthy and non-worthy occupations, and the training that is available and valued within those occupations. Show less

In Australia, the workforce in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) as compared to that in other sectors of education is not easy to describe or analyse. TVET practitioners work in a variety of institutions, locations and roles, and do not necessarily see themselves as a coherent body of professionals. This diversity makes it difficult to generalize about practitioners and, more importantly, for governments and practitioners' employers to devise policies and practices that address their required qualifications and professional development. Arrangements among countries vary depending upon the way in which the TVET system is organized, but in general there is some commonality in the ways in which teachers, instructors and trainers can be classified. One way is by their working context (which we may call 'site of training practice') and another is by the extent to which the training they deliver is involved in some way with government-accredited qualifications (which we may call 'formality of training'). A third way is by the extent to which training is a full part of the individual's career (which we may call 'role focus of trainer'). This chapter uses Australia as a case study to examine TVET teachers, trainers and instructors and the ways in which their skills are developed and certified, using these classifications as an organzing framework.

Published introduction.

The book from which this chapter is taken is indexed at TD/TNC 100.51. Individual chapters are indexed from TD/TNC 100.52 to TD/TNC 100.244. Show less

The paper reports on a study examining the issues facing vocational education and training (VET) practitioners who aspire to undertake formal research and move towards publishing their research. Research participants were drawn from attendees at a publishing workshop that was mounted at the 2008 conference of the Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA). The study utilised notes made by the conveners of that workshop, and the collective work produced in groups of participants, responses to an email interview six months after the date of the workshop, and subsequent in-depth telephone conversations. The study showed that practitioner researchers faced considerable difficulties in pursuing their research and publication goals, and analysis of findings suggest that these difficulties may reflect a lack of legitimacy for research within VET practice and VET institutions.

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