Search Results

In 1993 the Commonwealth Department of Education Employment and Training [DEET] commissioned the production of a detailed guide to evaluation for people working in the Adult Literacy and Basic Education (ALBE) field. The result was the production of a very comprehensive text, 'A guide to program evaluation' [available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 39.42], written by Faye Lambert and John Owen in conjunction with Sharon Coates and Julie McQueen (DEET, 1994). Subsequently the National Staff Development Committee (NSDC) commissioned Rex Stoessiger and Roy Pugh of the Tasmanian Educational Consortium to adapt the guide to become a professional development program. The program was trialled with ALBE personnel in a variety of Australian states and sections were then redrafted to produce the current version.

This professional development program is designed to improve the understanding of Australian personnel working in adult literacy and basic education (ALBE) of the range of approaches and methods used to achieve different evaluation purposes. The program is composed of six modules. The modules cover the following: introduction to evaluation and an overview of evaluation issues; evaluation approaches and methodologies; information collection alternatives; collecting and analyzing evaluative information; reporting and ensuring outcomes; and good practice in evaluation. Components of each module are as follows: an overview (duration; purpose; pre- or corequisites; summary of content; delivery; learning outcome; assessment criteria, conditions, and method; suggested resources); contents page; presenter's guidelines that provide a detailed description on how to present the units; transparency masters; and handouts. An appendix contains three case studies (evaluations) of ALBE projects that have been rewritten in an easily accessible style to provide examples of how evaluation projects have been conducted.

Edited excerpts from publication. Show less

This is a case study report on an enterprise experience in the development of work based AVC programs. Australian Newsprint Mills and Cadburys Tasmanian Manufacturing, together with the respective unions including the Manufacturing Workers Union, Claremont Secondary College and Hobart Institute of TAFE conducted a national workbased pilot under the Australian Vocational Training System.

This report examined the claim that the program made a training difference especially in the area of creating trainees which were more adaptable.

Focus groups, interviews and consultations with stakeholders provided the qualitative data which was combined with quantitative data from questionnaires to produce this case-study report. Show less

The aims of this project were to identify a sample of labour market programs from across Australia, identify and describe the literacy skills needed for effective participation in those programs and prepare guidelines for Commonwealth Employment Services (CES) officers writing specifications of labour market programs. Show less

This resource is the result of a collaborative effort from workers from the rehabilitation sector and the adult literacy sector who were concerned to investigate how the literacy needs of certain groups of clients were being met as they were re-integrated into the community. Survey responses of 399 rehabilitation workers from Western Australia (WA), Northern Territory (NT) and Victoria indicated that rehabilitation workers generally felt they needed more systematic information about literacy programs and literacy related issues and that their lack of knowledge about these issues was a significant barrier for their clients in accessing appropriate programs. Show less