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Recent attention has focused on the pervasiveness of informal learning in the workplace and the important role played by workers in fostering the learning of their work colleagues (Harris and Simons 1999). This has raised some significant questions with regard to the role of the workplace trainer and how that role might be conceptualised. In the light of the presenters' findings from a National Research and Evaluation Committee (NREC) funded research study on workplace trainers, this paper offers a critique of the current conception of the role of workplace trainer as represented in the Training Package for Assessment and Workplace Training. Then, drawing on network learning theory, distinctions are drawn between different types of workplace trainers. In particular, the paper focuses on the roles of trainers primarily located in the workplace and the roles of trainers primarily located in training providers, but who also enter organisations to train workers. A model, highlighting how workplace trainers act on and within the learning and work networks in their enterprises to facilitate learning, is presented and discussed.

Volumes of collected papers are indexed from TD/TNC 64.481 to TD/TNC 64.483. Individual papers are indexed from TD/TNC 62.625 to TD/TNC 62.632 and from TD/TNC 64.484 to TD/TNC 64.541. Show less

The differences between on- and off-job learning environments continue to be the subject of much debate, and the notion of complementarity between them is a perennial issue for most forms of training and development. This paper grapples with this issue in relation to apprentices in the building industry in Australia. It analyses the different perceptions of complementarity held by apprentices, host employers and college teachers. It strives to understand the diverse meanings of complementarity within the context of communities of practice in which apprentices acquire not only vocational knowledge and skills, but also a sense of identity through internalising sometimes complementary but often contradictory messages from their different learning environments. Their development towards the status of ‘competent tradespersons’ heavily depends on their individual abilities to integrate and synthesise these messages.

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This study examines how learners and the processes of learning are understood and presented in a sample of courses leading to the attainment of the Certificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training (since replaced by the new Certificate IV in Training and Assessment). It considers the implications of these findings for the development of teaching and learning in vocational education and training (VET) in Australia. The study involved an analysis of 16 case studies in South Australia, New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria. Seven of these sites were public registered training organisations (RTOs), four based in capital cities and three in regional areas. The remaining sites comprised nine private RTOs and two enterprise-based organisations, both located in capital cities; three community based organisations, two in capital city locations and one in a regional area; two commercial training organisations, one in a capital city location and the other regional; and two government-funded organisations located in the higher education sector. The case study sites were therefore spread across a number of locations, as well as across a range of different types of RTOs. The research demonstrated considerable diversity in the types of courses leading to the attainment of the Certificate IV qualification, as well as a variety of ways in which the qualification was contextualised to meet the requirements of the organisations and individuals involved. In enterprise contexts the Certificate IV was understood as a business process that contributed to wider organisational and strategic goals, with an immediate focus on developing human capital for the enterprise. Learners and learning were understood in context-specific ways; this stands in contrast to circumstances where the audience for the Certificate IV was more non-specific, and topics related to learners and learning were approached in more general terms. The authors suggest that future discussions need to examine ideas on how teaching and learning might embrace the learner-centred, work-centred and attribute-focused approaches now acknowledged as important for the future of the VET sector. Discussions also need to consider more seriously the impact of characteristics such as gender, race and ethnicity on learning, and the ways in which learning might best be understood and organised to take account of these learner attributes. Show less

In the last two decades self-directed learning (SDL) has been one of the most researched education topics. This paper briefly reviews the plethora of research and writing on self-directed learning (SDL), particularly in its implications for educators of adults, in order to highlight new areas of development. This paper argues that, for the benefit of the adult education practitioner, the emphasis in SDL research and thinking needs to shift away from SDL as the management of external conditions or even as a set of self-instructional activities, and more towards the self-directed learner. It is argued that it is time that practitioners knew more about the self-directed learner, rather than the SDL process, about the learner's ability to think critically and reflectively on experiences and whether this ability can be enhanced by the adult educator. This paper discusses the interest in SDL, perspectives on self-direction and research on SDL.

The full volume of papers is indexed at TD/TNC 62.51. Show less

This article explores the role of the workplace trainer in the light of the current de-institutionalising of training. This paper, based on research funded by the National Research and Evaluation Committee (NREC), analyses the self-reported roles of samples of workplace trainers in three industries across three states, and explores the implications for both the nature of national competency standards and the development of a training/learning culture. The study highlights what informal training in the workplace entails and the critical role the informal trainer plays in promoting learning. Show less

This study aimed to examine the learning preferences of a group of New Apprentices (both apprentices and trainees) and the training preferences of their workplace trainers, and to explore the ways in which trainers take all these preferences into account when supporting learning in the workplace. Data on personality type and preferred and perceived learning/training environments were gathered from New Apprentices and trainers. Interviews were held with 36 New Apprentices and 30 trainers drawn from three industry areas (community services, manufacturing and retail) in South Australia, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. This study is intended to be exploratory in nature. It takes as its starting point the assumption that, just as particular instructional preferences can be identified for more formalised learning environments (for example, classrooms), so might training preferences (that is, the way workplace trainers actually train) also be identified. The study found that research into learning styles, preferences and differences in Australian vocational education and training (VET) is still in its infancy. Emerging from this study are questions about the respective influences of personality types, of gender and of the nature of work on learning and training preferences. There are questions about the extent to which participants consider they have to bend natural inclinations to fit workplace realities, and about matching and/or mismatching trainer and New Apprentice learner styles, and the influence of these styles on workplace learning outcomes. Show less

This paper reports on an Australian National Training Authority-National Research and Evaluation Committee funded study that focuses on the learning and assessment experiences of apprentices and trainees. Using focus groups, case studies and a national survey in two occupations, the study concludes that the quality of learning and assessment systems for apprentices and trainees appears to revolve around two foci. Firstly, monitoring the balance between the needs of the enterprises and the needs of the apprentices and trainees. Secondly, the development of effective partnerships between the apprentice/trainee, the employer and the training provider.

Published abstract.

The two volumes of collected papers are indexed at TD/TNC 64.287 and TD/TNC 64.355. Selected papers from volume one are indexed from TD/TNC 64.288 to TD/TNC 64.320; selected papers from volume two are indexed from TD/TNC 64.321 to TD/TNC 64.354. Show less

Workplace trainers have become central players in moves to implement training reforms that emphasise the workplace as a key site of learning. They are increasingly being asked to take greater responsibility for the delivery and assessment of training. The introduction of Training Packages will further entrench the importance of their role. Descriptions of the role of the workplace trainer (as embedded in workplace trainer and assessor competency standards) seem to be over-reliant on approaches to training that take little account of what is known about how learning takes place in the workplace. They appear to ignore the significant ways in which the nature of work impacts on the learning process and the critical role the workplace trainer plays in managing the structure of work in order to facilitate learning. This paper presents an alternative way of conceptualising the role of the workplace trainer. Drawing on ideas from network learning theory, the paper examines the multiple learning networks that a workplace trainer could facilitate in a work site. The critical role of the trainer in fostering worker-initiated learning is also examined. Implications for those concerned with fostering a learning culture within enterprises are explored.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner.

The title of the conference was 'Changing practice through research: changing research through practice'. This volume of the collected papers is indexed at TD/ANTA 82.132; selected papers are indexed from TD/TNC 60.163 to TD/TNC 60.171. Show less

This paper explores how Australian Probationary Police Constables are viewed and accepted into the workforce to become full and trusted members of a community of practice. Using Lave and Wenger's (1991) theory of communities of practice and legitimate peripheral participation, the paper explores the movement of Probationary Constables from the training academy to the workplace, and the negotiations and strategies used for their gradual acceptance into a community of practice. Although Lave and Wenger acknowledge that peripherality, rather than being a negative term, allows for an understanding of inclusion into a community of practice, there is still a long journey to be travelled before full acceptance is accorded the newcomer. This paper traces the journey of the Probationary Constables from the periphery to more central acceptance using the 'voices' of the Probationers and their senior officers to explore the conflicts and difficulties that arose in the course of that journey.

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