The transferability of vocational education and learning from the military context to the civilian context

One of the most commonly advanced reasons for joining the Australian Defence Force (ADF) is the quality of the training given to enlisted personnel. The access to quality vocational education and training is a significant recruitment and retention benefit put forward by the ADF and is highlighted on all the recruitment related materials available for potential military personnel. This paper describes the results of research undertaken into vocational education and training within the military context and how it compares and aligns with similar civilian delivered vocational education and...  [+] Show more

One of the most commonly advanced reasons for joining the Australian Defence Force (ADF) is the quality of the training given to enlisted personnel. The access to quality vocational education and training is a significant recruitment and retention benefit put forward by the ADF and is highlighted on all the recruitment related materials available for potential military personnel. This paper describes the results of research undertaken into vocational education and training within the military context and how it compares and aligns with similar civilian delivered vocational education and training. The paper also looks at the transferability of vocational learning from the military context to the civilian context through a series of case studies in three vocational areas and finds that while the content of military training is highly transferable, the context and culture of the vocational education and training is quite distinctive and some of these factors could lead to a possible disjuncture when military personnel transfer to the civilian sector.

Authors' abstract.