Notes from the South Pacific: a research proposal discussion paper on professional VET teaching practice at the Australia-Pacific Technical College

The Australia-Pacific Technical College (APTC) is an education aid program in the Pacific region and its purpose is to build the skills base of workers in Pacific Island Forum member countries in targeted industry sectors. The APTC has been variously described as ‘…an example of regionalism and an experiment in innovation’ (Schofield et al. 2009) and ‘…at the top end of the regional vocational skills supply chain’. The APTC School of Tourism and Hospitality and the School of Health and Community Services are managed by Box Hill Institute and deliver Australian vocational education and training (VET) programs at Certificate III, Certificate IV and Diploma level in three campus countries - Fiji, Samoa and Vanuatu; with additional project work in Kiribati and Tonga. The qualitative enquiry described in this research proposal discussion paper will examine professional vocational education and training teaching practice at the APTC and document how faculty members have adapted their professional practice into educational approaches responsive to the cultural environments of the Pacific. A qualitative methodology will be employed to show the ways in which the faculty members prepared themselves professionally for vocational education and training teaching assignments and how they view themselves as faculty members working in an aid program based upon a vocational education and training strategy of skills development and labour mobility. The central concern of this paper is to consider how faculty members manage the role of professional VET teacher working in an aid development context.

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