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An increase in the exchange of knowledge, trade and capital around the world, driven by technological innovation has created a globally connected world. Rapid advances in information communication technology has reshaped the style and frequency of global communications and led to an increase in work being conducted online using global, virtual teams. This is driving a need for students, the future work force, to have high level intercultural communication skills and digital literacy to manage working across computers, cultures and time. As it is incumbent on tertiary education to prepare graduates for employability, business and government are putting pressure on tertiary institutions to design authentic learning opportunities that build skills to manage the technology and intercultural communication required to work in this globally and digitally connected world.

The Fellow responded to this new skill demand by investigating international educational approaches to developing graduates' global skills in order to inform a pedagogical approach for training Australian vocational education students in this field. This addressed core policy priorities of the Department of Education and Training which included developing quality education and training systems for [vocational education and training] VET, delivering innovative and quality training that meets current and future industry needs and developing greater employment and further educational outcomes.

The Fellowship research began at the end of 2016 with the Fellow attending two international conferences in the Netherlands; Beezr: Virtual Collaboration across Cultures and COIL: Collaborative Online International Learning Europe, to learn from educators actively conducting global, virtual student collaborations. The Fellow interviewed key speakers at the conferences and gained valuable insights from the presentations into the challenges and benefits of various methodologies for educating teachers and students on how to work with the complexities of different cultures in multiple time zones using new digital technologies. The Fellow also visited tertiary institutions in Belgium to interview practitioners working on strategies for expanding global collaborations. In order to gain understanding of business practices in preparing employees for global virtual teamwork, the Fellow undertook training in business methodologies for identifying and developing intercultural competency in employees to prepare them for working with other cultures.

This report captures the key learnings from the international discoveries and recommends actions for tertiary institutions, government and industry for developing intercultural competency and digital literacy to prepare vocational education graduates for employability in the highly digitised and culturally connected 21st century.

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When members of AUSTAFE, the Australian professional association for managers in vocational education and training (VET), visited the United Kingdom, they were interested in the development of National Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVEs) and to learn about best practice and understand similarities and differences. CoVEs are tasked to provide for the development of the skills and careers of those already in work as well as to enhance the employability of those entering the labour market. The aim is to secure enhanced vocational learning opportunities in post-16 learning with an emphasis on post-19 provision, to upskill the workforce and develop work-based learning and to increase proactive employer/college engagement for the development of innovation. Show less

Young people are being prepared for employment through VET [vocational education and training] studies both at school and in TAFE. Students with disabilities are actively encouraged to access VET studies delivered by either provider. Within VET, the 'employability' skills are recognised to be of increasing significance, particularly by employers. 'Learning' is identified as one of these generic skills - that is, students need to acquire the skills for learning, particularly for work. Lifelong learning skills are recognised as essential in preparation for a vocation, and should be addressed within VET in Schools modules. This paper reports on a 5-week overseas study tour to investigate various approaches to developing the 'learning skills' component of generic (employability) skills in young VET students - especially those who have a disability. People who are specialists in equity, integration, diversity, vocational learning in schools/polytechnics/institutes, lifelong learning and generic skills - including students - were interviewed in England, Scotland, Ireland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy and France. The findings of this study, and the resultant recommendations to the NSW Department of Education and Training, will be discussed.

Published abstract.

Available papers from the 8th Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA) Conference, 'Emerging futures: recent, responsive and relevant research', are indexed from TD/TNC 81.564 to TD/TNC 81.610. Show less

Social enterprises deliver significant benefits for disadvantaged or marginalised segments of society that need assistance to transform their social or economic prospects. For individuals they provide meaningful work and skills development and provide a pathway into mainstream employment. In this way they also reduce unemployment in a region and contribute to increased connections and community vitality. From a broader perspective, social enterprises have the potential to grow established businesses and drive inclusive economic growth. The purpose of this Fellowship was to research successful social enterprise programs across the world and identify supports and enablers required to attain similar positive outcomes in the Fellows' community, and apply these learnings to expand the Centre for Participation's social enterprise program, boost engagement and employment, and reinvigorate the Wimmera Southern Mallee.

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Investment in technology in agriculture has driven enormous productivity gains throughout history, with the pace of gain increasing exponentially in the 20th century through mechanisation. A major part of these gains has been the reduction in the number of people required to operate modern farms, which in turn has reduced the proportion of the population in first world countries living in rural areas. Agricultural employers around the first world are now facing serious challenges in attracting people back to these areas to work.

Agricultural technology (agtech) is often seen as a potential solution to some of the labour challenges in agriculture, however this is not entirely accurate. Technology is great at taking over the simple repetitive tasks but often fails at the complex, and by introducing more technology, agricultural businesses can often become more complicated. People looking for permanent jobs in agriculture are more likely to have no tertiary education and lack the skills to operate complex equipment. A comment often repeated overseas was that 'it's difficult to get skilled staff', as opposed to staff. Technology is just a tool, and the return on investment (ROI) into it is entirely dependent on the capacity to operate those tools.

While recruiting skilled staff may be ideal for many farming businesses, there are a limited number of quality people actively looking for jobs. There is a competitive advantage for businesses that can actively train people well, and to do this well there has to be capacity to teach within the business. While it is possible to outsource some aspects, most vocational training systems in Australia - and other western countries - rely on the workplace for the majority of the teaching.

Taking on unskilled trainees does not have to be complicated. It can be as simple as identifying the key attributes required for someone to get to the point where they can work independently for some of the time and then teach those skills. That in turn becomes the foundation for teaching further skills. Along with developing the capacity to teach unskilled employees, increasing the scale of the business if the opportunity presents itself has a major benefit in terms of both improving workforce and applying technology. With greater scale brings greater job specialisation, ability to spread the cost of technology further and reduce the teaching load on any one person.

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Plumbers have always had the responsibility of considering public health in their everyday work practices. With growth in population, the world becoming smaller through easier access to travel, and living in a multicultural world there is a growing need to understand more about managing water safety and security, safe sanitary practices and the prevention of disease spreading through our communities. Today's plumber has to understand the importance of their role in the community. Plumbing training has to stay connected to the global health issues and understand that their practices may affect our community and in turn may affect another community. Plumbing training has to include a high level practical skill, problem solving and critical understanding. Through this Fellowship opportunity, the Fellow investigated the possibility of redesigning plumbing training into an inclusive collaborative training model that will incite learning and increase the plumber's capacity to learn. Traditional plumbing training is extremely skills focussed. With new technologies becoming a major influence in plumbing design there is an even greater need to reconfigure and enhance plumbing training.

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The importance of social and emotional learning (SEL) in vocational education is based on the idea that teaching students to learn and practice social skills will help them in challenging work environments and other areas of their lives. This report investigates the nature of SEL, outlining its research approach, methods used, research findings, and potential application to apprenticeship training both now and in the future. It investigates best practices in SEL in various settings to learn how they can be applied to vocational education and training (VET) programmes in Australia. Based on the research, several main responses are recommended.

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The mission is the third such exchange that has occurred between the Australian Association of Adult and Community Education (AAACE) and Deutscher Volkshochschule-Verband (DVV). Members of the mission were required to produce a report on the adult education sector in Germany, as it relates to: basic skills acquisition for adults; vocational training, especially for re-entry to the workforce; minority groups; cost sharing arrangements between individuals, government and employers. The report outlines, among other aspects, the teaching of migrant, basic and foreign language education, done largely in Germany through the adult education system. The adult education sector also complements vocational education for adults and is a major provider of education for women. Show less

Snakes - the very word is extremely emotive. Everyone has an opinion on these quintessentially Australian reptiles, and sadly it is a mostly negative one, with many myths, legends and misunderstandings. That these attitudes remain today is a great shame both for the snakes themselves that suffer undue persecution, and for individuals who live with unwarranted lifelong anxiety towards them and many other species of Australian native wildlife. However, despite the fact that snakes are something that most Australians are likely to encounter in life sooner or later, either at leisure, around our homes, or in association with the workplace, they remain poorly understood by the average person. Unfortunately few if any Australians receive much meaningful wildlife awareness education. I think this is a great oversight of our education system, particularly as ours is an increasingly urbanized population, detached from daily interactions with nature. We would all benefit from qualified information on the realities of living with our wildlife and understanding its importance in the environment. From a safety perspective we should all know how to react to snakes and other potentially hazardous wildlife and crucially what to do in terms of first aid in case of a snake bite or other envenomation.

Animal Ark Pty Ltd are licensed to deliver Wildlife Educational programs to schools and deliver a Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) endorsed training course for licensing Reptile Removalists in WA. This involves training people to understand snakes and learn safe and effective means of catching, containing and relocating snakes and other reptiles whilst minimizing the risks involved. This license is sought by those wishing to serve as a volunteer within their community and also by people working in rural and remote regions. My application and subsequent reward of a 2012 Churchill Trust Fellowship was inspired by a desire to improve these educational outcomes for all Australians by investigating approaches to and content of snake capture and management, first aid training and general wildlife education programs overseas [in South Africa and Botswana, and in the United States of America in Florida, New Mexico and California].

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This Fellowship enabled the author to complete a course of study 'Decentralised Water supply and Sanitation' at United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO-IHE) Institute for Water Education in Delft, The Netherlands. The knowledge and skills gained from this course were enlightening to the Fellow. The concept of 'closing the loop' in our water and sanitation systems and the compelling reasons for this were cemented in the mind of the Fellow. The plumbing industry is a critical sector if sustainable water supply and sanitation systems are to be advanced and achieved; thus 'closing the loop'. The plumbing industry's ability or inability to keep up with advancements in this sector could mean the difference between new systems installed correctly and maintained properly, enhancing the health of the population and environment; or whereby systems are let down by the people registered and licensed to install and maintain these systems. Plumbing training must improve if it is to equip plumbers with the necessary skills to close the gap.

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