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This article critiques some assumptions shaping the current discourse on workplace learning. It proposes that these assumptions restrict how workplace learning is conceptualised and discussed. Principally, describing workplace learning environments and experiences as ‘informal’ and that ‘informal learning’ occurs in workplaces constrains understanding about how learning occurs through work and, consequently, the development of a workplace pedagogy. As with educational institutions, in workplaces there are intentions for work practice, structured goal-directed activities that are central to organisational continuity, and interactions and judgements about performance that are also shaped to those ends. Therefore, describing learning through work as being ‘informal’ is incorrect. Instead, the structuring of workplace activities has dimensions associated with learning directed for the continuity of the practice, which also often has inherently pedagogical qualities. Moreover, the unqualified description of learning environments as being either ‘formal’ or ‘informal’ suggests a situational determinism. Instead, learning is proposed as being interdependent between the individual and the social practice. The core tension in this relationship is that between those needs for the continuity of the work practice and individuals’ needs to realise their personal or vocational goals. It is proposed that considerations of learning, learning in workplaces and the development of a workplace pedagogy need conceptualising in terms of participatory practices.

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Australian technical and further education (TAFE) institutes are perhaps the most heterogeneous of the nation’s education sectors. However, TAFE institutes’ capacity to provide inclusive education is constrained by their curriculum focus and pedagogical practices and culturally premised assumptions that may inhibit learning for students from diverse cultural backgrounds and life experiences. This paper reports from a study that investigated the experiences of learning for African students from refugee backgrounds in TAFE institutes. Adopting phenomenological methodology, the study illuminates ways in which the students’ earlier and current experiences shape their learning at TAFE institutes. The findings indicate that, while greatly appreciating being in a safe environment, African students from refugee backgrounds nevertheless experience racial discrimination and social exclusion as they resettle in Australia. Also, the pedagogical practices at TAFE institutes do not always recognise or accommodate the students’ socio-cultural backgrounds and refugee life experiences. In all, the ‘experienced curriculum’ created unhelpful dissonances for these students. Consequently, the paper argues that in order to benefit more fully from their educational experiences in TAFE and also to effectively engage more in the wider Australian society activities, including employment, these students require particular interventions from these institutes and those who teach in them. It is proposed that a social inclusive transformative learning approach intervention is required for African students from refugee backgrounds to attain meaningful educational outcomes in TAFE institutes.

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The need for vocational education to respond to demand-side factors has become a key policy goal for vocational education in Australia. However, what comprises the demand side has not been critically appraised. Assumptions that only industry and enterprises comprise the demand side are questioned by the legitimate claims for inclusion by regions and individuals. Taking this more inclusive definition of the demand side of vocational education, the outcomes of a study that investigated the changing relationship between industry and enterprises are reported. It also mapped the needs of the four client groups. Identified are both commonality and difference in these needs, some of which are not readily reconcilable within an enterprise or industry-led vocational education system. Means for reconciling the needs of the client groups within curriculum development are discussed, as are some supply-side considerations.

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This report tackles a vexed and complex area. The alignment of research with policy and practice has been the subject of much debate, but few generally-accepted conclusions are reached. Vocational education and training (VET) is an area of particular complexity because of the multitude of stakeholders in its arena of activity. The report adds some insights to the debate, based on extensive fieldwork which includes a range of methods. Alongside its intellectual contribution the report offers some practical tools for evaluating the worth of research and suggests the types of evidence that might be considered in making such judgements. Key points include: (1) most VET research in Australia is government funded and therefore identified in publicly available statistics; (2) there is a range of interest-holders in VET who have particular perspectives about what constitutes worthwhile research and specific premises for how the worth of an individual piece of research, a research publication or a body of research might be appraised; (3) nine premises upon which the worth of research can be appraised were identified; (4) in educational research generally, and therefore in VET, there will be ongoing tension between the concern of some researchers to qualify and nuance their findings and the needs of those end users who want clear application and unambiguous measures of benefits (5) while single pieces of research can be significant in themselves, there is general acceptance that building up a body of knowledge over time can have an impact on both policy and practice; (6) overall, some of the most influential impact factors appear to be timeliness, applicability, accessibility, credibility, dissemination and availability; and (7) directly aligning research, policy and practice is difficult to achieve, but there are signs that at least small collaborations might be possible.

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This final chapter serves as a summary of the different approaches to deal with the potentials and challenges of digitization in different areas of education, learning and training. The author argues that changes in occupational and workplace requirements as well as in working life in the era of digitization prompt a reappraisal of the goals and processes of vocational education. These changes include (1) addressing the specific requirements of workplaces and developing occupational competence, and (2) learning knowledge that is difficult to directly experience (e.g. digital knowledge) required for what is often referred to as knowledge work. The author stresses that there is a need for vocational education and training to respond to this challenge. This includes preparing students to become active and intentional learners for their initial preparation and ongoing development across working life.

The author proposes some ways forward by adopting curriculum and pedagogic practices aligned with achieving these kinds of outcomes. This includes considerations of what constitutes effective educational experiences (within both educational institutions and workplaces), ordering and reconciling these two sets of experiences, the use of educational interventions to secure these kinds of capacities within vocational education, including digitized knowledge. This requires accounting for what constitutes existing and emerging occupational and workplace performance requirements and aligning these with the kinds of curriculum and pedagogic practices that vocational education institutions and educators need to advance in an era of digitization.

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The book from which this chapter is taken is available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 143.278. Show less

This book offers a range of emergent perspectives about learning through and for work. The common focus among these perspectives is to understand how individuals engage in and learn through their work. This includes how they learn about, manage and respond to change in their work and develop approaches and responses to learning in, through and for their working lives. In presenting and discussing these approaches and issues, the book comprises a series of chapters of original research representing emerging and contemporary perspectives on learning through and for work, enacting effective work practices and learning throughout working life, and for different kinds of work and work life contexts. The chapters are: Emerging perspectives on workplace learning / Stephen Billett; Field-specific educational practices as a source for students' vocational identity formation / Anne Virtanen, Paivi Tynjala and Marja-Leena Stenstrom; Negotiating professional identity / Katja Vahantanen and Stephen Billett; Teacher educators; workplace learning / Paivi Hokka, Helena Rasku-Puttonen and Anneli Etelapelto; Women auxiliary workers' learning and discoverning 'self' through work / Jillian Cavanagh; Farm women learning to become and belong: Jan Allan; Promoting professional subjectivities and personal agency at work / Salme Hanninen and Anneli Etelapelto; Conceptualisation of learning through errors at work / Johannes Bauer and Regina H. Mulder; Reflection and professional competence / Martin Gartmeier, Stefanie Kipfmueller, Helmut Heid and Hans Gruber; Leadership development / Sarojni Choy and Brian Delahaye; Supporting experience sharing as participatory workplace practice / Kaija Collin and Susanna Paloniemi; Developing conceptual knowledge in road transport through guided learning / Jason Lewis; Negotiating engagement / Ray Smith; Conditions of work environments in fostering transfer of training / Dagmar Festner and Hans Gruber; Perspectives, prospects and progress in work-related learning / Anneli Etelapelto. Show less

The decisions that young people make about post-school pathways are becoming increasingly important because of implications for: (i) personal educational and employment trajectories and goals, (ii) allocation of educational resources, and (iii) meeting a range of community needs associated with the development of occupational capacities. Indeed, there is a growing and global concern that young people are disproportionately participating in higher education which comes at a cost to the level of participation in vocational education and the occupations it serves. This trend indicates a shift in young people's aspirations and their preference for post-school pathways. However, there are implications and outcomes arising from this decision-making, leading to calls in many countries to redress this shift in post-school preferences. There are distinct implications both for young people who have identified a preferred occupation and those who remain undecided about them and the consequences for post-school pathways. Yet, without an elaboration of the societal factors and personal practices shaping and influencing that decision-making, it is difficult to know how to redress that situation.

This review examines recent literature addressing the factors and practices shaping young people's decision-making about those pathways. It identifies a complex intertwining of societal (i.e., institutional) and personal factors shaping this decision-making. Although societal factors (e.g., [socioeconomic status] SES, location, gender) play important roles in this decision-making, it appears that the practices of parents, teachers and familiars are salient in this decision-making and, therefore, efforts to redress this issue. These findings suggest such practices need to be mediated by enhancing what is suggested by societal institutions (e.g., schools, government), familiars (teachers, parents) and more fully informing young people's decision-making.

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Increasing enterprises’ expenditure on their employees’ vocational education and training (VET) is of concern for governments in many countries. This article identifies and discusses policy goals for increased enterprise expenditure on VET and elaborates options for achieving these goals. Throughout, measures that attempt to mandate and regulate enterprises’ responses are contrasted with those attempting to address and change the sentiments - beliefs about and values of - decision makers within enterprises about the worth of skill development. Given that decisions about expenditure will largely be made within enterprises, ultimately the governmental goals for enhanced expenditure may only be met through the development of a sentiment within enterprises that favours this expenditure. Therefore, policy planning and enactment might be best directed to that purpose.

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Understanding how mature age workers come to engage with training programs has become increasingly important in sustaining their employability across lengthening working lives. This paper reports the responses to an online survey of a sample of mostly white-collar mature-age workers (45+) about their experiences in undertaking accredited work-related training in Australia. It presents and discusses their motivations for undertaking further education and training and their perceptions of its relevance to their work and of the efficacy of the teaching and learning processes. The paper concludes by identifying the implications for educational institutions and training organisations.

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This paper draws on the findings of three studies of workplace learning conducted in Queensland in order to examine both the potential and limits of the informal learning processes by which skilful vocational knowledge is transmitted in workplace learning arrangements such as apprenticeships. The studies emphasise the importance of the social and cultural context of such skills learning. Show less