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There are growing expectations that tertiary education graduates will be ready for working life, that is, possessing the capacities to participate effectively in an occupational practice in a specific work situation. Yet, graduates are often unprepared to fulfil this expectation. In response, tertiary education increasingly includes workplace experiences (i.e., practicums, internships, and work placements). It is necessary to understand these experiences' efficacy and their optimisation to promote work-life readiness. Drawing on students' experiences of internships, this paper discusses what constitutes the value of internships in post-secondary diploma courses in Singapore.

A quantitative analysis of interview data identified the contributions afforded through these experiences in workplaces - students' intentional engagement, and their readiness for working life. Central here is how these contributions promote the development of the adaptability required for effective participation in contemporary working life. The analysis identifies challenges including students' adapting to new work environments, navigating workplace practices, and developing occupational capacities. Workplace supervisors' and host educational institutions' support suggests interns' adaptability can be enhanced by promoting the relations between the support they received, on the one hand, and their engagement with challenges during internships, on the other. These findings offer an understanding about the experiences and outcomes of interns' learning through workplaces and offer implications for supporting and augmenting transitions into working life.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

This article reports on a recent study which examined skilled workers’ perceptions about the characteristics of their work, and how they acquired and developed skills. Modes of acquiring vocational skills are varied. Some learners initially acquire their skills in formal learning settings, such as TAFE colleges, others acquire their skills in the workplace, whilst still others enjoy the integration of formal and workplace learning experiences.

In this article a view of learning that values the construction of knowledge through socio-cultural mediation is used to evaluate three common modes of skill acquisition. The significance of the authenticity of learning experiences and engaging learners in a culture of practice is emphasised within this study.

It is suggested that formal pre-employment modes of learning provide substitute experiences which may develop conceptual, procedural and dispositional knowledge that are not readily transferable to vocational practice. It is argued that access to authentic learning experiences be included within formal learning provisions. The on-the-job mode of situated learning which engages the learner in a culture of practice, is highly valued. However, not all work settings or situations are able to provide access to the conditions which maximise this approach to learning. Show less

The aim of this report is to assist with the development and implementation of effective mentoring for workplaces. Its conclusions are drawn from an investigation of the use of guided learning strategies on five workplaces over a six month period, during which period some key principles and practices, which should assist in making workplaces effective learning environments, were identified. The research methodology is described and findings offered. Show less

In 2021, we invited expert vocational voices from the vocational education and training (VET) sector to share their views, stories, experiences and insights on a range of hot topics. This podcast is a roundup of interesting snippets and research findings from across the four podcast episodes released during the year. Full of short and sharp insights from each of our guest speakers, we cover off some of the best bits of Season 6.

Edited abstract from publisher's website. Show less

The study reported here used high school students' paid part-time work experiences to assist them to reflect upon work, working life and post-school pathways. Because many high school students engage in paid part-time work, in any Australian senior school classroom there is a range of experience that can be used to assist students to consider working life and post-school pathways. These experiences are more readily available and authentic than those provided through school-organised work experience programs. In order to understand how the students' experience of paid work might be best engaged, students and teachers in six schools in Victoria and Queensland participated in processes of reflecting on these experiences. Consistently, across all cohorts of students, authentic workplace experiences were identified as assisting a range of educational purposes associated with students' consideration of learning about work, the world of work and to consider post-school options and pathways. Key variables in the likely success of this initiative were the facilitative capacity of teachers, their knowledge and valuing of working life outside schools, and students' capacities and readiness to engage in reflection of their paid work and the resourcing and privileging within the school of vocational education and training (VET) provisions.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner.

Volumes of papers are indexed at TD/TNC 90.212 and TD/TNC 90.213. Selected individual papers are indexed from TD/TNC 90.214 to TD/TNC 90.264. Show less

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate about the relationship between the social and individual as it is enacted in personal learning and the remaking of cultural practices through work. It discusses progress in a two-year study of the work, working lives and learning of 12 individuals: four groups of three employees each. The concept of relational interdependence between individual and social agency is used to understand the progress of their participation, learning and remaking of cultural practices that comprises their work. In identifying and elaborating bases of these interdependencies and their consequences for changes to individuals’ cognitive experience and sense of self and the remaking of cultural practices, four linked and overlapping bases for understanding the processes of interdependencies emerge: (i) reflection and review; (ii) performance roles; (iii) prospects for dialogue and (iv) how conceptions of rewards and recognition are constructed. In different, but distinct, ways these four bases provide a means to elaborate interdependencies at work, thereby providing a platform to analyse processes of individual learning and the remaking of work practices and concepts throughout working life.

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This paper proposes bases for conceptualising a workplace pedagogy. Its central elements include three levels of guided participation at work comprising: everyday participation at work; guided learning for work; and guided learning for transfer. Together, these levels of guidance and the sequenced access to workplace activities represent the superstructure of this pedagogy. However, its foundations are located in the access to activities and guidance the workplace affords. The prospects for learning through guided participation are formed by the support and sponsorship afforded by the workplace, and how workers decide to engage with the workplace. Consequently, the bases of a workplace pedagogy cannot be restricted to the intentional and unintended experiences that learners are afforded through guided learning. It also needs to account for how workplaces invite access to activities and guidance, and also how individuals participate in activities and engage with the guidance that workplaces afford. Together, these bases for learning through work edge us closer to a comprehensive workplace pedagogy.

Published abstract.

The volumes of collected papers are indexed at TD/TNC 64.287, and individual papers are indexed from TD/TNC 64.288 to TD/TNC 64.354. Show less

The provision of vocational education and training (VET) is currently being focused on demand-side needs on order to enhance relevance, quality and efficiency. Until recently, the demand-side was seen to comprise 'industry', the bi-partite spokespersons for enterprises and workers. Now enterprises have become the focus of demand-side needs. However, individual and regional interests also comprise the demand-side and have legitimate needs and interests. The research found some areas of commonality among all clients, areas of commonality between two groups and areas of difference.

Proposed here is a model for determining the need for and the implementation of VET that seeks to reconcile differences and achieve mutuality of interests. An overview of the project is given, the research design and methodology are described, and the findings of the project are presented. Case studies from a provincial centre, a rural region and a metropolitan region are presented in an appendix.

A brief overview of this project and report may be found at TD/TNC 61.11. Show less

This book discusses how policies and practices supporting post-school transitions are formulated by and enacted in education systems and schools. It outlines how students, parents, and others in the community engage in these policies. It does this by drawing upon accounts from a range of countries with advanced industrial economies where the expectations for successful transitions are increasingly being aligned to individual, community, and national economic well-being. In countries such as Britain, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, and the United States, social and economic changes are heightening the importance of young peoples’ transitions from secondary schooling to post-school life in contemporary times. Such transitions now involve negotiations of diverse and sometimes complex educational and work-related pathways.

Excerpt from publication.

The chapters are as follows: Part one, ‘School transitions: overview, policy orientations and theorisations’, contains: Experiences of school transitions: policies, practice and participants / Stephen Billett and Greer Johnson; Reconciling the system world with the life worlds of young adults: where next for youth transition policies? / Karen Evans; Bridging school and work: a person-in-context model for enabling resilience in at-risk youth / Christopher DeLuca, Nancy L. Hutchinson, Joan Versnel, Jennifer Dods, and Peter Chin; Part two, ‘Imperatives for and practices of transitions: international perspectives’, contains: The American shortcut to VET: global policy borrowing for the post-16 educational arena / Richard D. Lakes and Antje Barabasch; Access, coping and relevance of education in youth transitions: the German transition system between labour society and knowledge society / Andreas Walther; Making the transition to post-school life: the Canadian situation / Wolfgang Lehmann; School-to-work transitions in apprenticeship-based VET systems: the Swiss approach / Barbara E. Stalder; Governing schooling, people and practices: Australian policies on transitions / Sue Thomas and Stephen Hay; Part three, ‘Experiences of schooling: contemporary practices and experiences’, contains: Researching transition experiences in Australian senior schooling / Jill Ryan, Greer Johnson, and Stephen Billett; Excluded from the game: a case study of transitions for non-tertiary-bound students in a Queensland private school; Pathways and choice: transitions at Sunny Beach College / Sue Thomas and Jill Ryan; A critical focus on family-school-community partnerships: St Jude’s Secondary College transition program for ‘at-risk’ students / Greer Johnson and Stephen Billett; The impact of interrupted schooling: recent school leavers’ accounts of transitions / Esther Beltermann, Jill Ryan, and Stephen Billett; The translation of transitions policies into school enactment / Cheryl Sim, Stephen Hay, Greer Johnson, and Sue Thomas. Show less

This publication contains the transcripts of interviews conducted as part of the project, which was funded by the Training Initiatives Branch of the Office of Vocational Education Training and Employment Commission (VETEC), Queensland. The project was an evaluation of three modes of vocational skill development currently being used in Queensland. These modes are: the Formal pre-employment; Integrated; and On-the-job modes. The project provided some broad guidelines for use in the design, implementation and evaluation of these modes of skill acquisition. See also the project report at TD/TNC 46.21. Show less