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Maintaining and improving the capacity to be effective in work is held now to become an important social goal in order to maintain, individual, local and national well-being, including standard of living (Organisation of Economic and Cultural Development [OECD], 1996). Yet, without knowing more about how individuals are able to engage in work and learn through that work, and are motivated to continue to learn, there can be no certainty about whether the expectations upon individuals are realistic. This paper reports the initial findings of an investigation that aims to understand something of these relations through understanding the working lives of five individuals. It aims to explore these individuals’ working lives including how they exercised their agency ethically at work. In doing so, it aims to identify how this agency is shaped by individuals’ identity and subjectivity, and how these shape their participation in, and learning through, work.

Published abstract reprinted by the permission of the copyright owner.

The volumes from which this paper is taken are indexed from TD/TNC 77.351 to TD/TNC 77.353. Individual papers are indexed from TD/TNC 77.354 to TD/TNC 77.437. Show less

This project investigated the principles and practices underpinning the effective operation of social partnerships. The aim was to identify those principles and practices most beneficial in social partnerships supporting vocational education and training (VET). The project builds on prior research into social partnerships by examining the processes involved in social partnerships. The specific aims of this project were to investigate: the key principles and practices that underpin the formation, development and maintenance of the social practices effective in assisting localised decision-making and capacity-building; the effective enactment of these principles and practices as shaped in different ways across these social practices; and the ways in which these principles and practices are associated with establishing and developing social partnerships robust enough to manage changing circumstances, tasks and goals. This project is phase one of a two-phase project. Phase two will investigate the application of these principles and practices to VET in specific regions. The project involved reviewing 10 social partnerships in Queensland and Victoria during 2005-06, specifically those which had shown some history of operation and success. This review process aimed to: understand their formation, development and progress; determine internal and external factors influencing their formation and development; and identify principles and practices that have sustained these social partnerships and their partnership work over time. Data were collected from these 10 partnerships through interviews with up to three key informants in each, and focused on specific events in the development of the partnership in order to identify factors that either contributed to the development of, or served to undermine the partnership and partnership work. Three kinds of partnerships were identified: enacted partnerships; community partnerships; and negotiated partnerships. Analysis of the data indicated that these three kinds of partnerships may not be helpful in categorising social partnerships in their early or subsequent development, but their quite different bases need to be considered in the context of their initial formation, depending on the direction or initiation of the partnership project. The data show that social partnerships are established and maintained because participants engage in partnership work which is identified as the interactive and collaborative process of working together to identify, negotiate and articulate goals, and to develop processes for realising and reviewing those goals. The findings of this first phase of the research project have been used to identify and elaborate further the character of social partnerships and the work necessary for establishing and maintaining them. A key finding is that this is complex work, demanding significant skills in cross-cultural and interpersonal communication. Further findings cover the identification of different types of social partnerships; the central role of partnership work in the development and continuity of social partnerships; the principles and practices associated with partnerships and their development; and the types of partnership work. Show less

This bulletin summarises the findings of a research project on how to improve the status of vocational education and training (VET) so that it can be viewed a more worthwhile and viable post-school option by both young people and those who influence their decision-making about post-school pathways. The relatively low status of VET and the occupations it serves is a significant impediment for realising VET's economic and employment goals. This status influences young people and parents' decision-making about post-school pathways, and government, community and employer support. In an era of high aspiration, VET is often seen as an option only for those unable to secure university entry. This perception can lead to mismatches amongst the kinds of skills young people are learning and employment opportunities, with what employers seek in employees, and potentially lengthy and sometimes unproductive tertiary education experiences.

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Global concerns about the growing impact of ageing populations on workplace productivity and on welfare budgets have led to a range of government-supported measures intended to retain and upskill older workers. Yet, a consistent theme in the research literature is that older workers are reluctant and harder to train than younger workers, and that, regardless, employers are ambivalent about supporting such training. However, a survey of over 250 mature-age workers in mainly professional and administrative (i.e. 'white collar') roles identified strong interest and belief in their capacity to engage in learning required to maintain their employability, and that their employers are often supportive of their ongoing education and training. The data also indicate that these workers found personal worth in their work, felt respected and acknowledged by co-workers, and wanted to contribute more fully to their workplaces. These findings not only contradict what is consistently reported elsewhere, but suggest that age per se may not be the factor that shapes perceptions of older workers' employability, but the kinds of employment and level of education held by older workers. Therefore, extending the working lives of these valued 'white collar' workers might need to be realised through continuing to provide them with opportunities for rich work and further development to sustain their capacities and interest in contributing to their work and workplaces.

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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 volume considers, rethinks and reorganizes how support for learning across working life can be best conceptualized, organized and enacted. It considers educational and learning support processes that include approaches that fit well within working lives and workplaces, and support work and learning as a co-occurrence. These are the key focuses for individual and collective contributions to this edited volume, which provide discussions about what constitutes learning across working lives and how this differs from lifelong learning and lifelong education. Accounts of learning across the working lives of social workers, doctors working in hospitals and in general practice, teaching, aviation, nursing, mining, aged care amongst others. These accounts advance a range of ways in which workers' learning across working lives is being supported and how this support is also linked to other changes, such as to the occupational practice in which they engage. The book comprises four parts: (1) supporting learning across working life; (2) models, processes and practices for supporting lengthening working lives internationally; (3) towards a national model of continuing education and training: an Australian case study; and (4) learning across working life.

Edited excerpts from publisher's website and publication.

The chapters are as follows: Part one, 'Supporting learning across working life', contains the chapter: Conceptualizing learning across working life, provisions of support and purposes / Stephen Billett and Steven Hodge. Part two, 'Models, processes and practices for supporting lengthening working lives internationally', contains: Employee strategies for organising professional development / Rob R. Poell and Ferd J. Van Der Krogt; Learning to work together through talk: continuing professional development in medicine / Walter Eppich, Jan-Joost Rethans, Pim W. Teunissen, and Tim Dornan; Organizing for deliberate practice through workplace reflection / Gunilla Avby; A sociocultural model for mid-career post-secondary teacher professional learning / Annique Boelryk and Cheryl Amundsen; Driving forces of welfare innovation: explaining interrelations between innovation and professional development / Charlotte Wegener; On nurses' learning from errors at work / Johannes Bauer, Veronika Leicher, and Regina H. Mulder; Sustaining and transforming the practice of communities: developing professionals' working practices / Christy Noble and Stephen Billett; Models for and practice of continuous professional development for airline pilots: what we can learn from one regional airline / Timothy J. Mavin; Learning at the frontier: the experiences of single-handed general practitioners / Peter Cantillon.

Part three, 'Towards a national model of continuing education and training: an Australian case study', contains: Continuing education and training: needs, models and approaches / Sarojni Choy, Stephen Billett, and Darryl Dymock; Workers' perspectives and preferences for learning across working life / Raymond Smith and Ann Kelly; The critial role of workplace managers in continuing education and training / Mark Tyler, Darryl Dymock, and Amanda Henderson; Towards a national continuing education and training system / Sarojni Choy and Raymond Smith. Part four, 'Learning across working life', contains the chapter: Conceptions, purposes and processes of ongoing learning across working life / Stephen Billett, Darryl Dymock, and Sarojni Choy. Show less

In this article, the author proposes bases for a workplace pedagogy. Workplaces afford opportunities for vocational learning through engagement in everyday work tasks, direct guidance, e.g. interactions with work colleagues, and indirect guidance, e.g. observing and listening in the workplace. However, the quality of learning through these activities ultimately relies on the workplace’s participatory practices. These practices determine the shape and distribution of the activities and support the workplace affordances available to workers from which they learn. These workplace affordances are underpinned by situational and political processes. Participatory practices are reciprocally constructed because individuals make their own decisions about how to engage in and learn from what workplaces afford them. The author proposes that a workplace pedagogy is instituted in these coparticipatory practices and needs to consider how workplaces encourage access to activities and guidance and how the workers themselves choose to participate in what the workplace affords them. Show less

This paper presents a detailed analysis of the changing relationships between Vocational Education and Training (VET) authorities and their clients (industry, enterprises, regions and individuals). It is suggested that the interests of some client groups are likely to conflict with wider national economic strategies as the prescriptive, regulatory practices based on a broad industry strategy are replaced by a decentralised model. For example the exigencies of short term enterprise level planning might contradict long term industry level strategy. On the other hand it is argued that the process of individuals furthering their personal goals, by its very nature, tends to contribute to the national investment in intellectual capital. The paper attempts to define a state of maturity in a VET system on the basis of the degree of mutual responsibility that exists between the various client groups and concludes with suggestions as to how the different groups might act to bring about this state of mutuality.

The volume of collected proceedings is indexed at TD/TNC 57.76; individual papers are indexed from TD/TNC 57.77 to TD/TNC 57.122. 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

As part of a three-year program of research, the authors are investigating how the training system might be more effective in providing continuing education and training across workers’ lives, since the tertiary education and training sector is currently geared to entry-level training; that is, getting young people ready to enter the labour market. This working paper sets the scene for the next stage of research. It provides a description of current models of education and training which offer a framework for understanding the continuing learning needs of Australian workers. Show less