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This project investigated the factors influencing how TAFE teachers and industry assessors make assessment judgements as a key to understanding how to support TAFE teaching practice. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with teachers and industry assessors. They were subjected to reflective and critical analysis within a philosophical framework to develop hypotheses on the nature of assessment judgements. The informants were drawn from Victorian TAFE institutes and private providers, regional and metropolitan locations and seven different industry sectors.

The framework for the data analysis is established in the literature review which critically explores three sets of literature. The first of these is the literature that examines the policy context for the Australian vocational education and training sector through the 1990s to the present day. The second set of literature focuses on the work of TAFE teachers. In particular it considers the impact of competency based training and assessment on their work. The final body of literature looks at competency based education and the discourse of judgement. The data analysis is presented as a series of themes interspersed with the participants' anecdotes and perceptions. The strength of the analysis is revealed in words of the participants. The findings from the data analysis are compared with the work of several researchers into judgement including: Aristotle, Ryle, Geach, Polanyi, Richard Smith, Paul Hager and David Beckett. It is clear that assessment judgements are a special case of professional judgement. This leads to the development of a model that represents the characteristics of good assessment judgements. It emphasises the significance of assessment judgements as central acts of practice in the professional lives of teachers and assessors. The characteristics of good assessment judgements are in summary: preparedness, collegiality, attentiveness to rules, seriousness of purpose, resolution of predicaments and obligations and exercise of pragmatism.

In the last two chapters of the thesis this model is used to investigate two important current issues in the Australian vocational education and training sector: (1) the introduction of the Australian Quality Training Framework (AQTF), and (2) the professional development of TAFE teachers. The research project data suggest that audit-based approaches to quality such as the AQTF are problematic. Instead, they indicate that a focus on building teacher professionalism through networks and 'communities of judgement' is a more effective means of assuring quality. The concept of community of judgement is derived from the work of Wenger et al. on communities of practice. In addition there is reference to Eraut's and Schon's work on professionalism. The final chapter refers back to the policy context described in the literature review. It examines the barriers to forming effective communities of judgement in the Victorian TAFE system. This final chapter concludes with a discussion of recommendations for improving the quality of vocational education through strategies such as building communities of judgement. These recommendations meld the model for communities of judgement developed from this project with principles for cultivating communities of practice developed by Wenger et al.

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This paper is one of a series of policy discussion papers presented by the LH Martin Institute. The aim is to contribute to the debate the Institute sees as necessary to reform and invigorate the tertiary education sector, in particular vocational education and TAFE. The series covers a range of topical issues, from policy settings, governance, funding, competency based training, social inequality and training markets.

The crisis in Australian vocational education is more than a funding, marketisation or system design issue: it is a question of the fitness of our vocational education model for our times. In the context of revolutionary digital technologies, continued globalisation, population ageing and changes to work patterns such as the emergence of the gig and post-work economies, we are failing to repurpose our vocational education resources to develop the twenty-first century capabilities needed by individuals, communities and industries. This paper starts with history, looking at how late twentieth-century vocational education revolution and counter-revolution trapped Australia's vocational education sector in a pre-digital time warp. The discussion will go on to reflect on promising concepts of vocational education emerging in some other countries as they grapple with twenty-first century challenges: what we can we learn from them and from our own experience. Finally, we will reimagine vocational education in Australia as it could be to increase inclusivity, innovation and prosperity.

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Several studies into the response of Australian teachers in the vocational education and training (VET) sector to the implementation of competency-based education (CBE), have identified the role of judgement in competency-based assessment as a source of confusion and distress for assessors. This article explores the role of judgement from a philosophical perspective drawing on the work of Ryle, Geach and Polanyi. It is seen that judgement plays a pivotal role in all learning and assessment. The large component of tacit knowledge and judgement associated with vocational education requires high levels of vocational and educational expertise on the part of assessors. The implications of this for professional development of VET teachers are discussed briefly. The model of CBE that emerges from this article emphasises the exchange of tacit knowledge and the exercise of tacit judgement in learning. This model throws new light on many of the old debates in CBE and training and these are discussed. [A similar paper by the author on this topic is indexed at TD/TNC 51.67].

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This paper is the plan for an interactive workshop on issues surrounding the theoretical basis of competency based education, its impact on the work of vocational educators, and their preparedness or otherwise to work with this curriculum methodology. Show less

This paper is one of a series of policy discussion papers presented by the LH Martin Institute. The aim is to contribute to the debate the Institute sees as necessary to reform and invigorate the tertiary education sector, in particular vocational education and TAFE. The series covers a range of topical issues, from policy settings, governance, funding, competency based training, social inequality and training markets.

The range of qualifications undertaken by vocational education teachers and the impact of these on the quality of teaching and learning in the sector have been contested amongst vocational educators, teacher unions, teacher educators, government, industry and other stakeholders for over fifty years. In this paper, the authors look at history to understand what research, enquiries and audits during the Certificate IV level qualification era and before can tell us about the formal qualification needs of vocational education teachers. We will then go on to discuss the future: what formal qualifications could better support the initial and continuing education of VET teachers; who should deliver them and how. Towards the end of the paper we look briefly at higher level qualifications, their architectures and roles before drawing some conclusions and posing some ways forward to address the challenges facing the effective initial and ongoing education and training of VET teachers. Finally, although this paper concentrates on formal qualifications, we acknowledge that other and less formal forms of professional development make very important contributions to the improvement of VET practice.

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This presentation will discuss a 2014/15 Auto Skills Australia (ASA) commissioned project which investigated how to increase the participation of women in automotive trades occupations. The ASA study included interviews with 87 industry participants (43 tradeswomen and female apprentices, 44 employers). The research team took a novel approach using a socio-ecological model to investigate, analyse and understand the experiences and perceptions of female tradeswomen and employers. These models are mainly used in the health sector but have also been used by a number of researchers internationally to look at occupational preferences.

Socio-ecological models consider that complex problems such as changing female participation in traditionally male occupations depend on multiple layers of nested and intersecting factors: individual attitudes, capabilities; immediate relationships with family, friends, school teachers, employers and work colleagues that affect young women's decisions to choose and stay in a trades career; community level factors that influence the experiences women have with trades such as workplace organisation and employment conditions; societal factors that have a pervasive influence on the female trades experience such as rigid beliefs about gender and work.

This approach produced new understandings of the female tradeswoman and employer experience and evidence leading to suggestions for a range of new approaches to increasing female participation in traditionally male trades. For this particular industry the key outcomes from the research included: development of a profile of the attributes of young women likely to choose and succeed in one traditionally male trade; an understanding of the factors that attract women to automotive trades occupations; identification of the value that employers who employ tradeswomen recognise that these women add to their businesses; an understanding of employer and co-workers attributes and behaviours that facilitate the participation of women in trades; identification of the [registered training organisation] RTO attributes that facilitate successful female apprenticeships; strategies for transforming traditionally male trades based workplaces into workplaces that welcome female tradespeople; recommendations for a comprehensive approach to increasing female recruitment and retention based on analysis using the socio-ecological model, a site-saturation approach. This year [the presenters] hope to apply this approach to a broader range of non-traditional trades, including licensed, building and engineering trades.

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This report examines higher level vocational education and training (VET) qualifications. In the aftermath of the Bradley Review [of higher education in Australia], the boundaries between the educational sectors have been blurred somewhat. New types of higher level qualifications have emerged such as associate degrees and vocational graduate diplomas. The authors examine the purpose of higher level VET qualifications and examine if these qualifications will be fit for their purpose in the tertiary education and labour markets of the future. The report examines higher level qualifications in the light of preparing graduates for work or further learning, certifying existing knowledge and skills and as a pathway to traditional higher education. Show less

This report presents a framework and some recommendations for the design of higher level qualifications for vocational education and training (VET) educators. The authors contend that it is timely for the Skills Council to be considering the future of the Diploma of Training and Assessment, as well as new higher level VET teaching qualifications. The authors reviewed current literature as well as conducting interviews and focus groups. Many of the participants felt that VET teaching is highly skilled and that VET educators require the same level of qualifications as educators in other educational sectors. Participants also identified some barriers to higher level qualifications including the cost of gaining further qualifications. The report concludes with some general recommendations as well as some specific recommendations for [Innovation and Business Skills Australia] IBSA. Show less

The fundamental purpose of this study was to gain more understanding about adult learners' digital communication practices and implications for adult literacy programs. Four research questions framed the project: (1) What is the relationship between literacy practices and the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in adult literacy education? (2) What are the new literacies required for effective and critical use of ICTs in adult literacy education? (3) What changes to pedagogical practices are associated with the use of ICTs in adult literacy programs? and (4) What are the professional development needs of educators when ICTs are used for teaching and learning in adult literacy programs? To investigate the questions, a qualitative case study methodology was chosen. Five sites were selected to represent a range of adult literacy programs across three states. The study concluded that there was sufficient coherence across the case study sites to make a case for curriculum, pedagogical and program reform. One important dimension of such reform might be to invoke a new understanding of the task at hand. Instead of alleviating disadvantages with print literacy skill, thereby provoking concern among learners about social stigma in relation to their literacy levels, it might be more effective to conceive of the enterprise as 'communication effectiveness' education, in which ICTs play an integrated and important part. Show less

This report suggests a new approach to increasing the participation of women in electrical and other traditionally male trades. It is based on a fresh look at the relevant literature, previous commissioned research work by the research team and on our recent study into the participation of women in electrical and electrotechnology trades. Over the last three years Victoria University's Work-based Education Research team has undertaken a series of studies into the recruitment and retention of women in traditionally male trades such as automotive and electrical. In our most recent research we investigated the experiences of tradeswomen and female apprentices in the electrical and electrotechnology industry. Stakeholders in this industry including tradeswomen's networks, employers, unions, other industry organisations, have initiated actions to increase the participation of women in electrical trades. Despite these efforts, the number of women in training for electrical trades has not risen above two per cent in the last ten years. The purpose of our work is to assist industry stakeholders to increase the participation of women in electrical trades roles and, potentially, to develop a knowledge base that other industries seeking to decrease occupational gender segregation may use.

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