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Professor Maglen is the Foundation Chair, Department of Vocational Education and Training, University of Melbourne. In this lecture, he traces some of the paths taken by universities and by vocational education and training which contributed to the creation of this Chair. Emphasised are the fundamental relationships between the two sectors, which will provide the challenges and opportunities for his appointment. Prof. Maglen attempts to define ‘VET’ (including the ‘pointless distinction between education and training’), to describe the scope of VET, to identify VET’s student client group and its stakeholders, and to identify its resource base. He also describes the university as a provider of VET by showing the links between the university and other VET providers and by discussing research possibilities. This address was given on 19 September, 1996. Show less

This article aims to provide students with a brief introduction to and an overview of the way in which economists assess the importance of education and training in the Australian economy, and of how the allocation of resources to education and training can be evaluated. Show less

The Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA) is a new, national, stand-alone association of vocational education and training (VET) researchers. Its creation was supported at the last Australian National Training Authority Research Advisory Council (ANTARAC) conference (November 1996), and its aims are to promote a network of professional VET researchers. Its official journal will be the ‘Australian and New Zealand journal of vocational education research’. The author is the interim President.

This article is a call for foundation members. Included are a membership application form and a list of member entitlements. Show less

This paper aims to provide a brief introduction to and an overview of the way in which economists assess the importance of education and training in the Australian economy, and of how the allocation of resources to education and training can be assessed. Show less

This paper was delivered as the keynote address at the 'Science, mathematics and technical education for development international seminar', Universiti Brunei, 20 June-2 July 1998. The paper concentrates on the linkages between education and training and the economic growth and development process, and how education and training are seen by economists to contribute to the economic growth and training process. Four major themes are identified and amplified: the role of education and training in the transition from a traditional to a modern wage-based economy; the idea of human capital formation; stages of economic growth and development; and globalisation and rapid technological change. Show less

At the time of this article dramatic changes had occurred in the full time full year workforce in Australia during the two to three decades prior. Many of these changes were charted and showed that relative to population growth there had been a drop in full time employment between the mid 1960s and the beginning of the 1990s. However, whilst full time employment opportunities for females more or less kept pace with the increase in the population, those for males fell by 25 per cent. There were also dramatic compositional changes in full time employment with university graduates taking the lion's share of the expansion of employment over this period. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact these changes have had upon the private rates of return on university degrees.

Edited excerpts from publication reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

This paper was prepared for the International Conference of UNESCO-ACEID Educational Innovation for Sustainable Development, 1-4 December 1997, Bangkok Thailand. It gives an overview of Australia's vocational education and training assistance to South East Asia and the Pacific and makes a preliminary assessment of the largest ongoing program which is being undertaken in Indonesia. It brings together data collected from AusAID records and draws on the views of some of those who have participated in program delivery. Show less

The research program initiated and led by Sigmund Prais was designed to test the relationship between vocational education and enterprise productivity, where the latter is taken to mean units of output per time period per worker employed, the hypothesis being that initial, pre-employment vocational education is a major contributor to enterprise productivity, since it raises the skills of workers, and these are applied through more effective work practices. This working paper evaluates the Prais study, which focused on Great Britain and Germany, and looks at its implications for Australia. Show less

This discussion paper seeks to raise awareness within the Australian vocational education and training (VET) system, of project-based assistance given to less developed countries in South East Asia and the Pacific Region (SEAP) in developing technical and vocational education (TVE) systems. The paper begins with general information on TVE and the training assistance that is given to developing countries. This is followed by an examination of Australia's aid program and an explanation of the underlying economic and educational assumptions of the program. An overview of the bilateral aid program provides detailed narratives of five country programs (Indonesia, The Philippines, The Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Western Samoa). These narratives outline project activity and analyse underpinning philosophies and educational and economic models and assumptions. The issues and challenges common to the various projects are explored. The final section deals with the effectiveness and sustainability of the program and possible future directions. Show less

In the past decade the Australian economy has been increasingly subjected to the forces of globalisation and other macro and micro structural reforms. This paper attempts to document the effect of these changes on the occupational pattern of employment. Official classification codes frequently fail to capture new and emerging patterns especially in times of rapid change. The paper also reports on a study to develop a new paradigm to classify occupations. The results of the study raise a number of questions about the role that education and training will play if these trends continue. Show less