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Known as the Karmel Report and tabled in 1973, this report greatly influenced how schools in Australia were funded. On 12 December 1972 the newly elected Whitlam government appointed an Interim Committee for the Australian Schools Commission. Chaired by Peter Henry Karmel, the Committee was to examine the position of government and non-government primary and secondary schools throughout Australia and to make recommendations on the financial needs of those schools, and the measures to assist in meeting them. The report identified many inequities in the funding system, which for the first time led to the federal government providing funding to state schools. The Interim Committee consisted of Peter Karmel (Chairman), Jean Blackburn (Deputy Chairman), Greg Hancock, Edward T. Jackson, A. W. Jones, F. M. Martin, Peter Tannock, M. E . Thomas, Alice Whitley, and Wilfred A. White. The report was also issued as Parliamentary paper no. 55 of 1973.

Edited excerpt from Australian Policy Online website. Show less

Collecting data and information on labour market needs and skills trends is not sufficient to design and sustain responsive and efficient vocational education and training (VET) programmes and skills formation systems. Economies and societies need robust skill anticipation methods and trusted skills intelligence to translate data into actionable insights that support the skills revolution. This policy brief reviews trends in skills anticipation in Europe and explains how it contributes to more learning and better matching. It builds on Cedefop's monitoring of national skills anticipation systems and practices in the EU-27, Norway and Iceland and input from Cedefop's ReferNet partners.

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Over recent decades, online job portals have become important recruitment and job search tools. Beyond assisting skills matching, the job vacancies these portals gather can also be used to analyse labour market trends in real time, generating evidence that can inform education and training policies and help ensure that people's skills meet the needs of rapidly changing workplaces. These insights can complement skills intelligence based on information collected via traditional methods, such as Cedefop's Europe-wide skills forecasts, the European skills and jobs survey, and the European skills index. This booklet outlines the main features of online job vacancies and the key characteristics of Cedefop's new system to collect and analyse them. It accompanies the first release of results based on the collection and analysis of online job vacancies in seven EU Member States.

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Adult and community education (ACE) organisations are not for profit providers of accessible learning opportunities for adults. ACE also offers vital links across educational settings, workplaces and communities. This scan profiles the ACE sector in terms of its programs, features, provider types, participants, outcomes and supporting policy areas. It also explores the challenges facing the sector in terms of sustainability. It builds on the work completed in Adult Learning Australia's previous ACE scans (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2020). Unfortunately, comprehensive analysis of ACE is limited by the lack of complete data on all the work ACE does. This update contains consistent time series data from two National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) collections: government-funded and Total VET. To create a broader profile of ACE in Australia, it is argued that data must be collected from a range of sources.

There are three main program focusses for ACE: personal enrichment; foundation; and vocational. All ACE providers deliver enrichment programs. Most offer adult basic education in language, literacy, numeracy, digital and other foundation skills. An increasingly diminishing number, around 220, also offer formal vocational education and training (VET). ACE providers that offer formal VET continue to be largely concentrated in Victoria and New South Wales (NSW). State and territory governments define and support ACE in different ways. But government funded ACE programs are now largely focussed on vocational outcomes.

This ACE scan update covers the following areas: (1) an overview of ACE in Australia in terms of its activities and providers; (2) ACE provision by state, territory and national perspectives; (3) ACE programs, including key features and data on the participants, outcomes and national policies supported; (4) a new data framework to draw conclusions on where to next for Australian ACE; and (5) trends over time to identify issues affecting the sustainability of ACE. The report concludes that the ACE sector demonstrably serves important social and economic needs within communities across Australia for the ongoing education of adults. Yet, it lacks broad recognition, financial support and connections with local, state and federal governments, and this impedes its capacity to achieve these important goals. This is becoming increasingly important in the face of expected as well as unexpected disruptions such as technological change, pandemics, natural disasters and an ageing population. Despite these disruptions, Australians need and are expected to continue to learn, be educated and engaged in productive activities within their communities. Recommendations are made for ACE to achieve its full potential.

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[Artificial intelligence] AI can bring significant benefits to the workplace. In the OECD AI surveys of employers and workers, four in five workers say that AI improved their performance at work and three in five say that it increased their enjoyment of work. But the benefits of AI depend on addressing the associated risks. Taking the effect of AI into account, occupations at highest risk of automation account for about 27 per cent of employment in OECD countries. Workers also express concerns around increased work intensity, the collection and use of data, and increasing inequality. To support the adoption of trustworthy AI in the workplace, this policy paper identifies the main risks that need to be addressed when using AI in workplace. It identifies the main policy gaps and offers possible policy avenues specific to labour markets.

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The National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) was asked by TAFE Directors Australia to consider, in a discussion paper for their conference held on the Gold Coast in September 2009, how the trend towards an integrated tertiary sector impacts on the way NCVER thinks about its research and statistical activities. It has been apparent for some time that it makes little sense to consider vocational and higher education research issues in isolation. A research and information base covering the whole of the tertiary education sector would better reflect the realities of the system and provide a more coherent platform for policy. In addition, an integrated approach to statistical collections is desirable, taking into account the need for a common core set of standards and a unique student identifier to assist in the coherence of data. Show less

This report is part of a series that considers labour migration policies in OECD countries. It examines whether labour migration policy is effective and efficient, focusing on two key areas: the country's labour migration system and its characteristics; and the extent to which policy is responding to the needs of the domestic labour market and its impact on the latter. Canada has not only the largest in terms of numbers but also the most elaborate and longest-standing skilled labour migration system in the OECD. Largely as a result of many decades of managed labour migration, more than one in five people in Canada is foreign-born, one of the highest shares in the OECD. Sixty per cent of Canada's foreign-born population are highly educated, the highest share OECD-wide.

The recent introduction of Express Entry, a two-step selection system based on an initial pre-screening of suitable candidates who enter a pool by Expression of Interest and subsequent selection of the most skilled candidates from the pool, has further enhanced the competitive edge of the selection system relative to other countries. It also ensures that those with the skills to succeed are admitted to Canada in a quick and efficient way. Core to Canada's success is not only the elaborate selection system itself but also the innovation and infrastructure around it, which ensures constant testing, monitoring and adaptation of its parameters. This includes a comprehensive and constantly improving data infrastructure, coupled with the capacity to analyse it, and swift policy reaction to new evidence and emerging challenges.

Edited excerpts from publication and publisher's website. Show less

As the US seeks ways to increase interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education and careers, high-quality afterschool STEM programs will fill a growing need. With support from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and the Noyce Foundation (now STEM Next), states across the country are developing systems of support for more quality afterschool programs focused on STEM. System building elements include partnership and leadership development; evaluation and data collection activities; quality building and professional development opportunities; communication and policy; and financing and sustainability. This evaluation is among the first at a large scale to measure the impact of afterschool programs on students' STEM-related attitudes and social-emotional/21st-century skills.

The primary goals of this work were (1) to examine levels of change in youth outcomes among programs receiving resources and training support from system-building states; (2) to inform on national trends related to STEM learning, such as gender or grade differences in science interest; and (3) to link STEM program quality with student outcomes and facilitator beliefs.

Edited excerpt from publisher's website. Show less

Aimed at statisticians, researchers, policy analysts and decision-makers in the [European Training Foundation's] ETF's partner countries who are confronted with the challenges of anticipation and dissemination of insights on the dynamics of demand for jobs, skills and qualifications, this paper addresses key conceptual, methodological and organisational aspects in using Big Data for labour market intelligence. It clarifies how Big Data can be used to go beyond the frontiers of conventional approaches to labour market information systems and add value to established statistics.

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This paper identifies a nascent trend in several countries regarding increased collection, public availability and use of destination data for graduates of secondary education, with policy ambitions to support pupil-level decision-making and drive provider-level accountability. This trend mirrors the previous development of such data for higher education graduates and underpins a policy direction of data visibility and data engineering to support labour market objectives, via an assumed approach to change that privileges financial factors in career decision-making. Reforms in England are identified as an example of extreme practice, illustrating the practical potential of such data as well as potential pitfalls. Building on the pre-existing critique, the authors highlight three biases particularly prevalent in the new data: bias for continued education, bias for more stable, traditional forms of employment that disadvantages particular sectors, and bias for a provider-centric view of outcomes. Mitigations via an enhanced role for adolescent career counselling and improved data are discussed.

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