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This Industry Training Federation (ITF) 20th anniversary publication documents the development of New Zealand's industry-led system of work-based learning and apprenticeships. The story, presented from the perspective of past and present stakeholders, relates three decades of history and the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. The report draws attention to the call to 'bring back apprenticeships', not just in New Zealand but internationally; a response to the sense that apprenticeships were a good thing that somehow got lost. This realisation is manifested in deliberate policy efforts to revitalise and increase the number of apprenticeships and work-based learning in general.

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This report documents the outcomes of the Australian Industry Group survey of employers about their workforce development and skills needs. The company responses can be divided into four main industry sectors: manufacturing, services, construction and mining. Key issues for employers include: (1) skills shortages, especially for technicians and trade workers, and including science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) areas; (2) apprenticeships and traineeships, around engagement, suitability of applicants, availability of relevant training, and literacy and numeracy issues; (3) the effects of low levels of workplace literacy and numeracy; (4) concerns about the skills of graduates, especially employability skills and literacy and numeracy attainment in the schools sector, and problem-solving, self-management and numeracy in the vocational education and training (VET) sector; and (5) leadership and management skills.

Over half of the employers surveyed will maintain their current training expenditure and 37.8 per cent intend to increase it. The main reasons for changing training expenditure are changes in business conditions, costs and priorities, and relevance of training. The major ways that businesses intend to meet skill needs are by retraining existing staff on the job and employing experienced employees. The main occupational groups that are priorities for training and development are technicians and trade workers, and managers. In-house accredited and non-accredited training is the most favoured training response of employers. Employers tend to have greater links with the VET sector than with higher education and schools. Links with schools are mainly for work experience and placements and with universities for placements or internships.

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With the maritime and advanced manufacturing industry growing within Tasmania and all across Australia, there will be a growing need for the workforce to have deeper and more complex skill sets in the next three to five years. This project identified the mismatch between the current and future skills from literature and interviews with industry stakeholders. In addition, it reflects on existing pathways to ensure that the skills gap is reduced and future skills needs are being met. The approach the project team took was to interview businesses across the manufacturing, advanced manufacturing and maritime industries in Tasmania. Seven businesses were selected to interview and were either members of the Tasmanian Maritime Network or considered growth industries and industries of importance for Tasmania.

Summary of outcomes and impacts: (1) a major learning outcome from this project is that there are common needs amongst the manufacturing, advanced manufacturing and maritime industries for future skills despite the diversity in industries; (2) the fundamental skills identified by industry for continued growth and effective staff management include basic attributes such as literacy and numeracy, problem-solving, work ethic, [information technology] IT, leadership and management; (3) the emphasis for staff to be multi-skilled has been highlighted across industries; (4) technology is ever-changing and technology-based skills for specific industries will drive training needs for the future; (5) the lack of higher-level [vocational education and training] VET training in manufacturing, advanced manufacturing and engineering has left a gap of skilled staff in Tasmania; (6) retirement of the ageing workforce in these industries will create a skills gap if industry does not address training, development and progression of existing staff; and (7) all businesses offered some form of in-house training for specialty skills, and most businesses support staff through up-skilling and reskilling of staff via external providers - the relationship between [registered training organisations] RTOs and industry was stressed as vital to meet training needs.

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While the higher education community has embraced the use of virtual worlds for teaching and learning, there are many hazardous situations where these virtual environments would provide benefits by enabling users to learn without danger. Meanwhile, the teaching in many of the subjects, involving students that work in these virtual environments, frequently fails to encompass suitably authentic activities and understandings of the nature of the environments. To address this, the nDiVE (n-Dimensions in Virtual Environments) project explored authentic education in logistics and supply chain management scenarios with a grant from the Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT). The research was conducted by project team members from Curtin University, Murdoch University, University of Wollongong, Auckland University of Technology (New Zealand), and Graz University of Technology (Austria) over two years from 2013 to 2015.

Four scenarios were created to thrust the learner into a range of hazardous environments, allowing them to become familiar with the risks and challenges of operating in these environments. Different cohorts of students and young people from a range of backgrounds were tested with this range of scenarios outlining different logistics and operational environments. The results indicate that, while there are a number of design elements that can be improved and refined, nDiVE is a promising space for education and authentic learning for people who need to work in safe environments, even if the reality is hazardous.

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Employer engagement is a critical part of vocational education and training (VET). However, we know little about forms of employer engagement in the implementation of VET reforms. Employers can be advisors, or can be given roles and responsibilities throughout the cycle of VET processes: helping design curricula, providing workplace training during VET application, and providing feedback or initiating updates. The latter approach asks much more, but the former creates a prisoner's dilemma where participating firms risk losing their investment to poaching from refraining firms. In the higher-engagement model, employers coordinate with other companies in their sectors and invest, then have the opportunity to earn returns - often during the training period. We follow eight international VET reforms through their first year. We find that cases where employers are highly engaged make more progress, excepting powerful top-down reforms. High employer engagement seems riskier because of the greater investment by firms, but the returns it generates lets high-engagement reforms sidestep the prisoner's dilemma and improve implementation progress.

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The Victorian Government's Back to Work (BTW) combines social and economic objectives. The Fund has invested in innovative approaches to vocational skills development so that work-ready job seekers are well matched to job opportunities. With particular attention to equity outcomes for disadvantaged job seekers, BTW recognises that the personal benefits of vocational training are best realised by developing skills that make direct contributions to improved productivity in contemporary workplaces.

These case studies demonstrate how Victoria's TAFE institutes and dual sector universities deploy their expertise to respond to students' aspirations, industry skill needs, community expectations and government policy goals. The case studies are: Industry needs driving training program design - Back to Work at Box Hill Institute; Energising networks and valuing the evidence - Back to Work at Holmesglen and Chisholm Institute; Paddock to Plate - Paddock to Plate Back to Work at Federation Training; Familiarising participants with IT work and workplaces - Back to Work at Victoria Polytechnic; There is no single pathway to work - Back to Work at Wodonga TAFE.

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This paper reports on a trial of a new model of clinical education designed to increase student clinical placement availability and address workforce constraints on supervision. The University of Sydney deployed the Capacity Development Facilitators (CDF) in selected Sydney hospitals to work with staff to expand student clinical placement opportunities by identifying enablers, barriers and stressors of clinical placements and collaboratively developing solutions, provide organizational and learning support and foster opportunities for interprofessional learning. A mixed methods study was undertaken collecting data from physiotherapy students and their clinical educators (CE). At completion of placement students and CEs completed a survey. This was analyzed for themes about placement structure, productivity, barriers, enablers, stressors and support. Preliminary findings suggest the CDF model increases capacity, provides robust learning experiences and satisfaction with placements from the hospital, university staff and students' perspectives.

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This chapter looks at the mismatch between the skills of vocational education and training (VET) graduates and those required by industry, and whether giving industry a more meaningful role would enable industry and providers to be committed to ongoing engagement. The author discusses the concerns that employers have, including that the current training packages have failed to resolve employer and provider complaints about narrow qualifications. The author argues that in the process of taking a different qualifications approach, it is important to engage with industry strongly. Giving industry a more meaningful role in the process would enable industry and providers to be committed to ongoing engagement and it would foster partnerships with individual providers.

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The purpose of this research is to improve tertiary education providers' understanding of what employers need from engineering graduates. It responds to an Engineering e2e workshop held in June 2015 where the views of 40 New Zealand engineering employers were gathered. The employers identified the need for nationwide research to provide feedback from graduates on the capabilities and competencies required for their work and a better understanding of how providers can keep tertiary education relevant for graduates. The research, undertaken by a research team at Otago Polytechnic, has found that engineering graduates need to have personal, interpersonal and cognitive capabilities as well as the requisite technical knowledge and skills to be 'work ready for tomorrow'.

The research is based on a survey of engineering graduates with three to five years of work experience followed by workshops with employers, staff from tertiary engineering schools, Engineering e2e Project Steering Group members, and representatives from the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand. In rating strategies to keep higher education relevant, graduates placed great value on: (1) work placements; (2) problem-based assessment rather than memorising facts; (3) real-world case-studies; and (4) projects that developed personal, interpersonal capabilities delivered by teaching staff with current industry experience. The report makes 13 recommendations for providers, employers, the Tertiary Education Commission, the Productivity Commission and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. The Engineering e2e Steering Group is now planning to discuss implementation of the recommendations with tertiary providers and government agencies.

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This Fellowship enabled the author to complete a course of study 'Decentralised Water supply and Sanitation' at United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO-IHE) Institute for Water Education in Delft, The Netherlands. The knowledge and skills gained from this course were enlightening to the Fellow. The concept of 'closing the loop' in our water and sanitation systems and the compelling reasons for this were cemented in the mind of the Fellow. The plumbing industry is a critical sector if sustainable water supply and sanitation systems are to be advanced and achieved; thus 'closing the loop'. The plumbing industry's ability or inability to keep up with advancements in this sector could mean the difference between new systems installed correctly and maintained properly, enhancing the health of the population and environment; or whereby systems are let down by the people registered and licensed to install and maintain these systems. Plumbing training must improve if it is to equip plumbers with the necessary skills to close the gap.

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