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The aim of this fellowship was to investigate best practice for incorporating BIM into the vocational education curriculum. Given that BIM has not been integrated into the local industries, it was necessary to also investigate how BIM is used as part of industry practice. Specific fellowship objectives included: Obtaining up to date information about how BIM has been adopted into the VET curriculum in Hong Kong, China and the UK; Determining what specific skills are required for to effectively introduce BIM into the local curriculum and how these skills can be translated to the Australian Building and Construction Industry; Using the gained knowledge and skills to make recommendations for appropriate up skilling in Australian Vocational Educational programs.

To achieve these objectives, teaching practices in Hong Kong, China and the UK were observed. Visiting educational institutions allowed the attending Fellow to review different curriculums and teaching practices, inspect the teaching and learning facilities and observe the resources that students are provided with. This gave the Fellows an understanding of how BIM is incorporated into learning programs. Visiting international educational institutions was necessary, because this type of information is lacking in the current Australian training context. In addition, industry engagement was also sought in the UK and a conference on BIM was attended in Spain. Engagement with industry practices allowed the Fellows to gain first-hand knowledge of how BIM has become standard workplace practice. These international visits took place in May 2017.

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This Fellowship report identifies a gap in local knowledge; that being the delivery of software writing and digital hardware construction skills to creative industry students. The author provides a rationale for the importance of addressing this gap, outlines the research undertaken to investigate how to best address this gap and concludes with recommendations and actions undertaken thus far. The industry sectors targeted are the creative industries and the education sectors. The creative industries include professions such as artists, designers, musicians, game developers and media producers. The education sector includes community learning centers, primary, secondary, TAFE and tertiary, government and non-government education providers.

The author travelled to many centers of excellence, interviewed exemplars in the field and discussed the issues addressed in the report with many educators and arts practitioners. In Brazil, the author interviewed many educators and members of community initiatives. The highlight of these interviews was the realisation of the efficacy of makerspaces as a means of disseminating knowledge to communities, as a place for the promotion of digital citizenship and civic engagement, within and outside of formal educational institutes. Following Brazil, the author travelled to the US. Here the author interviewed educators, artists and students from UCLA, spent many days interviewing staff and visiting makerspaces at the Creativity Lab, Indiana University, and interviewed teachers and students at High Tech High in San Diego, where he was also given the opportunity to participate in classes. The author attended, observed and interviewed educators and artists at the Creativity Week in New York and attended the SFPC artist presentations and interviewed teachers there, and conducted a lengthy interview with the Dean of the ITP (Interactive Telecommunications Program) at New York University (NYU). The last leg of the Fellowship took the author to Hong Kong (HK), where he organised and chaired a panel around this research. It was also another opportunity to discuss his research with many colleagues, old and new. The author found that the gap that had been identified in Australia, was also an issue in many other parts of the world.

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