Working from our strengths: Indigenous enterprise and training in action and research

Developing innovative and successful approaches to training in remote and regional contexts with Indigenous people necessitates effective partnership and the recognition of diverse knowledge systems as they relate to the worlds of work, community engagement and learning. Over the past four years a team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous partners in learning research across Northern Australia have identified many of the issues that must be addressed to improve economic and community outcomes of training and investment through enterprise development. As the issues have been widely reported, the project team are now looking to the future directions for enterprise development and training research indicated by the findings of these projects. This paper provides an overview of a series of recent projects developed around enterprise development and training. The paper foreshadows the future directions of this work, addressing a range of issues such as infrastructure, funding, technology and identifying relevant skills sets. Approaches to sustainable enterprise learning and production, professional development and support of successful Indigenous and non-Indigenous teachers are also discussed. Essentially, the paper focuses on the ways partnerships and relationships, rather than systems, can effect change in the vocational education and training (VET) system.

Published abstract.

Available papers from the 11th Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA) Conference are indexed from TD/TNC 92.459 to TD/TNC 92.499 and from TD/TNC 92.701 to TD/TNC 92.716.499 and from TD/TNC 92.701 to TD/TNC 92.716. Show less