What do senior figures in Australian VET and industrial relations think about the concept of skill in work?
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Smith, Andrew , Junor, Anne , Hampson, Ian
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Proceedings from Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA) p. 1-9
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: This paper reports on perceptions of skill and the effects that they have on policy. Interviews were carried out with people holding senior positions in State and national government departments (some in vocational education and training, some in industrial relations), tertiary sector bodies, and major employer and employee organisations. The interviews formed the initial phase of a national ARC-funded project on recognising the skill in jobs traditionally considered low-skilled. Interviewees were asked what they thought a skilled job was and how they arrived at that definition; about changes over time in ideas about skill; and about how perceptions of skill affected debates and policy in their own areas and more generally. The interview transcripts were analysed to draw out key themes. On the whole, strong support was expressed for a view that all jobs contained skill, but it was noted by several people that their organisations used systems for allocating resources based on parameters that did not accord with this view. The interviewees discussed the effects of perceptions of skill on funding, on qualifications and on migration policies, as well as effects on self-esteem among workers. The findings provided a useful backdrop for subsequent phases of the project, which have been based around nine occupations across several industry areas.
How closely do Australian Training Package qualifications reflect the skills in occupations? An empirical investigation of seven qualifications
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Smith, Andy , Hampson, Ian , Junor, Anne
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Training Research Vol. 13, no. 1 (2015), p. 49-63
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/LP110200888
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: This paper uses evidence from an Australian research project into under-recognized skills in occupations, gathered through industry-level interviews and company case studies, to examine VET curricula. The project, funded by the Australian Research Council, focused on skill in jobs traditionally regarded in Australia as unskilled. As part of the project, the evidence about skill was compared with the relevant qualifications. The qualifications are contained in Training Packages, which form the basis of most formal VET training in Australia. The qualifications for the seven occupations were in three broad industry areas (manufacturing, services and property services) and had all been developed in recent decades, unlike apprenticed trades which have long-standing qualifications and curricula in Australia. The comparison exercise showed some mismatches between the skills that were found in the researched occupations and the content of the qualifications. Some of the issues are believed to have broader applicability beyond these specific occupations and qualifications and thus can provide evidence to improve the design of Training Packages themselves.
- Description: This paper uses evidence from an Australian research project into under-recognized skills in occupations, gathered through industry-level interviews and company case studies, to examine VET curricula. The project, funded by the Australian Research Council, focused on skill in jobs traditionally regarded in Australia as unskilled. As part of the project, the evidence about skill was compared with the relevant qualifications. The qualifications are contained in Training Packages, which form the basis of most formal VET training in Australia. The qualifications for the seven occupations were in three broad industry areas (manufacturing, services and property services) and had all been developed in recent decades, unlike apprenticed trades which have long-standing qualifications and curricula in Australia. The comparison exercise showed some mismatches between the skills that were found in the researched occupations and the content of the qualifications. Some of the issues are believed to have broader applicability beyond these specific occupations and qualifications and thus can provide evidence to improve the design of Training Packages themselves. © 2015 Taylor & Francis.
Views of skill in low-wage jobs : Australian security guards and cleaners
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Junor, Anne , Hampson, Ian , Smith, Andrew
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: AIRAANZ Conference 2014: Work, Employment and HR: The redistribution of economic and social power? p. 1-13
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: This paper discusses under-codified and possibly undervalued skills of security staff and cleaners, as part of an empirical study of skill perceptions and their impacts in a range of low-status occupations. In both industries, contracting has contributed to restricted bargaining power, low wages and undifferentiated classification structures. Yet divergent views of skill requirements emerged from 30 cross-sectional interviews conducted in 2012 in these two industries. In peak employer and employee bodies, the relevant industry skills council and training organisations, security and cleaning jobs were seen as being more skilled than commonly stereotyped. Follow-up case studies in two security and two cleaning organisations elicited a range of perspectives from senior managers, HR managers, supervisors and workers, suggesting that on criteria such as discretion, judgment, self-organisation and communication skills, there is scope for enhanced work value recognition and career pathing in both occupations.