VET teacher education in Australian universities : who are the students and what are their views about their courses?
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Hodge, Steven , Yasukawa, Keiko
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Research in Post-Compulsory Education Vol. 20, no. 4 (2015), p. 419-433
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- Description: In Australia, the question of the level and nature of qualifications for vocational education and training (VET) teachers is a highly contested and political topic. VET teachers are only required to have a pre-university, certificate level pedagogical qualification, the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment. They possess substantially lower-level qualifications than teachers in other education sectors, although this was not always the case. The paper reports on research which investigated the experiences of VET teacher-education students studying for university qualifications. The research was undertaken in response to requests from policy stakeholders for evidence about the efficacy of higher-level qualifications. The research indicated student satisfaction with their courses and an alignment between what they saw as the benefits with the identified challenges of VET teaching. They also suggested areas for improvement. The findings are analysed with relation to the findings of a Productivity Commission inquiry into the VET workforce, which identified a number of capability gaps. © 2015 Association for Research in Post-Compulsory Education (ARPCE).
VET teachers' and trainers' participation in professional development : a national overview
- Authors: Tuck, Jacqueline , Smith, Erica
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: AVETRA 20th Annual Conference, 18-20 April 2017
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- Description: This paper reports on the professional development of vocational education and training (VET) teachers and trainers in Australia. It utilises the data on professional development (PD) gathered from two national surveys undertaken in 2016 as part of a major ARC-funded national research project on VET teachers and their qualifications. Part of the first survey, which focused mainly on VET teachers’ qualifications and teaching approaches, examined the PD activities undertaken by the respondents. It explored the nature and frequency of the activities, the motivations for participation and the support provided for PD. The second survey was sent to VET teachers/trainers who had participated in PD activities offered by three major PD providers for VET. It focused on the external PD activities undertaken by respondents and explored the frequency, content and nature of activities. The paper provides evidence on the current state of professional development, both formal and informal, for teachers/trainers across the VET sector and compares differences among teachers working for different types of provider. Detailed data are presented on participation in a range of industry and VET PD activities (both within and external to the RTO), the motivations for participation, and who pays for PD. The findings show the type of PD activities that were valued, and what participants would like to see in the future. The findings are expected to inform policy discussions about VET teacher development and will be useful for managers in TAFE Institutes and RTOs; and for those external organisations delivering PD to the VET workforce.
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
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- 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.
Views of VET teachers, managers and students about VET teacher qualifications
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Yasukawa, Keiko
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Relation: Putting VET Research To Work, AVETRA conference; Sydney; 2016
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- Description: This paper reports on some initial research into what students, teachers and managers in training providers think about qualifications for vocational education and training (VET) teachers and trainers. In 2011, a Productivity Commission research report on the VET workforce identified 'some clear deficiencies [that] should be addressed', but rejected a change to required qualifications because of lack of research evidence, at that time, that higher-level qualifications would make a difference. This paper reports on preliminary observations from a major Australian Research Council funded project that set out to investigate this matter. The project has several stages, and this paper, by two of the projects' four researchers, examines early data from four of eight case studies. The case study sites were based in two states and comprised two TAFE institutes, a not-for-profit college, and a for-profit private VET provider. In the case studies, senior managers, teachers and trainers in different discipline areas, and learners, were interviewed to elicit their views on whether or how teachers' pedagogical and industry qualifications mattered in the quality of teaching and in teachers' contributions to the institution. The paper explains the different participants' views and the reasons they gave for their views. The project as a whole includes several other data sources.
Vocational Education
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Smith, Andy
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Education and Social Change: Connecting local and global perspectives p. 274-286
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Vocational educators' qualifications: A pedagogical poor relation?
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Grace, Lauri
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Training Research Vol. 9, no. 3 (2011), p. 204-217
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- Description: 2003009233
Voices from a small discipline: How the Australian vocational education and training discipline made sense of journal rankings
- Authors: Smith, Erica
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Training Research Vol. 12, no. 3 (2014), p. 227-241
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- Description: The topic of quality rankings of academic journals generated a great deal of debate and opinion in Australia during their time at the forefront of interest in the mid-to-late 2000s. However, there has been little empirical research to inform the debate. This paper reports on and analyses the journal ranking experiences of one small discipline - Vocational Education and Training - at the time of the now-defunct Australian Research Quality Framework, and discusses the differences between the discipline's own rankings and those allocated to its journals by the broader Education discipline. The paper then reports on a 2010 survey of members of the discipline's research association, showing broad-based support for journal rankings among practitioner as well as academic members of the Association. The findings in this paper are set against an explanation of the broader Australian journal ranking process and its national introduction and abolition, and in the broader context that rankings of journals continue to be used in some disciplines and in other countries. The findings form a contribution that may help to inform future debates about journal quality and rankings in Education and more broadly across disciplines. © eContent Management Pty Ltd.
We're here to help: Agencies dealing with apprenticeships in Australia
- Authors: Smith, Erica
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Rediscovering apprenticeship p. 113-124
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- Description: In Australia, approximately 3.5% of the working population is employed in apprenticeships and their newer counterparts, traineeships (both of these are combined under the title of 'Australian apprenticeships'). While apprenticeships were originally intended for young school leavers, they are now open to people of all ages and to part-time as well as full-time workers. The huge growth in numbers, over 300% since the mid-1990s, has been the result of very conscious planning and financial investment by the Australian Government. This paper, using data drawn from a series of research projects, analyses the different agencies that help to promote and manage the apprenticeship system. The paper points out both positive and negative effects of the large numbers of agencies involved.
What are the pros and cons of gaining qualifications through work?
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Smith, Andy
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at 5th International Centre for Research in Lifelong Learning Conference : Lifelong Learning Revisited : What Next?, University of Stirling, Scotland : 23rd-26th June 2009
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- Description: An important plank in lifelong learning policy in both the UK and Australia has been the opportunity for workers to gain qualifications through work. In Australia this opportunity has often been provided through the traineeship system which is a form of ‘modern apprenticeship’ that has now been in place for twenty years. Two national Australian research projects on the delivery of qualifications through work have been undertaken over a five-year period by the authors and colleagues. Both projects involved research with workers, managers, training providers, industry bodies, and relevant officials at State and national level. The 2003 project surveyed 400 companies that provided qualification-based training at work and also included twelve enterprise case studies. The 2008 project involved six indepth industry case studies, each of which involved interviews with relevant senior stakeholders and two enterprise case studies, as well as in-depth interviews with senior policy officials, employer peak bodies and trade unions. The studies showed that many advantages accrue to workers as well as to employers from the delivery of qualifications through work. However there are also some disadvantages and problematic areas for workers, some of which may become more apparent as the global financial crisis affects employment. In the discussion, some parallels are drawn between the Australian and the UK approach to delivering qualifications to lower-level workers through work.
- Description: 2003007929
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
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- 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.
What do senior figures in Australian VET think about traineeships?
- Authors: Smith, Erica
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: 11th Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA) Conference
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- Description: This paper reports on the perceptions of key Australian stakeholders who were interviewed about the controversial issue of quality in traineeships. Interviews were carried out with thirteen people holding senior positions in State and national government departments, major employer and employee organisations, and peak bodies of intermediary organisations. The process was the initial phase of a national NCVER-funded project on identifying the features of high-quality traineeships. The interview transcripts were then analysed to draw out key themes. Themes included issues to do with pedagogy both on and off the job, workplace arrangements and work organisation, relationships between employers and training providers, progression to higher level qualifications and within careers, the intended strategic use of trainees by organisations, and the use of traineeships for equity purposes. On the whole, strong support was expressed for the traineeship system although there were some dissenting views. The research provided a useful backdrop for the fieldwork in the remainder of the project.
What industry wants : Employers' preferences for training
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Kemmis, Ros Brennan
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Education and Training Vol. 52, no. 3 (2010), p. 214-225
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- Description: Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse what retail and hospitality industry employers want from training and trainers. Design/methodology/approach: The research project was undertaken for Service Skills Australia, the Australian Industry Skills Council that oversees formal training for a range of service industries in Australia. The paper utilises data from focus groups and telephone interviews with representatives of the retail and hospitality industries, and telephone interviews with staff of the relevant UK Sector Skills Councils, to provide international benchmarking for the issues raised. Findings: Results showed that, while industry representatives stated that they prioritised industry skills and knowledge above education skills and knowledge, a complex mixture of the two was required, which was generally felt to be lacking. Curriculum for training was also perceived to be deficient, despite Training packages having been developed in consultation with industry. A comparison with the UK interviews with senior staff at the UK Skills Councils for the two industries showed similar issues and suggested some possible ways forward for Australia. Originality/value: The paper provides three major areas where improvement in VET training and trainers would be welcome and gives useful initiatives for improvement in those areas. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
- Description: Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse what retail and hospitality industry employers want from training and trainers. Design/methodology/approach: The research project was undertaken for Service Skills Australia, the Australian Industry Skills Council that oversees formal training for a range of service industries in Australia. The paper utilises data from focus groups and telephone interviews with representatives of the retail and hospitality industries, and telephone interviews with staff of the relevant UK Sector Skills Councils, to provide international benchmarking for the issues raised. Findings: Results showed that, while industry representatives stated that they prioritised industry skills and knowledge above education skills and knowledge, a complex mixture of the two was required, which was generally felt to be lacking. Curriculum for training was also perceived to be deficient, despite Training packages having been developed in consultation with industry. A comparison with the UK interviews with senior staff at the UK Skills Councils for the two industries showed similar issues and suggested some possible ways forward for Australia. Originality/value: The paper provides three major areas where improvement in VET training and trainers would be welcome and gives useful initiatives for improvement in those areas. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
What makes a good VET teacher? Views of Australian VET teachers and students
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Yasukawa, Keiko
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Training Research Vol. 15, no. 1 (2017), p. 23-40
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/LP140100044
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- Description: The quality of teaching in the vocational education and training (VET) sector in Australia has been an area of concern for much of the twenty-first century (e.g. Department of Education and Training, 2016). While much debate has taken place about ways forward, there has been little substantive progress in reforming the education and professional development of VET teachers to address quality concerns. However, in the absence of a clear consensus and articulation of what constitutes ‘good VET teaching’ and what is required to produce it, it is doubtful that any endeavour to improve the quality of VET teaching would be successful. This paper contributes to the evidence base that could inform improvements in VET teaching by examining the views of two key interest groups–VET teachers and learners, on ‘what makes a good VET teacher’, and analyses the common themes as well as particularities in their views and their possible explanations. The findings are then examined as dimensions of interconnected practices that constitute VET teaching. © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
When employers become training providers: What are some institutional issues?
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Smith, Andy , Walker, Andrew
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Relation: Work and Learning in the Era of Globalisation: Challenges for the 21st Century, 9th International Conference on Researching Work and Learning, School of the Arts, Singapore, 9-11 December. p. 1-14
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- Description: In Australia, employers are allowed to become accredited training providers and award qualifications to their own workers. This is not unique to Australia – there is provision for this to happen in the UK as well, although it is rarely taken up – but it is not known how widespread the practice is among countries. There are around 250 employers in Australia who have become what is known as ‘Enterprise Registered Training Organisations’ (RTOs, the Australian term for nationally-accredited training providers), and they are drawn from both public and private sectors. They become enterprise RTOs because they want more customisation of training and more control over delivery (Enterprise RTO Association, 2009a); and because they want to improve quality in their production and service processes, and to develop their workforces (Smith & Smith, 2009a). The phenomenon of enterprise RTOs has been little explored, and a major national research project, funded by the Australia Research Council, set out to map the current terrain, examine how enterprise RTOs operate, and to explore questions of training quality and comparability with qualifications delivered through institutional training providers. A partnership was set up with the Enterprise Training Organisation Association and eight enterprise RTOs, in a project with qualitative and quantitative phases including longitudinal case studies in the enterprise RTOs and two surveys of all enterprise RTOs, which gained response rates of one-third and one-quarter respectively. This paper uses findings from the project to explore the institutional infrastructure associated with employer decisions to become enterprise RTOs and maintain that status. Three aspects are examined. Firstly, the paper reports how enterprise RTOs interact with the national vocational education and training (VET) system, in terms of compliance with national quality and reporting requirements. Secondly, it examines the internal infrastructures set up within the companies to operate the enterprise RTO itself and to carry out training that results in a national qualification. Thirdly it explores the impact upon workers (who are also learners) of this way of delivering training. The project found that the processes required to operate as an enterprise RTO were very complex and demanding, and that the enterprise RTO was regularly required to prove its worth to the broader company. In an unanticipated finding, it emerged that during the project’s life, changes in the economic and business environment affected the companies within which enterprise RTOs operated, affecting the operations and structure of the RTOs.
Who is conducting educational research in Australia and how can their work be supported?
- Authors: Bennett, Dawn , Smith, Erica , Bennett, Sue , Chan, Philip , Bobis, Janette , Harrison, Neil , Seddon, Terri , Shore, Sue
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Educational Researcher Vol. 40, no. 4 (November 2013 2013), p. 473-492
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- Description: Educational research has long been the subject of lively and agitated debate, not least because of its diversity. Ranging in scope from academic development and broad-scale policy research through to student engagement and discipline-specific research, it includes methods of traditional academic inquiry and investigations and also less traditional modes of research. However, the topography of Australian educational research and the characteristics of the people who undertake this complex body of work are currently unclear. This paper explores some of the complexities of the Australian research community, drawing on the findings of a national online survey of academics who identified as researching in the field of education from within and outside education schools and faculties. The survey attracted 504 responses from 38 of Australia's 39 universities, and just over two-thirds of respondents were located in a school or faculty of education. We draw on the results to answer the questions of who is undertaking educational research and who how they might be supported. We utilise a conceptual model that 'segments' the educational research workforce represented by the survey respondents, and we conclude by indicating strategies that might be utilised to address research barriers indicated by educational researchers.
- Description: C1
Wicked learning : Reflecting on Learning to be drier
- Authors: Golding, Barry , Brown, Michael , Foley, Annette , Smith, Erica , Campbell, Coral , Schulz, Christine , Angwin, Jennifer , Grace, Lauri
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Adult Learning Vol. 49, no. 3 (2009), p. 544-566
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- Description: In this final, collaborative paper in the Learning to be drier edition, we reflect on and draw together some of the key threads from the diverse narratives in our four site papers from across the southern Murray-Darling Basin. Our paper title, Wicked learning, draws on a recent body literature (Rittel & Webber 1973) about messy or 'wicked problems' as characterised by Dietz and Stern (1998). It picks up on our identification of the difficulty and enormity of the learning challenges being faced by communities, associated, at best, with a decade of record dry years (drought) and severely over-committed rivers. At worst, drought is occurring in combination with and as a precursor to recent, progressive drying of the Basin associated with climate change. Our research is suggestive of a need for much more learning across all segments of the adult community about '... the big picture, including the interrelationships among the full range of causal factors ...' (Australian Public Service Commission, APSC 2007: 1) underlying the presenting problem of drying. We conclude that solutions to the messy or wicked problem of drying in an interconnected Basin will lie in the social domain. This will include building a wider knowledge and acceptance of the problems and likely future risks across the Basin including all parts of communities. The problem of drying as well as its causes and solutions are multidimensional, and will involve comprehensive learning about all five key characteristics of other 'wicked' policy problems identified in previous research in the environmental arena. The narratives that we have heard identify the extreme difficulty in all four sites of rational and learned responses to being drier as the problem has unfolded. All narratives about being drier that we have heard involve a recognition of a combination of the five characteristics common to wicked problems: multidimensionality, scientific uncertainty, value conflict and uncertainty, mistrust as well as urgency. All narratives identify the importance of social learning: to be productive, to be efficient, to survive, to live with uncertainty, to be sustainable and to share. Combating the extent and effects of drying, causality aside, will require new forms of learning through new community, social and learning spaces, apart from and in addition to new technological and scientific learning.
- Description: 2003007975
Work and learning in jobs that are traditionally considered unskilled or low-skilled
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Smith, Andy
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Work and Learning in the Era of Globalisation: Challenges for the 21st Century, 9th International Conference on Researching Work and Learning, Singapore, 9-11th December, 2015 p. 1-13
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- Description: This paper reports on part of a major research project on jobs traditionally considered to be unskilled. The project was funded by the Australian Research Council and involved detailed exploration of nine occupations, seven of which are considered to be low-skilled, to attempt to uncover the skill that was present in those jobs. It is common for the general public, policy-makers and, indeed, researchers to dismiss certain jobs as unskilled or low-skilled. In fact these perceptions are often the result of social construction of skill (Sawchuk, 2006; Healy, Hansen & Ledwith, 2006) and do not reflect the actual, or indeed potential, skills content of the occupations. As Vallas (1990) points out, judgments about skill in work have real consequences, which can affect people’s lives in fundamental ways. The project hoped to correct some perceptions of these types of job, to effect an improvement in training for the occupations, and to provide evidence for industry stakeholders to help improve the perceptions of the jobs and the people that undertake them. As the economy continues to evolve, new jobs will emerge and the findings of the project will continue to be of utility. In this paper we look at so-called low-skilled work through the lens of three of the nine occupations: retail assistant (non-supermarket), security officer and concrete products worker. In these occupations the consequences of perceptions about lack of skill are manifested in low pay, low status, low levels of government funding for training, poor quality training, and self-perception by workers that their jobs are not worthwhile. The method for each occupation was as follows: six interviews at national stakeholder level, two company case studies, a validation forum with industry personnel, and an examination of the respective qualifications. The research showed that all three jobs involved many technical and non-technical skills that were not generally recognised. The workers tended to internalise external negative perceptions of skill in the job, finding it difficult to articulate many of the skills they deployed. Managers and industry stakeholders, on the other hand, tended to be more aware of the inherent skill in the occupations. The paper uses the research in these three occupations to examine a number of issues. These include the reasons for perceptions of low skill in the jobs; consequences for workers and their on-the-job learning, of perceptions of low skill; the interplay of training quality and training take-up with the respect accorded to the occupation; and the ways in which perceptions of skill in work might be more closely aligned to the real nature of occupations.
Young people’s decision-making as they leave school in non-metropolitan areas in Australia : insights from those working with young people
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Foley, Annette
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: SCUTREA (Standing Conference on University Teaching and Research in the Education of Adults) Adult Education 100: Reflections & Reconstructions, University of Nottingham, U.K., 2-4 July 2019 p. 107-114
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