Description:
This paper is based on an analysis of interview data about learning to cope with drier times in the southern Murray-Darling Basin in Australia. Its specific focus is about whether the protracted drying might be related to climate change, based on adult interviewee perceptions in one site in the New South Wales Riverina, The data were collected in 2009 as part of a larger, collaborative, four-site Learning to be drier project. The Riverina site study, from which the data analysed here derive, examined transcript evidence from Hay and Booligal, on the Murrumbidgee and Lachlan Rivers respectively. It looked at how adults in these river-dependent communities have learned to make sense of and cope with significantly diminished rainfall, lower river flows and less water allocations in the past decade. The aim of this particular paper is to investigate how (and whether) adults think about the causes of drier times, in particular about climate change. The paper raises questions about whether lifelong and lifewide mechanisms and processes post-school, particularly in rural, irrigation-dependent communities, are able to properly prepare, train and educate adults to deal with the complex, insidious and often debilitating risks and consequences of a predicted warmer and drier climate associated with climate change. It concludes that new mechanisms and models of learning are required to help adults in Australia to understand, bear the risks and mitigate the impacts of predicted climate change and further drying of the Basin. It argues that radically new ways of learning are required to reach and properly inform the most climate-sensitive sector, agriculture, to make an informed choice about the risks of 'staying on the land' (or not).
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:
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.