A review of twenty years of competency-based training in the Australian vocational education and training system
- Authors: Smith, Erica
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Training and Development Vol. 14, no. 1 (2010), p. 54-64
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- Description: In this paper, the author reflects, both as an academic researcher and as a senior practitioner, on the experience of competency-based training (CBT) in the Australian vocational education and training system. She seeks to draw conclusions about the Australian experience using a typology drawn from the academic literature which focuses on the philosophical, educational, technical and market aspects of CBT. She concludes that, despite many improvements over the past 10 years, some potential problems remain. The system is controlled overly tightly by the interests of industry and it also exhibits some inflexibilities. Both of these act to disadvantage some groups of learners. Teachers and trainers do not have adequate skills to work skilfully and critically with CBT, leading to thin pedagogy and a narrow focus on assessment of individual items of performance. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Apprenticeships
- Authors: Smith, Erica
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: International Encyclopedia of Education Chapter Vocational education and training - Industry and employers p. 312-319
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Australian employers' adoption of traineeships
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Comyn, Paul , Kemmis, Ros Brennan , Smith, Andy
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Vocational Education and Training Vol. 63, no. 3 (2011), p. 363-375
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- Description: Traineeships are apprenticeship-like training arrangements that were initiated in Australia in 1985. They were designed to introduce apprenticeship training to a broader range of industries, occupations and individuals; they are available in occupations outside the traditional trades and crafts. Many companies use them on a large scale, some recruiting their entire shop floor workforce as trainees. This article uses findings from a national project on traineeships in six industry areas to examine the ways in which employers adopt them and the factors which affect their take-up across industries and enterprises. © 2011 The Vocational Aspect of Education Ltd.
- Description: 2003009231
Employability Skills
- Authors: Smith, Erica
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: International Encyclopedia of Education Chapter Vocational education and training - Teaching and learning p. 368-375
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Employer training in Australia : Current practices and concerns
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Callan, Victor , Tuck, Jacquiline , Smith, Andy
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Training and Development Vol. 23, no. 2 (2019), p. 169-183
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- Description: This paper presents and analyses results from a research project on current trends in employer training in Australia. While the formal vocational education and training (VET) system is well-researched, the everyday training that happens in workplaces is relatively under-researched in Australia. Using some of the results of an employer survey undertaken in 2015, the paper describes and analyses employer-based training across a range of industry areas. The survey included groups of questions on a range of matters, including the reasons why employers train, and how these relate to employers' perceptions of their operating environment, and the structures they have in place to manage and organize training. Detailed data are provided about three specific forms of training: in-house training and learning; the use that employers make of external providers of training; and employers' use of nationally recognised training - training from the VET system. Finally the paper reports what managers said about the barriers to providing more training. The paper analyses the findings in relation to the literature and also identified changes over time in training practices in Australian companies. Implications for training policy and practice, as well as for future research, are identified.
Enterprises' commitment to nationally recognised training for existing workers
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Pickersgill, Richard , Smith, Andy , Rushbrook, Peter
- Date: 2005
- Type: Text , Book
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- Description: This report aims to provide a clearer understanding of how and why enterprises use nationally recognised type of training. It finds that an enterprise's decision to engage in recognised training is not made lightly and decisions are made afresh each time a new training need arises. Successfully embedding training in enterprises involves a three-phase process - engagement, extension and integration. In most cases, it is dependent on: positive initial engagement; extension of training through a 'VET evangelist' who 'sells' the benefits of recognised training and persuades management; and, integration of competency standards associated with recognised training into many human resource processes. The availability of funding strongly influences whether enterprises use recognised training. However, one of the key reasons why more enterprises have not taken up this training is lack of awareness.
- Description: 2003006167
From training reform to training packages
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Keating, Jack
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Book
- Full Text: false
- Description: 2003006170
High quality traineeships : Identifying what works
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Comyn, Paul , Kemmis, Ros Brennan , Smith, Andy
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Report
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- Description: This study explores the common features of high-quality traineeships using case studies from the cleaning, child care, construction, retail, finance and insurance, and meat processing areas. The research identifies a range of policy measures that could improve both the practice and image of traineeships. A good practice guide has also been developed to assist in ensuring that all traineeships are of equally high quality.
- Description: 2003007937
How workplace experiences while at school affect career pathways
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Green, Annette
- Date: 2005
- Type: Text , Book
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- Description: How experiences with the workplace while at school affect young people after leaving school is the subject of this report. The experiences include those gained through work experience, school-based New Apprenticeships, part-time work and vocational placements in VET in Schools programs. Specific areas explored include the views of young people on the value of the various workplace experiences; for example, in relation to their staying at school and their post-school-to-work plans and pathways.
- Description: 2003006165
Learning to control : Training and work organization in Australian call centres
- Authors: Smith, Andy , Smith, Erica
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Industrial Relations Vol. 50, no. 2 (2008), p. 243-256
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- Description: The organization of work in call centres has been the centre of study and debate for a number of years. This article explores the adoption of nationally-recognized training (based on formal qualifications) in Australian call centres, which is now becoming quite widespread, and its relationship to work organization and human resource management practices. The article draws on a national research project that explored the take up of nationally recognized training by Australian employers. A number of call centres were included in this study that forms the basis for the present article. One of the major attractions for call centre employers, apart from the financial incentives involved in adoption, is the close fit between nationally recognized training and work organization. Because of its on-job nature, such training fits the close quantitative controls that characterize almost all call centres. Because of its integration into the workplace and into work organization, nationally recognized training seems to be moving human resource management processes towards an increased emphasis on employee development.
Practitioner researchers in vocational education and training
- Authors: Holden, Rick , Smith, Erica
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Training Research Vol. 7, no. 2 (2009), p. 134-144
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- Description: The paper reports on a study examining the issues facing vocational education and training (VET) practitioners who aspire to undertake formal research and move towards publishing their research. Research participants were drawn from attendees at a publishing workshop that was mounted at the 2008 conference of the Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA). The study utilised notes made by the conveners of that workshop, and the collective work produced in groups of participants, responses to an email interview six months after the date of the workshop, and subsequent in-depth telephone conversations. The study showed that practitioner researchers faced considerable difficulties in pursuing their research and publication goals, and analysis of findings suggest that these difficulties may reflect a lack of legitimacy for research within VET practice and VET institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Description: 2003007934
Pre-apprenticeships in three key trades
- Authors: Dumbrell, Tom , Smith, Erica
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Book
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- Description: This report looks at whether pre-apprenticeships increase the potential supply of tradespeople, with a special focus on electrotechnology, automotive and engineering students. It found that pre-apprenticeships have been used in Australia for many years and are widely regarded as a valuable strategy for increasing the supply and quality of potential apprentices. Pre-apprenticeships are favoured by employers because they weed out unsuitable candidates and improve retention, while apprentices see them as a useful way of gaining experience in the trade.
- Description: 2003006164
Teachers, instructors and trainers : An Australian focus
- Authors: Smith, Erica
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: International handbook of education for the changing world of work : Bridging academic and vocational education Chapter VIII.3 p. 1203-1217
- Full Text: false
- Description: 2003007936
The development of employability skills in novice workers through employment
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Comyn, Paul
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Generic skills in vocational education and training: Research readings Chapter p. 95-108
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- Description: This report focusses on employability skills that young people entering work for the first time, or novice workers, need. It examines the nature of the skills that employers seek when recruiting young people and the processes and techniques which can be used in the workplace to develop these skills. The report synthesises the findings of a comprehensive literature review and 12 case studies.
- Description: 2003007585
The understandings about learners and learning that are imparted in Certificate IV courses for VET teachers and trainers
- Authors: Simons, Michele , Smith, Erica
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Training Research Vol. 6, no. 1 (2008), p. 23-43
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- Description: Much of the literature all Vocational Education and Training (VET) professional development for teachers and trainers in Australia has been descriptive, outlining the development, construction and outcomes of a range of initiatives or analysing the nature and extend of initial and ongoing professional development for teacher sand trainers. There has been lillie critical analysis of curricula which led to the attainment what has been the most common Australian initial VET teacher/trainer qualification - the Certificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training, either in terms of the intended or enacted curricula as it was delivered in many hundreds of locations across Australia. This paper addresses this gap. It presents the outcomes of research that examined ways in which learners and processes of learning were constructed, understood and embedded in the delivery of the Certificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training (AWT). This qualification was delivered from 1998 until November 2006. In late 2004 a new Certificate IV ill Training and Assessmet (TAA) was introduced, but there was a 'teach-out period' of two years on the old qualification. The study involved 16 case studies of registered training organisations that delivered the Certificllte IV in AWT. The paper updates the study by examining how the changes associated with the new qualification may affect understandings of learners and learning.
- Description: C1
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.
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