A small study of big issues in apprenticeship: Companies’ apprenticeship management practices in Australia
- Authors: Smith, Erica
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Relation: Contemporary Apprenticeship Reforms and Reconfigurations, 8th International INAP Conference; Kontanz, Germany March 21st-22nd
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Demand for apprenticeships and traineeships: What are the implications for the future?
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Bush, Tony
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
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- Description: While the Australian apprenticeship and traineeship system is currently strong, the overall strength belies some areas of weakness. One of these areas is the uneven nature of demand from applicants for positions as apprentices and trainees, which means that some industries, occupations and employers struggle to find enough applicants while others are over-subscribed. While apprenticships or traineeships in some occupations and/or companies offering positions within those occupations find it difficult to attract applicants of a suitable calibre. This paper reports on a research project undertaken during 2010, with 21 employers who employed apprentices and trainees. The different recruitment strategies and outcomes of the companies are described and the possible for companies' apparent success or failure to attract suitable applicants are discussed. Some suggestions for future policy and practice at company, regional and national level are offered.
Globalising the apprenticeship concept: How far can apprenticeship systems be compared across countries and what can be gained?
- Authors: Kemmis, Ros Brennan , Smith, Erica
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
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Learning to work in a global economy: How countries use apprenticeship systems to assist school-leavers
- Authors: Kemmis, Ros Brennan , Smith, Erica
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
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The psychological contract in apprenticeships and traineeships: Differing perceptions
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Walker, Arlene , Kemmis, Ros Brennan
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
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- Description: As with any contract of employment, the mutual expectations of the employer and the apprentice/trainee are very important. Apprenticeships and traineeships have greater expectations than other employment contracts of employment because of the training component of the contract. This paper reports on some of the findings of a major NCVER-funded national project examining mutual expectations in apprenticeships and traineeships through the concept of the psychological contract. The paper focuses on the differences between employers and apprentices/trainees, in the expectations each party has of the other and in the extent to which the expectations are perceived to have been met.
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.
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.