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Enterprise RTOs in Australia: An overview from research data

  • Authors: Smith, Erica , Smith, Andy , Walker, Andrew
  • Date: 2015
  • Type: Text , Conference paper
  • Relation: AVETRA, Sydney, 8th-10th April, 2015
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  • Description: This paper reports on overview data from a national research project funded through the Australian Research Council Linkage program. The research question for the project as a whole was 'How do qualifications delivered by enterprises contribute to improved skill levels and other benefits for companies, workers and the nation?' The research was carried out with the support of the Enterprise RTO Association. Enterprise registered training organisations (RTOs) are companies that are accredited to deliver qualifications to their own workers. These 250 RTOs have to meet the same registration and quality standards as institutional training providers. The project as a whole included qualitative and quantitative components. It included longitudinal case studies in eight enterprise RTOs. This paper reports on part of the quantitative research. It presents findings and preliminary analysis of two surveys of enterprise RTOs (2012 and 2014), and a 2013 learner survey undertaken in the case study RTOs. The enterprise RTO surveys included a range of questions about the enterprise itself, and about the RTO's qualifications, learners, and training methods. The learner survey asked respondents about their views about training and outcomes. The response rates for the surveys were 35.7 per cent and 26 per cent respectively, with a representative distribution across industry areas. The paper provides a snapshot of the operations of enterprise RTOs and the views of those gaining qualifications in this context. Published abstract.

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

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.

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.

The Importance of VET teacher professionalism : an Australian case study

  • Authors: Smith, Erica
  • Date: 2019
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Handbook of Vocational Education and Training: Developments in the changing world of work 88 p. 1627-1648
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  • Description: The effectiveness of vocational education and training (VET) systems depends upon their teachers. The teachers are regarded as “dual professionals,” requiring expertise in both their background industry areas and in VET pedagogy itself. This chapter uses Australia as a case study of what happens when the accepted regime of qualifications for VET teachers alters. In Australia full-time VET teachers were, until recently, required to undertake degree level qualifications in VET pedagogy, taught at universities, either before or, more usually, after entering the occupation. The required level has now reduced to the regulatory minimum of a Certificate IV level qualification, taught by training providers not universities, and often provided to their own teachers. The qualification contains only 300 nominal hours of training. It has been recognized as a particularly poorly taught qualification, requiring the introduction of a high degree of regulation and most recently a special compliance framework for training providers wishing to deliver it. In this chapter, the historical path of the decline in VET teacher professionalism in Australia is charted, including research evidence from a national project managed by the author, about the effects of higher-level qualifications on VET teacher practices and quality and teachers’ propensity to engage in professional development. A conceptual model of the attributes of professional VET teachers with regard to qualifications and professional development is presented. The chapter concludes with some recommendations for change and implications for other countries.

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.

A small study of big issues in apprenticeship: Companies’ apprenticeship management practices in Australia

Getting down and dirty down under: Battling over trainer qualifications in Australia

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

Australian employers' adoption of traineeships

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.

Does the availability of vocational qualifications through work assist social inclusion?

  • Authors: Smith, Erica , Smith, Andy
  • Date: 2011
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Education and Training Vol. 53, no. 7 (2011), p. 587-602
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  • Description: Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss whether the availability of qualifications through work-based traineeships in Australia assists social inclusion. Design/methodology/approach: Industry case studies, of the finance and cleaning industries, were undertaken as part of a national research project on quality in traineeships. The two industry case studies were analysed to provide data on social inclusion aspects. A general discussion on the "pros" and "cons" of gaining qualifications through work, from a social inclusion point of view, is included. Findings: The industry case studies show many advantages of work-based qualifications for people who have had disadvantaged economic and social backgrounds. The study presents a model showing how work-based qualifications help to meet the twin social inclusion goals of employment and education. However in economic hard times, the need to have a job may rule out some people. Also, some doubts about quality in work-based delivery may mean that qualifications gained through work may be of lower value than those gained at least partly through formal study. Research limitations/implications: The models put forward are tentative, based on the findings in the research study that has been described and the authors' earlier research. Further research is necessary to establish the social inclusion benefits of this means of gaining qualifications. In particular longitudinal research with disadvantaged people who have gained qualifications through this route is needed to evaluate whether their completion of qualifications through employment has assisted their broader economic and social engagement, and in what ways. In addition, research is needed to compare the quality and utility of qualifications gained through work and those through education providers as a poor-quality qualification may be of limited long-term use to an individual. Practical implications: Work-based qualifications are shown to be a useful investment of public resources. The research also analyses some shortcomings of this method of gaining qualifications so that they can be addressed by employers and training providers. Social implications: The research establishes the social inclusion utility of work-based qualifications, providing insights useful for education systems and social welfare organisations. Originality/value: This is one of very few scholarly studies of the large-scale use of work-based qualifications. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

The delicate dance: the assessment implications of awarding students vocational qualifications within university degrees

  • Authors: Smith, Erica , Bush, Tony
  • Date: 2006
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Higher Education Research & Development Vol. 25, no. 4 (2006), p. 387-402
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  • Description: This paper explores the implications for assessment of embedding qualifications from the vocational education and training (VET) sector within university qualifications. As VET qualifications are now all competency based, assessment in the two sectors is quite different, since universities have generally eschewed competency‐based training and assessment. A general discussion of the issues is followed by the results of a small‐scale research study carried out in the VET discipline area itself, with participants drawn from the AVTEC list of VET teacher‐educators. Telephone interviews were conducted with nine Australian university academics involved with such qualifications; and data were extracted from a broader study of students who had undertaken the Certificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training embedded within degrees and graduate diplomas in VET at one of these universities. It is clear that there are many assessment challenges involved with the practice of embedding, which have not yet been systematically addressed.

Towards a model apprenticeship framework: a comparative analysis of national apprenticeship systems.

  • Authors: Smith, Erica , Kemmis, Ros Brennan
  • Date: 2013
  • Type: Text , Book
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  • Description: This project was undertaken with funding from the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Bank. It was designed to inform the redevelopment of the Indian apprenticeship system. Government officials wanted to consider features of good practice from around the world. Ten expert international researchers were identified and provided case studies about their own countries’ apprenticeship systems; a cross-case analysis produced a framework for a ‘model apprenticeship system’. Measures of success for apprenticeship systems were also identified.

Afterword : a fresh look at workplace learning for VET teachers

  • Authors: Smith, Erica
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: International Journal of Training Research Vol. 18, no. 1 (2020), p. 84-92
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  • Description: The expertise and professionalism of teachers is vital in vocational education and training (VET), as it is in any other education sector. As ‘dual professionals’, VET teachers need to keep abreast of their industry or discipline area as well as maintaining and improving their pedagogical skills and knowledge. VET workplaces (colleges and vocational schools) are important sites of learning for these matters. This paper draws together and analyses the findings from the other papers in this special issue, finding that VET workplaces contribute to teachers’ learning both as a part of pedagogical qualifications (in ‘teaching practice’ components) and as part of continuing professional learning. The paper draws on a previous theoretical model and the findings in the papers to propose a number of categories of workplace learning: learning that is taught, sought, wrought, caught, brought, and thought. These could be applied to any occupation. Finally, the contribution of teachers’ personal attributes to the extent and nature of their site-based learning is examined, using the data in the papers to develop further a previous model of VET teacher professionalism. © 2020, © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

VET in the compulsory years of schooling:A pathway into the future or a dead end?

New models of working and learning : How young people are shaping their futures differently

  • Authors: Smith, Erica
  • Date: 2009
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Research in Post-Compulsory Education Vol. 14, no. 4 (2009), p. 429-440
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  • Description: This paper is about the way in which young people are increasingly adopting dual identities - worker and learner - during the long transition from full-time student to full-time worker. Part-time jobs undertaken while in full-time education provide opportunities for learning about work and may lead to full-time careers in the same industry area. Those who enter full-time work directly are increasingly likely to have a job with a formal training contract. The paper is based on a series of Australian research projects, undertaken over seven years by the author and colleagues, using quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The data were used to construct six hypothetical case studies of young learner/workers typifying the multiple roles of young people in the working and educational arenas. The case studies illustrate the complex and often under-planned arrangements that may be redefining how young people think about education and jobs and how they conceptualise their movement into the full-time workforce. © 2009 Further Education Research Association.

Learning and development practitioners : identity, profession and future trajectory

  • Authors: Barratt-Pugh, Llandis , Hodge, Steven , Smith, Erica
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources Vol. 58, no. 2 (2020), p. 220-246
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  • Description: The increasing focus on learning and innovation within organisations has significantly changed perceptions and practices of learning. It has also generated an increasingly diverse and growing network of learning and development practitioners (L&D), constructing an emerging identity that is critical to organisational growth. Our study of nearly 800 Australian L&D practitioners explored their working roles, relationships, and development needs, in a contested environment. Our purpose was to explore how L&D practice has changed; if a professional identity for L&D practitioners is emerging; and what development needs L&D practitioners have. The practitioner responses from this study are used to model the emerging themes of L&D practice, substantiate the emergence of a ‘quasi-professional’ identity, and indicate the imperatives that underpin professional development frameworks. This knowledge provides a foundation for reconceptualising the learning and development practitioner domain. © 2018 Australian HR Institute

The place of work in school students' lives

Public policies on training and their provenance: An international comparison