Australian TVET teacher training : once flourishing but now neglected
- Authors: Smith, Erica
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Technical and Vocational Teacher Education and Training in International and Development Co-Operation: models, approaches and trends Chapter 26 p. 435-451
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: This chapter describes the system of TVET teacher qualifications in Australia. A brief overview of the TVET system (known in Australia as VET, rather than TVET) is followed by a description of the VET teaching workforce, which is predominantly made up of mature people with significant prior industry experience. The chapter explains the current pedagogical qualifications available, which comprise two qualifications offered within the VET sector, at lower levels, and a small number of university-level qualifications. The content of qualifications at each of these levels is described. The chapter explains that the qualification levels of VET teachers have dropped considerably since the year 2000, such that only 10% of Australian VET teachers now have pedagogical qualifications at university level. The challenges created by such a situation are described, together with possible explanations of how this has come about. Implications for other countries are drawn out. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
Thirty years of competency-based training : how Australia painted itself into a curriculum corner in vocational education and training
- Authors: Smith, Erica
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: International Encyclopedia of Education: Fourth Edition p. 491-503
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: This chapter chronicles the 30 years of competency-based training (CBT), a curriculum approach which characterized the Australian vocational education and training (VET) system, during that time. The chapter draws upon and brings up to date two previous published accounts by the author, of 10 years and 20 years of CBT, and covers key events, significant policy changes and debates in each 10 year period, including a detail description of current processes for competency standards and curriculum development. CBT has become increasingly narrowly defined, to the detriment of the VET system and of learners, and so the chapter ends by suggesting specific possibilities for improvement. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
How do vocational teachers keep up to date with trends in pedagogy and in industry?
- Authors: Smith, Erica
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Berufsbildung zwischen Tradition und Moderne: Festschrift für Thomas Deißinger p. 365-379
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: This chapter examines the important topic of the ‘dual professionalism’ of VET teachers in Australia. How, exactly, do they develop further and keep up to date in their industries and in pedagogy? Drawing sub-sets of material from a major national research project, the chapter provides survey evidence from over 900 VET teachers as well as detailed interview data from three case study training providers. The results show a high level of commitment to professional development, both formal and informal, particularly in teachers’ industry areas, sometimes relating to licensing or regulatory requirements within those industries. Some teachers undertook multiple professional development activities each year and were willing to pay for their own development. There was, however, some resistance to development activities that were perceived to relate primarily to compliance with regulatory regimes. The chapter proposes a matrix to represent engagement in types of professional development and then problematise this model through discussion of the resistance and relating it to earlier debates around competency-based training.
Occupational preparation for manual work : fitter/machinists and concrete operators
- Authors: Smith, Erica
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Multiple Dimensions of Teaching and Learning for Occupational Practice 3 p. 37-55
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: This chapter explores the different forms of occupational preparation for two occupations in the manufacturing industry in Australia: fitter/machinists and concrete product operators. It draws on data from a project researching concepts of skill in work. The two occupations were selected as one is traditionally regarded as skilled while the other is regarded as unskilled. While both jobs are undertaken predominantly by men, the former occupation is normally entered by young people, while the latter is generally entered by mature people. Through interviews, company case studies and industry focus groups the skills involved in the two occupations were examined and compared. There were considerable similarities between the two jobs, although of course differences as well. Training in the fitter/machinist occupation is undertaken through a lengthy and formalised apprenticeship, while training as a concrete products operator is almost always undertaken on the job only; there is no requirement for a qualification. Some reasons are proposed for the low take-up of qualifications for concrete production, and suggestions for improving this situation, in order to attract more people into the occupation. The conclusions can be applied to other occupations, and the analysis provides the opportunity to examine the assumptions upon which traditional pathways of occupational preparation are based.
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
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- 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.
Revisiting apprenticeships as a response to persistent and growing youth unemployment
- Authors: Smith, Erica
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Skills and the Future of work: strategies for inclusive growth in Asia and the Pacfic 6 p. 160-179
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: This chapter examines the potential of quality apprenticeship in meeting multiple demands: skill development, changing industry needs, and promoting inclusivity. There are many and large societal and economic expectations of problems which apprenticeship should solve. These expectations vary among various actors. They range from solving youth unemployment and safeguarding decent jobs for young and disadvantaged persons, to supplying companies with a trained workforce, and boosting international competitiveness. More recent demands including apprenticeships’ ability to cope with rapidly changing job roles. There are, however, risks associated with expansion of apprenticeship systems, including the possibility of contributing to exploitation, discrimination and exclusion of social/racial groups and/or certain occupations. Any radical changes risk upsetting existing balances in outcomes for different stakeholder groups. Moreover, apprenticeships need to retain the flexibility to cope with the demands of the future of work.
Links between concepts of skill, concepts of occupation and the training system : A case study of Australia
- Authors: Smith, Erica
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Vocationalism in Further and Higher Education : Policy, Programmes and Pedagogy (Routledge Research in Education series) Chapter 6 p. 65-77
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: This paper explores the nexus between the concepts of vocation and of occupational identity and their links to the training system. Vocational education and training (VET), and apprenticeship systems in particular, have grown from concepts of occupation. It is self-evident that VET prepares, or upskills, people for work, and therefore the training must relate to job roles, whether broadly or narrowly defined. However, the processes by which students receive training that is high quality, rigorous and government-funded are not clearly defined. One yardstick that can be applied is that training is much more likely to be privileged (in terms of training provision, rigorous curriculum and government funding) when a job is considered to be an ‘occupation’. The development of occupational identity is taken for granted, for example in traditional ‘trade’ apprenticeships in Australia or the UK trainers and teachers, employers, trade unions and policy makers share a commitment to the apprenticed trades as distinct and valuable occupations. What are the implications of these issues for the training system as a whole? In Australia, as in the UK, the availability of qualifications has kept pace with the structural changes in the economy as a whole (i.e. with the relative shift to service industries), yet some occupations and some qualifications are less respected than others. This paper uses recent research carried out in Australia to show the potential effects on workers and their access to training of conceptions of ‘worth’ in work.
'Qualifications for work and further learning': The Australian approach to hybrid qualifications
- Authors: Smith, Erica
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Hybrid qualifications: Structures and problems in the context of European VET policy p. 227-240
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
Australian employers' adoption of traineeships
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Comyn, Paul , Kemmis, Ros Brennan , Smith, Andy
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Contemporary apprenticeship: International perspectives on an evolving model of learning p. 127-139
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
Employers’ management of part-time student labour
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Patton, Wendy
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Young People and Work Chapter 12 p. 203-222
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
Occupational Identity in Australian Traineeship: An initial exploration
- Authors: Smith, Erica
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Architecture of Innovative Apprenticeship p. 131-141
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
Employers' management of part-time student labour
- Authors: Smith, Erica
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Young people and work p. 204-221
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: 2003009325
The changing nature of youth employment in Australia: How can this be understood
- Authors: Smith, Erica
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Productivity, investment in human capital and the challenge of youth employment p. 105-119
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: 2003009324
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
- Full Text:
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
- Full Text:
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
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
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
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- 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.
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 place of work in school students' lives
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Green, Annette
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Middle years schooling: Reframing adolescence Chapter p. 39-58
- Full Text: false
- Description: 2003007586
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
- Full Text: false
- 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