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The number of mature-age Australians registered with employment services is growing, with mature-age jobseekers spending longer unemployed and on income support than younger jobseekers. However, the role of employment services in extending working lives has so far received little attention in policy discourses on ageing and employment. This article examines the effectiveness of Australia's employment services system in supporting mature-age jobseekers, drawing upon interviews conducted as part of wider research on unemployment and underemployment in mature-age. [The authors] find that the overriding experience among mature-age jobseekers is of a system that exudes 'carelessness'. [The authors] situate mature-age jobseekers' experiences of systemic carelessness within the context of wider welfare reforms that have contributed to the de-professionalisation and routinisation of employment services' delivery.

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Pathways refer to the linkages that can be made between Adult Community Education (ACE) and accredited vocational education and training (VET). These linkages are particularly important for women identified as disadvantaged under the National Women's VET Strategy. The Women's Strategy aims for increased participation and more equitable outcomes for these women. Pathway planning describes a strategy adult educators can use to develop or improve the pathways women take from informal/non-accredited education courses to accredited courses. The pathway planning project conducted under the Women's Strategy and funded by the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) documented practices providing pathways to accredited VET programs. The purpose of this resource is to assist ACE organisations and other VET providers in the planning and development of pathways. Case studies gathered during the project are included to illustrate how ACE provides entry points for people to formal/accredited education during their adult lives and how partnerships between ACE and TAFE institutes provide VET to remote and isolated communities. This resource begins with an introductory section explaining the projects and the concept of pathway planning. The next section provides a collection of examples describing the provider, the pathway approach and its key features. A comprehensive index enables access to the material by organisation, theme and type of pathway model. Show less

The research aimed to investigate disability employment practices, performance and strategies across the disability sector in Victoria. The Equity Research Centre was contracted by the research project management group to conduct the research. The overall project objectives were to: identify current levels of employment of people with disabilities in the not-for-profit disability sector in Victoria; consult with disability organisations and consumers about barriers to, and examples of, best practice in the employment of people with disabilities in the not-for-profit disability sector; develop strategies for increasing opportunities for the employment of people with disabilities in sector organisations; and raise awareness in the sector and in the Victorian and Federal Governments of the role of government-funded disability agencies in providing employment opportunities for people with disabilities. Show less

Over the past twenty years there have been three major studies of outcomes of adult and community education (ACE) in Victoria. Governments at both federal and state levels have risen and fallen over those twenty years, policies about ACE have changed, as have the structures overseeing ACE government funding, which has increased exponentially since 1986, and is more closely aligned with vocational education and training (VET) policy. Yet there is considerable congruence in what ACE was and is achieving and how it is and was valued by its students. The studies are: 'Community learning: the outcomes report' idexed at TD/VIC 14.02; 'Outcomes and pathways in adult and community education' indexed at TD/VIC 43.14; and reports from the ACE longitudinal study indexed at TD/TNC 83.119 and TD/TNC 87.575. This paper looks at the similarities and differences in these three studies that have reported outcomes of ACE in Victoria over those twenty years.

Available papers from the 11th Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA) Conference are indexed from TD/TNC 92.459 to TD/TNC 92.499 and from TD/TNC 92.701 to TD/TNC 92.716. Show less

This document reports on a qualitative study that was undertaken as part of an initial inquiry into the contours of mature-age workforce. The study is one of three complementary research elements. Firstly, the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM) undertook an analysis of Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Wave 8 survey (2008) to better understand the contours of participation. Building on this evidence, this qualitative study was developed. It asks 10 interviewees to reflect on their working lives since leaving school, their current circumstances and their future aspirations. Finally, to set these findings in historical context, the social, cultural, economic and political landscape over the past 50 years was reviewed to better understand the changing context of the working lives of Australian baby boomers. Each aspect of the research provides different insights into the workforce participation of mature-age Australians.

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How to respond to an ageing society has become an increasingly important question, for employers, workers and policy makers. Here [the authors] critically engage with that debate, arguing that future approaches to the relationship between work and age should take into account multiple influences on older worker behaviour, including the combination of economic, lifecourse and personal priorities. [The authors] consider the international consensus that has emerged about the primacy of work as the solution to what to do with a long life. [They] then address the uncertain nature of work as it affects older workers, and discuss the commodification of time in relation to a productivist approach to demographic ageing and the attitudes of older workers themselves.

A tension is noted between pressures for continuity and discontinuity within the adult lifecourse, which is often eclipsed within a policy discourse that tends to focus on continuity as a route to social legitimacy. Thinking about life-time as a meta-narrative, a tension between existential life priorities and commodification, may help to explain the ease with which 'live longer-work longer' policies both dominate and obscure the potential of a long life. Finally, [the authors] examine the implications for work-life balance and suggest this needs to be radically re-thought when addressing the purpose of a longer working life and the promise of a long life in general.

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This paper is part of a project designed to investigate the extent to which urban communities that include significant populations of disadvantaged citizens are engaging in community-based strategies centred on learning and the contribution of vocational education and training (VET) organisations. Four case studies based in urban areas in four different states were undertaken as part of the research approach. Each case study examined a specific initiative that met the criteria for a ‘learning community’ and involved at least one VET organisation. This case study focuses on the Youth Issues Working Party of the recently established South-East Local Learning and Employment Network (SELLEN) in the Dandenong region of Victoria. Using processes that meet the criteria of a learning community, the SELLEN and its Youth Issues Working Party is finding ways to elicit significant and meaningful contributions from young people to enable it to achieve its goals. The paper covers the concept and form of the learning community, strategies being created to develop the concept, how these strategies link in with general community capacity building, the outcomes for disadvantaged groups and individuals, and how the initiative will be evaluated.

Papers from the project are indexed from TD/TNC 81.419 to TD/TNC 81.425 and at TD/TNC 76.234, TD/TNC 66.263 and TD/TNC 66.261. Show less

Levels of mature-age unemployment and under-employment are increasing in Australia, with older jobseekers spending longer unemployed than younger jobseekers. This article focuses on two key explanations of the difficulties confronting older jobseekers: human capital theory, which focuses on the obsolescence of older workers' job skills, and ageism in employment. Drawing upon narrative interviews with older Australians, it critically engages with both these understandings. Using a Bourdieusian analysis, it shows how ageing intersects with the deployment of different forms of capital that are valued within particular labour market fields to shape older workers' 'employability'. By examining how class, gender and age intersect to structure experiences of marginalization, it questions conventional analyses that see older workers as discriminated against simply because they are older.

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This paper investigates how age and gender interact to shape older jobseekers' experiences of age discrimination within a mixed methods framework. The analysis reveals that there has been a considerable decline in levels of perceived ageism among older men nationally relative to older women. These findings suggest that the nature of ageism experienced by older women is qualitatively different from men. Hence, policy responses to ageism need to be far more tailored in their approach because present, one-size-fits all, business case approaches rely on an overly narrow concept that obscures the gender and occupational dimensions of ageism.

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A major theme within social gerontology is how retirement 'is being re-organised, if not undone'. Institutional supports for retirement are weakening, with pension ages rising in many countries. Increasing numbers of older workers are working past traditional retirement age on a part-time or self-employed basis, and a growing minority are joining the ranks of the long-term unemployed. Drawing upon narrative interviews with older Australians who are involuntarily non-employed or underemployed, this article explores how the 'unravelling' of retirement is experienced by a group of older workers on the periphery of the labour market. While policy makers hope that higher pension ages will lead to a longer period of working life, the risk is that older workers, especially those experiencing chronic insecurity in the labour market, will be caught in a netherworld between work and retirement.

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