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This research paper focuses on the provision and teaching of vocational education and training (VET) programs to young people within Victorian secondary schools. The study identifies and discusses the way that VET in schools programs are nuanced as they are made to fit the state system, then with the individual school settings and circumstances. These programs are important in offering a range of relevant and useful programs to a diverse range of senior secondary school students. The study found that when a VET program is provided to students through a secondary school setting in Victoria it will: (1) be made appropriate for students aged 15 to 21; (2) occur as part of one of the two senior secondary school certificates; and (3) often have undergone some modifications to its authenticity with some flow on effect to its reliability and validity due to the limitations and nature of the school-based context. Accordingly, teachers and school administrators are required to be creative in fine-tuning their program provision as they work through issues that arise around costs, quality and effectiveness.

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Education Links is produced by a group of teachers, students and university staff working to bring about democratic and socially progressive change in Australian schooling, as part of a broad political movement towards socialism in Australia. The magazine aims to present a socialist analysis of a wide range of theoretical and practical issues in education and is not affiliated with any political party.

Excerpt from publication.

Contents: Editorial; Multiple tales for training / Peter Waterhouse; Navel-gazing TAFE: from Kangan to [vocational education and training] VET and beyond / Peter Rushbrook; Revisiting the craft tradition / Peter Ewer; Feminist pedagogy and praxis / Kate Pritchard Hughes; Does it add up: adult education, mathematics and economic rationalism / Gail FitzSimons; Building castles in the air? / Crina Virgona; Perspectives on unemployment / Mark Brophy. Show less

This paper focuses on evidence of positive interactions between schools and community sheds in Australia to examine what it is about shed-based community programs and pedagogies that are attractive to some early school leavers and school resisters. It is based primarily on interview data from the subset of men’s sheds across Australia with school programs that formed part of our 2007 research into men's sheds. It is complemented by insights from interviews with men's sheds participants and rural fire volunteers about what it was that also led many of them to also 'shed' school early. Our paper identifies links between the success factors associated with informal learning pedagogies in voluntary and community groups identified in the UK and success factors associated with community-based shed programs in Australia. We identify the potential benefits of sheds in engaging both early school leavers and older men with negative recollections of school, in enjoyable, regular, hands-on activity. We also discuss ways in which some of the difficulties associated with shed-based school programs that seek to engage and reintegrate early school leavers might be avoided or minimised. Finally, we pose some unanswered questions about the implications of our research findings for education and training providers.

Published abstract.

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 research uses an analysis of three case studies of innovative programs to explore the way that contemporary approaches to curriculum and pedagogical practice in VET might facilitate blindspots. The inclusions and exclusions of a particular field of study and/or practice can be very revealing and if de-differentiation is about breaking down and blurring the borders of such areas then what might be gained from applying such a process to VET. The concepts of informal, non formal and incidental learning are used to expand what passes as knowledge in this area before work towards an alternative analytical framework is presented. This framework has two distinctive lenses. The first involves aspects of what is generally considered to be innovative practice in enterprise based training programs. The second lens utilises concepts that are aimed at making the political dimensions of such programs more overt.

Published abstract.

The volume of collected papers is indexed at TD/TNC 60.88. Show less

This paper summaries issues and identifies gaps that have arisen from the initial review of literature associated with the ‘Transition from VET to university: what are the pedagogical issues?’ research project. This is an on-going research project funded by [the National Centre for Vocational Education Research] NCVER. This study explores the pedagogical practices encountered by vocational education and training (VET) graduates making the transition into university programs. The research is looking to provide an evidence base for the development of strategies that will enhance the student’s experience of cross-sectoral transition. The aims of this project are in line with the recommendations of the Bradley Review and subsequent moves by Australian universities to attract VET graduates into undergraduate university programs. Amongst the gaps identified are: the need for direct findings devised from speaking with VET students going into higher education; evaluating the adaptability of VET students transitioning to the pedagogical practices utilized in higher education; and exploring whether the use of authentic learning tasks and assessment might be appropriate within first year higher education programs.

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