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This study analyses how one Victorian regional [Technical and Further Education] TAFE Institute is working towards understanding and contributing to skill formation for the green economy. While we already know that the provision of vocational education and training in regional areas contributes to regional innovation and development, (Kilpatrick, Johns and Rosenblatt, 2000; Gelade and Fox, 2008; Kearns, Bowman and Garlick, 2008; TAFE Directors Australia, 2011), this research provides a case study of how this is occurring with regard to the development of green skills. The study presents the perceptions and understandings of participants drawn from four different cohorts. These cohorts are (1) key players in the community/industry representatives, (2) TAFE managers, (3) TAFE teachers, and (4) TAFE students. The study found that work and jobs are changing to become more sustainable though investment in large scale alternative energy generation while often lauded had failed to reach fruition. Likewise, [vocational education and training] VET training programs are also changing with teachers and students contributing to the complex arrangements around the supply and demand for green skills. The teachers at this regional TAFE who participated in the study reported that they were well supported in accessing and participating in relevant sustainability-related professional development. Finally, numerous examples were evident throughout the study of how the work performed by staff at this TAFE institute was contributing towards regional and community development.

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In this paper, the author first signals the intention of his institution, Victoria University of Technology, to develop further its research profile in the vocational education and training (VET) field. Secondly, he outlines some concerns regarding research in VET, under the following headings: (1) lack of autonomy; (2) lack of critique; (3) dominant masculine presence; (4) misuse of ‘interpretive flexibility’. Thirdly, the paper gives information about the formation of a new nationally based professional association for those interested in the more socially critical aspects of adult and work-related education, to be known as the National Adult Education Coalition. Finally, he provides an overview of three publications currently at varying stages of production. The focus of all three is the development of curriculum for work-related learning, and two are specifically about competency-based training. Show less

This paper reports on the early stages of research in progress. It is a research project being funded by the Institute for Social and Environmental Sustainability at Latrobe University to research sustainability, [vocational education and training] VET and the transition to a low carbon economy. With governments at all levels putting in place targets, policies, infrastructure and projects to initiate more sustainable living, this paper identifies and tracks some of the key policies. In the international arena, the United Nations has instigated and facilitated substantial work in these fields. While amongst the policies and plans being put in place at a federal level are the National VET Sector Sustainability Policy and Action Plan 2009-2012, the Green Skills Agreement, and The Green Skills Agreement Implementation Plan 2010-2011. All of these policies are calling for significant changes to be instigated. Jobs are changing in a number of different ways. With some jobs, modifications are occurring to accommodate a shift to more sustainable practices; this is being accompanied by the creation of new jobs in emerging industries, while less sustainable jobs stand to be eliminated. These changes to work and jobs bring skill development within VET to the fore.

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This paper examines the concept of practitioner research, a kind of collaborative research between academics and vocational education and training (VET) practitioners in the Australian VET sector. The paper describes the types of practitioner research that have been developed, and the reasons behind the re-emergence of interest in this research. It explains the seven conceptions of practice that are frequently used as frameworks in post-graduate research studies of educational practice within VET, and outlines some areas of research currently being undertaken at the post-graduate level at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT).

The collected conference papers are indexed at TD/TNC 76.451 and TD/TNC 76.452. Selected individual papers are indexed from TD/TNC 76.453 to TD/TNC 76.480. Show less

This paper reviews a selection of the policy, curriculum, operational and research literature associated with the recognition of vocational education and training (VET) within the Victorian senior secondary certificates: the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE), and the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL). The central tenet of this paper is that VET in Victorian schools serves multiple purposes and in doing so it offers both risks and opportunities. While the outcomes of the Victorian VET programs achieve national recognition, the recognition of these programs for broader educational certification has become diverse and complex. We use statistical participation data to argue that the incorporation of VET into these senior secondary certificates, appeals to students and offers increased options and pathways in the post-compulsory years of schooling. A range of assessment strategies and procedures have been developed to assist in the recognition of VET within these senior secondary school certificates. In particular, scored assessment and its contribution to national tertiary entrance scores is at the centre of the debates over recognition of VET within VCE. Also in this mix for recognising VET within the senior secondary certificates are pre-apprenticeship programs, school-based apprenticeships and traineeships. The operational, procedural and research literature associated with the complexities of the tandem usage of competency-based and scored assessment are reviewed as they apply in the Victorian context. As with the VCE, VET is also incorporated into VCAL programs through the industry specific and work-related skills streams. VET is mandatory within the intermediate and senior levels of VCAL. The paper tries to identify and discuss the complexities in this area of VET provision.

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

The Gen Green 3 study, a partnership between La Trobe University and WorldSkills Australia captured apprentices' and trainees' experiences of skills and sustainability in workplaces and courses in 2012, building on the Gen Green 2008 and 2010 surveys. The research indicated a step change in apprentices' and trainees' experience of skills for sustainability in work and training between 2008 and 2010, but only minor changes in the experience of these skills at work and in training from 2010 to 2013. Cost was consistently indicated as the most widely experienced barrier to practicing these skills at work and the main driver for gaining these skills was a personal interesting sustainability, an interest that remained consistently high over the three surveys.

Abstract from publisher's website. Show less

This paper provides insight into the attitudes and perceptions of young people who are studying, or who are recent graduates of [vocational education and training] VET programs to identify and discuss issues and trends emerging from research into the development of 'skills for sustainability'. Located in the wake of the implementation of the Green Skills Agreement (Council of Australian Governments 2010), this paper brings together findings from recent research undertaken separately by these two researchers. The study by Sack (2012) was conducted under the auspices of the Dusseldorp Skills Forum and involves review and analysis of the 2008 and 2011 Gen Green surveys of Australian WorldSkills competitors. These two surveys have been analysed separately and more recently together, to provide a longitudinal snapshot of the issues and trends as depicted by young people in VET. The 2011 survey shows that some important environmental, social and economic skills are largely absent from courses and workplaces, suggesting scope for a broader revision of public policy around skills for sustainability in the future. Following a key finding from these two surveys that recognises technical and further education (TAFE) as the main source of learning about sustainability skills, this paper includes a slice drawn through the data in a recent study by Brown (2012) involving semi-structured interviews with 19 TAFE students located in three different TAFE institutes and one recent VET graduate. While far from universal, these TAFE students reported changes being implemented into both their work roles and their courses of study.

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The implementation of the Green Skills Agreement ratified by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) in 2010 provides the national policy context for this analysis of skills for sustainability. Data from three different but complementary studies provide powerful insight into the attitudes and perceptions of young people who are studying, or are recent graduates of, Australian Vocational Education and Training (VET) programs. [The authors] argue that the voices of the young people who participate as students are largely absent from analysis and policy-making, despite policy rhetoric about a demand driven Australian tertiary education sector responsive to consumer (student) interest and need. The combination of these three studies contributes to an improved understanding of what these young adults think and are learning with regard to skills for sustainability in their VET courses and in their workplaces.

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Informal learning has often been seen as formal learning's 'poor cousin'. Our paper explores and discusses new and different ways of thinking about defining, valuing and researching the breadth and importance of informal learning in diverse national and cultural contexts. This includes a consideration of the power relations that can act to devalue informal learning. It is underpinned by a recognition that not only do a relatively small proportion of adults currently engage in formal learning, but those who do tend already to be dedicated and successful lifelong learners. It leads to a discussion about how informal learning might be framed as part of the solution to adult exclusion, seen to be aggravated by unnecessary adult educational hierarchies, accreditation, assessment and formality.

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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