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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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Teacher educators, like other curriculum developers make decisions and choices about what gets included into the programs which they teach. As a teacher educator in the field of [vocational education and training] VET method, I am often asked by stakeholders external to the university to account for what it is we do in our teacher education programs. Meantime my colleagues within the program ask what is it that I want the pre-service secondary teachers to know about VET. Unfortunately though this is all too often then followed up with ‘and you have got one session to do it’. This article provides a brief overview of what we attempt to cover in our Dip Ed Secondary pre-service teacher education program on the topic of VET and VET in schools.

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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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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 paper discusses the experiences of [vocational education and training] VET students who gained credit for their previous VET studies and have articulated directly into the second year of undergraduate programs. It presents evidence on how these VET credit transferees (VCTs) negotiate university and on their expectations of courses, which were reported as vastly different from their experiences in the VET sector. Based on a qualitative analysis of individual interviews with students, and in contrast to their previous experiences of learning within a VET environment, the students in this study report that the higher education learning environment seems less willing, or able, to address the unique transition needs of these students. The consequence of this has been various levels of engagement and disengagement within higher education, with a new barrier to 'seamless' transition identified.

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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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