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This article examines issues and challenges associated with the provision of effective professional teacher education for vocational education and training in schools (VETiS) teachers. Current minimum levels of qualifications for VETiS teachers are argued to be inadequate for the complexity of preparing senior secondary students for work in the future. VETiS teachers require a deep understanding of education and teaching that, as per their colleagues in schools, is acquired through completing a university-based teacher education program. Faculties of education are urged to enact strategies to recruit students to enter these university-based teacher education programs on the basis of their VET qualification and additional industrial experience. However, these university-based teacher education programs need to be specifically designed and tailored to the needs of these nontraditional higher education students. Evidence is presented from one such program and is used to identify potential features for an effective model of VETiS teacher education.

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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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This paper looks at the development of green skills in a Regional TAFE Institute. The study follows the implementation of the Green Skills Agreement and explores the perceptions of stakeholders and participants about how jobs are changing, the demand for green skills along with possible future directions, inclusion of learning about sustainability and green skills within [vocational education and training] VET programs, and access to appropriately aligned professional development for TAFE teachers and managers. The paper reports on data collected through interviews with four TAFE managers, five TAFE teachers, seven TAFE students, and four industry and/or community representatives.

Stakeholders in green industries are reporting that their economic viability tends to be closely tied to government subsidies, and some are expressing some frustration at the promises of businesses and government to develop a large scale solar industry. However, the domestic solar industry continues to grow. TAFE managers and teachers report seeing more sustainability-orientated content being included in their courses. TAFE staff also report positively on receiving access to associated professional development as the senior management at this Institute appear to be supporting the development of TAFE staff to teach green skills. The students interviewed for this research were studying Electrotechnology and Land and Conservation Management. Both groups reported seeing changes being implemented in their workplaces, their courses of study and the community. The students interviewed tended to be very knowledgeable and interested in the changes they were seeing.

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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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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 questions the nature of reform advocated by the present changes to the workplace and its culture, and argues that competency-based training (CBT) is out of alignment with the construction of an agenda for workplace reform that should be a collaborative action. CBT may be viewed as aligning with the interests of the status quo and inappropriate to the interests of working people. Show less

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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One of the strategies being advocated in response to climate change is the need to transition to a low carbon economy. Current projections show that within this transition, new jobs will be created, some eliminated and most others subjected to change. This article reports findings from interviews with a selection of 20 participants who are involved in the formation and/or deployment of green skills. The participants were asked about their perceptions of: (1) how jobs are changing in the transition to a green economy; (2) how are adult learners developing and using green skills; and (3) what are some of the main drivers and blockers to the development and use of green skills. The data are presented as vignettes from various positions of supply and demand within the emerging green economy.

The findings of this study report that the organisations and the training providers are motivated to develop and/or deploy green jobs and green skills for a range of different reasons. These include the making of a favourable business case, environmental beliefs about conserving the finite resources of the planet, and for health and wellbeing reasons. Some blockers that have been identified are the initial capital outlay for any changes, and the need to address some inconsistencies that arise over time in the financial arrangements when trying to work out the business case. This has led the designers and contractors working in renewable energy to call for a level playing field with those who provide and utilise finite resources and non-renewable energy. Overall transition to a low carbon and green economy is shown to be supported and occurring with some limited success. However there is a need for further larger scale research into this area of skill formation and deployment.

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This paper argues that competency based training (CBT) as the dominant approach to reform in curriculum and pedagogy is contrary to the interests of working people and labour. The paper provides five examples representing a selection of different industries, different subject areas and different levels of studies across occupations.

The paper argues that workers and educators are not resources to be manipulated in accordance with employer and market interests. Rather, they are active agents who must determine the collective purposes of their society. As a result, curriculums and training methods must be designed to reflect these intentions. Rather than focus on the reform of workers, this paper argues that reforms for workers must set the agenda. Show less

The author attempts to relate and interweave a number of distinct themes, beginning with a description of scientific management as developed by Frederick W. Taylor. This is followed by an introduction to the notion of skill formation, and a brief discussion of the current political and economic context and the relationship between workplace reform and educational reform. The third section reviews competency-based training.

The paper concludes with a summarised critique which leads to the finding that the Richmond TAFE model of CBT is an example of 'classroom Taylorism' and represents a form of 'educational engineering', which works against the interests of the learners. Show less