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This article explores the historically contingent and normative descriptions of vocational education and training (VET) as a low-status alternative in Australia's socio-economic process of skill and knowledge development. Rather than repeating well-rehearsed shibboleths, this retheorisation of how status works applies an institutional logics perspective as a novel addition to existing research in the sector. Historical reports and contemporary discourses sourced from submissions to a parliamentary inquiry into VET's status are used to determine which logics are used in the sector.

They demonstrate that the sector's dominant institutional logics derive from the state, market and professional orders of society. These three share an emphasis upon the use of status to determine how organisations and individuals allocate limited and valuable attention to their operating environments. The institutional logics perspective provides a meta-theoretical challenge to traditional depictions of what status represents and, in turn, suggests how public policy can be re-imagined, thus improving the sector's standing and consequent value propositions.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner.

Forthcoming article first published online 20 June 2024 by Taylor and Francis. Show less

The Whitlam Labor Government exerted increased policy and funding influence over all areas of education in Australia, including having labour market expert Myer Kangan chair a national review of TAFE which first reported in April 1974 [report available in VOCEDplus at TD/LMR 85.637]. Major barriers to entry into TAFE were extensively canvassed, with special reference to disadvantaged groups. As a result, the report recommended a range of policy and funding responses to increase citizens' opportunities to participate in a publicly funded, recurrent and vocationally oriented system of education that was equitable in its treatment of disadvantaged groups.

This presentation will describe how successive federal governments of different political persuasions stacked, knocked down, rearranged, sometimes redefined and rebuilt these 50-year-old policy components that are still being used to describe and understand those groups of people that are deemed to be disadvantaged. By framing the problem of disadvantage in a very specific way, it became bureaucratically inevitable that these assemblages of citizens were deemed suitable to have their station in life improved by participating in programs of vocational, technical and further education.

Please note that this article is NOT advocating for a particular position on any of the examples that have been chosen, rather, this is an initial effort to bring together a wide range of disparate literatures and examples to demonstrate how the process of making up groups that are responsive to government action operates. Virtually without exception, this process also augments arguments for the allocation of public policies and resources to reduce hardship. Kangan's 50th anniversary has been marked by the release of the Universities Accord final report [available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 155.81] and its modernised policy versions of disadvantaged groups. In both cases, the making up of disadvantaged groups and the related public policy responses have significant consequences for the work of educators, particularly when they become advocates for those groups deemed to be disadvantaged or individuals who have been allocated membership of one or more equity cohorts.

Edited excerpts from presentation. Show less

This article applies an institutional logics perspective to explore the journey of adult and community education [ACE] providers into public policy and funding perdition. Following a brief description of this meta-theory, the significance of the long-standing tri-partite approach to Australian [vocational education and training] VET will be explored. The roles played by status and the basis of attention are singled out to demonstrate how ACE VET service providers have progressively lost market share in the publicly funded training product markets. Outlining some implications for the ACE's future strategic options, structured by the VET sector's various institutional logics, will conclude this analysis.

Author's abstract. Show less

Describing various demographic characteristics of disadvantaged students, the programs they study and their employment outcomes is a significant area of research interest in the vocational education and training (VET) sector. This article offers a preliminary exploration of how groups are problematised and the consequent influence on VET research into disadvantage in Australia. Creating categories provides the historical and political contexts that allow specific practices and descriptors to become dominant. The major methodological approach used is a post-structuralist discourse analysis of policy documents, government VET reviews and published research into equity groups. It is argued that rather than envisaging VET research into disadvantage as a repetitious recounting of these groups' lack of access to vocational education and training, other important agendas are being served by the continued inquiries into people that experience inequity. The influence of long-standing Australian discourses that valorise, mostly male, individual responsibility to be a self-regulating citizen who maintains ongoing employment ensures that policymakers require updated productive expert research into the population to support the specialist discourses of disadvantage.

Published abstract. Show less

[Vocational education and training] VET researchers and policy-makers have historically displayed a keen interest in the future. Two assumptions link VET to the future. The first is that there is a singular object called VET and, secondly, that it can influence a forthcoming state of reality. This relationship is investigated through a rarely utilised post-structuralist discourse analysis of Australia's development of national vocational education and training policies. The performative language of policy-makers treats VET as a singular object and portrays the future as rational and predictable. By demonstrating that VET and potential realities exist in multiple forms, it might be possible to better utilise VET's capacities to produce more desirable national futures.

The findings suggest that despite continual reform of the sector, just three strategic positions and their supportive discourses have guided federated policy making. The first generally neglected technical and adult education, followed by the creation of a federally funded novel type of educational institution which eventually led to the establishment of VET quasi-markets. Each underpinning discourse exploited the productive power of language to give effect to governments' desire to improve manifold futures by deploying alternative versions of VET.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

Steve Davis interviews a diverse group of presenters from the 33rd National VET Research Conference 'No Frills,' held on 10-12 July 2024 in Perth. With a spotlight on how vocational education and training (VET) partnerships are powering a dynamic workforce, these seven engaging experts share their insights on a wide range of topics. From exploring VET in Ukraine and envisioning the future of VET in Australia to enhancing inclusivity for disadvantaged learners, creating culturally appropriate employment pathways for Indigenous students, and promoting safety and inclusion for women in the construction trade, this podcast offers a comprehensive look at the evolving landscape of vocational education and training.

The topics presented are: Partnerships in VET teacher education in Ukraine: experiences from an ERASMUS+ project / Thomas Deissinger, University of Konstanz; Thinking differently about the status of VET: an institutional logics perspective / Don Zoellner, Charles Darwin University; What do we mean by 'industry' in vocational education and training?: research findings / Erica Smith, Federation University; Supporting inclusivity and disadvantaged learners / Sam Harrison, Melbourne Polytechnic; Aboriginal perspectives in VET / Anissa Jones, UNSW Sydney; Employment pathways for remote indigenous VET students: combining industry demand with culturally appropriate employment support / Miriam Forte, Woguntha CAPS (Christian Aboriginal Parent Directed School); and No longer 'ducks on the pond': promoting women's inclusion and safety in construction trades training through gender transformative pedagogy / Brett Woods, Victoria University.

Edited summary from publisher's website. Show less

As the successful implementation of competitive [vocational education and training] VET markets enters into a predictable decline trajectory, it is incumbent upon policy makers to consider post-market options. This article explores the potential of optimising the notional national training system. In order to understand how this might be achieved, a discourse analysis of selected maps of the intended system from points of discontinuity along the policy trail is undertaken to demonstrate how Australian executive federalism has produced VET policy for the past three decades. This process exposes the existence of multiple realities that can be simultaneously experienced which, in turn, creates conceptual confusion as to what VET is and what is expected of it. By understanding the power of discourses to bring into existence the things they describe and how this activity is conducted, it becomes possible to contemplate future directions in the development of public policies for vocational education and training.

Published abstract. Show less

This presentation revisits the operations of Australia's [vocational education and training] VET market, but not to re-prosecute the ritualised dualistic arguments for and against privatisation/marketisation. Rather, this market exemplifies successful public policy implementation that has lasted for three decades. It is proposed that, as in other industries, market and product life cycles operate and both have matured and are now declining. To canvas post-market policy options, the deceptively simple question was asked - what is sold in Australia's VET market? A Foucauldian discourse analysis of a wide range of official policy documents, reform proposals, regulatory reports and lobbyist's proposals identified two words that were consistently used to describe what is for sale - products and/or services.

Author's abstract. Show less

Assuming Australian training markets represent successful policy implementation facilitates an exploration of the implications for their future evolution by querying what is sold in these markets. A Foucauldian discourse analysis of relevant documentation suggests that training markets overwhelmingly provide products and/or services. Further examination finds that these two are conceptually confused as is the contention of a single national vocational education and training [VET] market. Ontological rhetorics have been used to indiscriminately conflate products and services in pursuit of preferred political values. The performative work being done by uncritically mingling the discourses of two distinctively different markets for bureaucratic and political purposes, when combined with executive federalism, contributes to VET's exasperating complexity. Brief transactions that provide multiple useful, yet low-value, compliance-driven products differ substantially from markets that deliver educational services by developing longer term relationships that increase the national stock of higher level occupational skills. Making explicit the different perspectives that have fashioned the product and services artefacts invites more tailored market operational and regulatory approaches as well as creating the possibility of a more inclusive approach to VET policy making and delivery of vocational knowledges.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner.

Forthcoming article first published online 16 November 2023 by Taylor and Francis. Show less

Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA) has been given a number of priority tasks including the construction of a national evidence base to do with language, literacy, numeracy and digital literacy. This paper presents results of a discourse analysis of JSA's discussion paper [available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 152.452] expressing the agency's framing of the issues. The research question seeks to identify what the problem is represented to be. This method also examines some of the silences that are inherent in issues representation; these are often more revealing than focusing solely on the dialogue the agency prefers.

The absence of quantitative measurements of loosely defined concepts such as digital literacy and contested versions of literacy are uncritically linked to poor labour market outcomes for groups of Australian residents. This simple linear relationship requires further investigation in the skills development operating environment where no Jobs and Skills Council was deemed suitable to represent the education industry generally and foundation skills particularly. With 90 per cent of Australians employed to deliver services the preferred measurement dialogue apparently ignores or devalues the importance of bi/multilingualism as a contributing factor in employment considerations.

Published abstract. Show less