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Disparity in educational and career outcomes between rural, regional and remote (RRR) students and their metropolitan counterparts persists despite successive federal and state government initiatives. In this paper, we will present a study that highlights one important, yet overlooked, avenue to improve outcomes for RRR students: early-stage careers education. Informed by interviews conducted with RRR principals and deputy principals from Victoria and Queensland (n = 10), we present a new approach to the delivery and content of careers education in RRR contexts. The approach advocates for a purposeful programme from Year 7, which includes the engagement of key influencers such as parents/carers, peers and local industry, as well as tailoring activities to also reflect regional job trends and pathways. The broader implications of our findings to curriculum design are also presented and challenge the prevailing approach of Year 9/10 as the optimal period to immerse careers education.

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Skills shortages have reinvigorated ongoing debate and concern about high attrition rates among Australian apprentices and trainees. Low apprentice and trainee wages have often been cited to explain this ongoing problem. This paper discusses the factors contributing to non-completion among apprentices and trainees in regional Victoria, and how the experiences of those apprentices and trainees who did not complete their training compare to those currently in-training. It asserts that unpleasant working conditions, poor quality training, a lack of support and low wages are contributing to both non-completion and a high degree of dissatisfaction among apprentices and trainees. Consequently, it argues an increase in the apprentice and trainee wage can only go part-way to improving training outcomes and experiences and attracting young people into the system.

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The author gives some reflections on the Course in Applied Vocational Study Skills (CAVSS) in Victoria, with particular reference to Chisholm Institute of [Technical and Further Education] TAFE. The article begins with some notes on the need for study support and the roll-out of CAVSS. The article concludes with some comments and observations from staff and students. Show less

This paper explores employee participation in three healthcare organisations by focusing on the perspectives of senior managers and employees in a community health service, an emergency department in a large metropolitan health service and a regional hospital in Victoria. We explore their views of employee participation, their experiences of participation in practice, and the facilitators and barriers to participatory practice. We investigate a number of preconditions of participation, identified in earlier research; specifically, management support, union presence, perceived benefit, legislation and policy, and participatory ethos. Findings showed that management determined whether or not there was employee participation within the organisation. Hence we argue that management support is a necessary precondition to the establishment of employee participation, which only occurs where there is a perceived benefit to management. The other preconditions were subordinate to importance of management support. Management support and perceived benefit are the eminent preconditions that determine whether employee participation takes place.

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This article presents an analysis and account of a case study to find ways to better build agency and explore pathways for young English as Second Language (ESL) learners. The author conducted eight case studies of students of Non English Speaking Background (NESB) who had experienced a number of ESL courses in vocational education and training (VET) settings. The participants' lack of knowledge of competency based training and competency based assessment inspired the author to investigate agency, or the power to decide what, how and when to learn, of ESL students. The article discusses the role of curriculum in creating agency for NESB students in VET institutes in Victoria.

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This paper provides insight into the experience of Clemente humanities education for six regional and rural Australian women living around Ballarat. Each took part in an audio-taped semi-structured interview which explored the impact that university study had on their lives. Their responses suggest that Clemente Ballarat was life-giving. The student insights identified the critical importance of: providing a supportive learning environment for people lacking life opportunities and routine; students feeling better and happier with themselves resultant from personal learning achievements; doing something that was about 'me'; support from others including Learning Partners and the program's counsellor; students appreciating their academic and inner strengths; rekindling dreams and hope; seeking ways out of poverty for their family; finding friendship and connection; appreciating the academic disciplines; improvements in well-being and mental health; and pride in achievements. Students also were apprehensive about what the future may hold after completion and graduation. These insights highlight the treasures that students found when engaged in humanities education based upon community embedded socially supported structures that enable learning. Further, these insights provide contextual outcomes for the Clemente program, which could be implemented across regional and rural Australia for people experiencing multiple disadvantages or social exclusion.

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This article examines the challenges facing non-traditional university students - and to a lesser extent their lecturers in 'the stretched academy' - who are increasingly enrolling in university courses in Australia and elsewhere. The article looks at this issue from the perspective of non-traditional students at a regional campus in Victoria. These students include many from disadvantaged backgrounds and those who do not conform to the conventional idea of the Australian university student. Typically, for most of the postwar period, the traditional university student was a recent graduate from high school with good grades and enrolled full-time. Most importantly, such students came predominately from high socio-economic backgrounds that equipped them with the kind of cultural capital that provides a head start in the academic environment. By contrast, non-traditional university students of the last two decades or so are a much more diverse cohort consisting of large numbers of full-fee-paying international students, older, mature-age students studying mainly on a part-time basis by distance education, and increasing numbers of domestic students who only in recent times have aspired to a university education. Many of these latter students are ostensibly full-time but in reality spend more time in paid part-time jobs than they do on campus. These 'student-workers' are the main focus of this article because it is the dual role of the undergraduate as worker and scholar that is of concern to university personnel especially in the context of the widening participation agenda of the federal government. Such students are compelled to support themselves in term-time employment, which inevitably affects their commitment to study and consequently their academic prospects. The article concludes with the suggestion that slogans such as those in the title are misleading if they are not accompanied by financial incentives and a more inclusive curriculum that acknowledges the study-work challenges facing non-traditional university students.

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Community service learning is the name given to the integration of community service into students' courses. Community service learning can be seen as a subset of work-integrated learning. Most universities include service to the community in their mission statements. The purpose of service learning is to help the community while also helping students to gain professional skills that they might need in the future. Industry requires university graduates to be equipped with technical knowledge and also with graduate capabilities/attributes and/or generic skills such as communication, teamwork and problem-solving skills. This paper explores business students' experience of service learning in the community and investigates the attributes that students report they have achieved from their experience. The research argues that service learning can be used to develop the attributes required by university and for industry. The paper describes how the community service learning subject is offered at Australian Catholic University (ACU) in Melbourne, Australia. A content analysis was undertaken of the students' reflective reports in order to determine the skills that the students recorded that they have developed through their experience. The findings provide insight into the perceptions of students regarding their community engagement experience and how this links to the graduate attributes that the university is trying to develop in students. Billett's framework for effective incorporation of work integrated learning has been used to make recommendations regarding the outcome of community service learning at ACU. Overall, the community service was a positive experience for business students, increasing their confidence and their ability to work with others.

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This article describes the application of a new style of learning support delivery, which is driven by a form of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) and a new online learning platform. The MTSS is a systematic approach to instruction underpinned by data-driven decision-making. It aims to address the unique requirements of students. Specifically, the author elucidates the adapted tiered model developed and implemented by The Gordon Institute of TAFE.

This model added a self-service digital tier to create a four-tiered system: (1) Tier 0 is an online learning platform offering self-service learning resources, allowing students the flexibility to learn what they want, when they want; (2) Tier 1 encompasses in-class teaching during class hours, closely tied to the curriculum to offer contextual support to all students; (3) Tier 2 includes small group sessions and study groups, fostering collaborative learning and providing extra help to students who need it; and (4) Tier 3 provides one-on-one support, delivering customised, intensive assistance to students facing specific challenges. The transition from an ad hoc system to a systematic, structured model necessitated not only operational changes but also a change in working culture between learning support staff and teaching staff.

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This article focuses on education for women in prison, primarily focusing on the role of Vocational Education and Training (VET), and the way education changes lives for both the students in prison and beyond, as well as for their teachers at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre (DPFC) and Tarrengower.

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