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Nurturing and enhancing the skills and abilities of the workforce is critical to a firm's ability to sustain a competitive advantage, and to the ability of the economy as a whole to remain competitive. The need to continually develop the skills of employees has become even more of an imperative in the context of rapid technological change, globalisation of production and changing forms of work organization. Education and training confer significant economic and non-economic advantages for the individual, the firm and society, and whilst these gains are notoriously difficult to measure, they are almost universally acknowledged. Whilst it is almost undeniable that an increasingly globalised economy requires a more highly skilled and malleable workforce, in the current context of reduced government intervention and increasing competitive pressures on enterprises, the provision and funding of education and training has become increasingly problematic. Accordingly, issues surrounding the precise nature of the relationship between the individual, the employer and the government are crucial to the future of VET [vocational education and training] in Australia. This paper critically examines both the economic and psychological approaches to the examination of employees' decision to participate in VET, and presents a discussion of the advantages of a cross-disciplinary approach to enhance our understanding in this field. An experimental design process utilising this approach is also reviewed along with an examination of future research applications.

Published abstract.

Available papers from the 8th Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA) Conference, 'Emerging futures: recent, responsive and relevant research', are indexed from TD/TNC 81.564 to TD/TNC 81.610. Show less