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In recent years, there has been considerable research activity focusing on the changing role of teachers, trainers and assessors in vocational education and training ( VET) contexts. However, equal attention has not been paid to the many general staff employed in a wide range of work roles in registered training organisations (RTOs). Like teachers and trainers, the work of general staff contributes to the enactment of VET polices and their work is continually being reinvented in the changing context in which VET now operates. However, unlike their teaching/training counterparts, their voices and experiences have been largely absent from research examining issues related to the VET workforce and the building of organisational capability in RTOs. The study reported in this paper is one attempt to address this significant gap in the VET literature. The paper analyses data collected from general staff as part of a national study examining careers in VET. It examines the ways in which general staff move into VET, how their working lives unfold over time and their plans for remaining in the VET workforce in the next five years. The paper pays particular attention to the ways the working lives of general staff differ from those of their colleagues employed as teachers and trainers and the types of support that general staff are able to access in order to further their career ambitions in VET.

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