Vocational education and training in Australian schools: issues for practitioners (original) (raw)
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Vocational education and training in Australian schools
The Australian Educational Researcher, 2007
While vocational subjects have always been part of the school curriculum, formal vocational education and training (VET) in the last two years of secondary education has been a policy focus for the last decade. In the Australian context, VET in schools is defined as courses that lead to industry recognised qualifications under the Australian Qualifications Framework while at the same time contributing to the standard Year 12 certificate. The number of students doing such courses has increased dramatically and is now close to one in two. The article looks at some history, the characteristics of the courses, the success of the policy in terms of school retention and labour market outcomes, and remaining challenges.
This article is a critical review of policy and literature relating to vocational education and training (VET) in schools in Australia. Over the past decade in Australia, VET in schools has grown considerably so that not only are nearly half of senior school students now involved, but also VET in schools represents around 10% of total VET activity. In both schools and the VET sector itself, VET in schools was originally marginalised and this article explores its movement from the margins towards the mainstream in both spheres. An overview of the growth of VET in schools in Australia, along with other vocational developments in schools, is given, along with discussion of some of the benefits and challenges of VET in schools, both from a schooling perspective and from a national skills formation perspective. The consequences of the move from margins to mainstream have not yet been fully digested and debate rarely moves beyond consideration of implications for the school sector. The article moves beyond these narrow confines to raise broader questions for the VET sector.
Vocational education and training in schools in victoria: an appraisal six years down the track
Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 2001
This article examines the impact of an initiative designed to integrate vocational education and training in the senior school leaving certificate in the Australian state of Victoria. Drawing on two studies of senior secondary school students conducted by the Educational Outcomes Research Unit at the University of Melbourne, it attempts to assess whether, on the basis of data available to date, the VET in Schools programme has been a success. The article describes the programme's features and the way it has attempted to integrate general and vocational education within a common leaving certificate -the Victorian Certificate of Education. It presents data comparing the attitudes to workplace learning of students enrolled in the VET in Schools programme and students not enrolled in the programme. Finally, it presents data on the labour market and study destinations of students graduating from the programme. The article finds that the programme has been remarkably successful in terms of enrolment growth, positive attitudes to workplace learning and successful transitions to work and further study.
Pressure for schools to adopt a more vocationally oriented approach to the education of young people is by no means new, especially in times of economic dislocation. White has demonstrated considerable similarities in public policy responses to periods of youth unemployment in the 1890s, 1930s and 1990s (White 1995). In each case, demands for increasing vocational relevance were placed on education systems, at least until the peak of the crisis was perceived to have passed. Australian education systems at the beginning of the twenty-first century are once more in a period in which great hope is placed on an expanded vocational dimension to school students' learning. Some of these initiatives are purely school-based and rely on school-oriented certification and recognition, such as the various State Higher School Certificates (HSC), School Certificates (SC) and Senior Certificates. Others attempt to utilise recognition arrangements under the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF), which is intended to apply to programs in the national vocational education and training (VET) sector, primarily oriented to vocational preparation of adults. My work in this paper builds on recent research on the Australian and overseas experience of VET in Schools and Work Based Education. I argue that not all innovations under the VET in Schools rubric are equally valuable. I suggest that programs and policies which depart from the traditional educative role of schools in favour of an unduly narrow concept of 'training' or work-relevance are likely to be self-defeating; that work itself may be a rich source of student learning and development; and that VET in Schools initiatives too frequently represent an evasion of a pressing need for more deep-seated reform of schools and schooling.
Vocational Education in Secondary Schools. A Review of the Literature
1993
The literature on vocational education (VE) in secondary schoolff. was reviewed. The main conclusion of the review of international and Australian policy trends and directions in VE was that, to date, Australian attempts to create a more vocationally relevant curriculum have resulted in a system in which the academic curriculum has remained central and vocational options are offered in only a piecemeal manner. It was therefore recommended that policymakers decide whether to pursue VE as a new and inclusive component of the secondary school curriculum or to retain vocational options for less able students. It was further recommended that policymakers consider the following issues when deciding secondary VE's future: equity, certification, supply side economics, the relationship between general education and VE, school-workplace links, the value of part-time work experience to secondary school students, and differentiation of the levels of VE. A model for VE in Australian schools ...
ABSTRACT: The vocational education and training (VET) sector in Australia has undergone a prolonged period of substantial and significant restructuring. Reforms have been driven by a pressure to increase market forces within the system, and to gear'outputs' ever more closely to economic considerations and the needs of industry. This paper outlines the key elements of VET reform and links these developments to the ideological dominance of market based policy in the public sector, and the influence of human capital theory on ...
Vocational Education Today: Topical Issues
This book contains 13 papers examining topical issues in vocational education and training (VET) in Victoria, Australia. The following papers are included: "Vocational Education and Schooling: The Changing Scene" (Jane Kenway, Sue Willis, Peter Watkins, Karen Tregenza); "The Enterprise Approach" (James Mulraney); "VET Programs at James Harrison College" (John Bromilow); "'Great Organisations Dream Great Dreams" (David Gallagher); "An Investigation into the Impact of Mentoring Unemployment" (Barbara Hammond); "Issues Confronting Vocational Education in Victorian Schools in the Late 1990s" (Karen Tregenza, Jane Kenway, Peter Watkins); "Participant Pathways and Outcomes in Vocational Education and Training: 1992-95" (Peter Dwyer, Aramiha Harwood, Geoff Poynter, Johanna Wyn); "Paths to Pathways: Educational Pathways for Educationally Disadvantaged Young People" (Jennifer Angwin, Louise Laskey); "Enh...