Links between concepts of skill, concepts of occupation, and the training system: A case study of Australia (original) (raw)
Related papers
Successive governments have pledged to enhance the quality of apprenticeship in Britain so as to achieve ‘parity of esteem’ with academic study. Yet, at the same time, the discourse of the academic-vocational divide has dominated the academic, policy-maker and practitioner debates. This paper draws on two recent studies designed to explore the learner identities of apprentices on different apprenticeship programmes: motor vehicle maintenance (level 2) and engineering (level 3). Through this work we are able to explore the role of the academic-vocational divide in identity construction and to challenge assumptions about vocational learners. It will be argued, that, far from being ‘naturally practical’, the young people draw on normative discursive categories in their construction of continuous identities. The findings raise important questions about the UK apprenticeship system as currently conceived, while at the same time drawing attention to the possibility for change.
Occupational Identity and Vocational Education
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1111 1469 5812 00010, 2013
This book is a welcome addition to a small but growing literature on the philosophy of work-based learning. Beckett and Hager aim to draw attention, not only to the economic importance of such learning, but also to problems for practical epistemology in giving a satisfactory account of it. They also seek to set out and defend a particular view of how worthwhile work-based learning and practice should be characterised, which they call an integrated model of competence (p. 59). The context of their discussion is what they call 'postmodernity' which includes among other things, the turbo-charged economic transformation that, in a time of globalisation, has caught up both developed and developing societies in rapid economic change. The general philosophical approach to the issue of workplace learning owes much to Dewey and Wittgenstein, probably more to the former than to the latter. While sharing Dewey's suspicion of ontological dualism and his reluctance to make hard-and-fast distinctions, they also draw on Wittgenstein's emphasis on attention to particulars, to the importance of context to the attribution of mental concepts, to the exercise of abilities in practical situations and to his characterisation of social activity as rule-governed.
Socio-personal premises for selecting and securing an occupation as vocation
2010
What motivates and directs individuals towards particular careers is an important issue for vocational and professional education. Individuals, their families and community invest significant time and financial resources when learning about and how to participate effectively in their selected occupation. Yet, given high attrition rates in some forms of occupational preparation and high levels early separation from occupations, understanding the bases by which individuals make decisions about their occupation becomes important. Drawing on synopses of earlier studies, and a current study of student nurses engagement with their occupation, it is proposed that individuals make occupational choices at various distances from the occupation itself. Importantly, individuals' premises for wanting to become a nurse are multi-fold, distinct and likely shaped by the particular experiences of each individual's life history. Yet, the more remote that decision-making occurs from actual practice the greater their choice is premised on ideals, rather than actualities of the occupation. Regardless, the process of forming an identity associated with an occupation is premised on negotiations between the occupation as a conception of practice and what is experienced through engaging with the occupation. Those who have a greater knowledge of what constitutes the occupation in practice and its requirements are more likely to engage in distinct kinds of negotiations and make more informed decisions about their chosen work or occupation, than those who have not engaged or have done so only remotely. These negotiated bases suggest the process of becoming is one negotiated between personal and social imperatives more than participation alone or the particular qualities of an occupation. In all, the agency of the individual directs and mediates these negotiations in identifying with and 'becoming' a practitioner.
Exploring complementarity in on- and off-job training for apprenticeships
International Journal of Training and Development, 2003
Exploring complementarity 83 is concerned over survival as a productive business enterprise and will guide the apprentices' practical learning with that in mind. The apprentices are caught between these two sites of learning, and as they move from one to another, they are required to adjust to the demands of the workplace and college, juggling the messages from each environment and reconciling the roles of apprentice-worker and student. They are constantly being challenged to use and make sense of the learning they undertake in each environment and they are continually involved in the process of attempting to integrate their learning. Irrespective of any activities planned by the industry association, host employers or college teachers, it is ultimately the apprentices who are challenged to make sense of their own learning. This paper, which emerges from an earlier funded study of apprentice training in Australia , explores the differences perceived by apprentices between on-and off-job learning environments and the varying perceptions of the complementarity between them. The authors contend that, whether in the construction industry or across the broad spectrum of apprenticeship areas, difficulties in the implementation of training reform have arisen less at the structural level and more at the human interface; its architects have largely failed to account for how the actors and stakeholders perceive changes, and work or do not work with them. The following study is thus an investigation of the perceptions of apprentices, host employers and college teachers on matters relating to the complementarity of on-and off-job learning in the building and construction industry. The issue of complementarity, or its lack, between the institutional, formalized site of learning, the college, and the practical, informal site of learning, the worksite, is explored in this paper from the perspective of the host employers, college teachers and particularly the apprentices.
Finding an apprenticeship: hidden curriculum and social consequences
Frontiers in Psychology, 2015
In Switzerland, the majority of students are oriented toward professional training after compulsory schooling. At this stage, one of the biggest challenges for them is to find an apprenticeship position. Matching supply and demand is a complex process that not only excludes some students from having direct access to professional training but also forces them to make early choices regarding their future sector of employment. So, how does one find an apprenticeship? And what do the students' descriptions of their search for apprenticeships reveal about the institutional determinants of social inequalities at play in the system? Based on 29 interviews conducted in 2014 with 23 apprentices and 6 recruiters in the Canton of Vaud, this article interrogates how the dimensions of educational and social trajectories combine to affect access to apprenticeships and are accentuated by recruiters using a "hidden curriculum" during the recruitment process. A hidden curriculum consists of knowledge and skills not taught by the educational institution but which appear decisive in obtaining an apprenticeship. By analyzing the contrasting experiences of students in their search for an apprenticeship, we identify four types of trajectories that explain different types of school-to-apprenticeship transitions. We show how these determinants are reinforced by the "hidden curriculum" of recruitment based on the soft skills of feeling, autonomy, anticipation, and reflexivity that are assessed in the context of recruitment interactions. The discussion section debates how the criteria that appear to be used to identify the "right apprentice" tend to (re)produce inequalities between students. This not only depends on their academic results but also on their social and cultural skills, their ability to anticipate their choices and, more widely, their ability to be a subject in their recruitment search. "The Subject is neither the individual, nor the self, but the work through which an individual transforms into an actor, meaning an agent able to transform his/her situation instead of reproducing it." (Touraine, 1992, p. 476).
Apprenticeships and traineeships: participation, progress and completion
Apprenticeships and traineeships: participation, progress and completion, 2010
This briefing paper draws together findings from two LSAY (Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth) research reports: 'Participation in and progress through New Apprenticeships'; and the 'VET pathways taken by school leavers'. These two reports use data obtained from young people who were in Year 9 at school in 1995 and whose educational and occupational activities were traced each year thereafter. Student characteristics, fields of training, commencement and completion rates, and reasons for discontinuing are all explored. This paper, published by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), is part of the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth research program.
Pre-apprenticeships in Australia: differing orientations and their policy implications
Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 2013
ABSTRACT Little has been published in the Australian vocational education and training (VET) literature on the topic of pre-apprenticeships, which are a loose type of preparatory courses for apprenticeships available in some trades. Nevertheless, pre-apprenticeships have been in existence for several decades. With continuing concern over skill shortages in Australia, the research study on which this paper is based investigated the role of pre-apprenticeship courses in addressing skill shortages in the electrotechnology, automotive and engineering trades, some of the largest ‘traditional trades’ in Australia, and those with sizeable numbers in pre-apprenticeships. The principal objective of the overall study was to determine whether the use of pre-apprenticeships increased the size and suitability of the supply of entrants to the traditional apprenticeships and whether pre-apprenticeships do or might increase completion rates in apprenticeships. The paper uses findings from the study to develop a typology of pre-apprenticeship courses, proposing two fundamental orientations and discussing whether different orientations towards pre-apprenticeships are compatible with one another.
Vocational Education and Training - Paul Hager and Terry Hyland
Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Education, 2003
If educational processes are viewed in broad, non-formal terms as aspects of 'upbringing' (White 1997:83), then vocational studies is as old and, since it is vital to survival and reproduction, arguably older than any other form of education. The concept of apprenticeship - an historically important component in accounts of vocational education and training (VET) - provides a useful entry point here. If apprenticeship is conceived in terms of teaching/learning processes whereby a novice or initiate is enabled to achieve mastery in a particular sphere of activity, then such vocationalism must date back to the very earliest times when humans first organised themselves into distinct communities