February 2018

Apprenticeships are the one component of the VET system that the public really understand. Maybe because of this they receive a lot of policy attention. There have been two recent announcements by the Commonwealth. Real skills for real careers has been launched, focused not only on the value of apprenticeships but also other vocational training […]

The short answer is that it depends. The nature of quality is very much in ‘the eye of the beholder’ and based on the view from their ‘hill top’. Two recent publications from NCVER have explored the issue. ‘Are we all speaking the same language? Understanding ‘quality’ in the VET sector’, focuses on the distinctive

Occupations in Australia are often very heavily gender segregated: nowhere more than in many of the traditional male-dominated trades. Many attempts to shift to a more equitable gender balance have been made over the years. By and large they have not been successful. Numbers of female apprentices and tradeswomen in these trades have remained stubbornly

Rethinking fundamental and familiar elements of VET infrastructure When Australia’s skills ministers met in November 2017 they agreed to release Training product reform: What is the case for change? (21 pages). Released on 12 December, the discussion paper is a prompt for national consultation about training product design. Signs are the consultation will open up

Automation is shifting demand for skills Late in 2017, Alexandra Heath, Head of the Economic Analysis Branch, Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), spoke at the Victorian Career Advisors conference on Skills for the Modern Workforce. Her address considered how demand for skills has changed over time, and that change seems to be accelerating with the

VET providers have a new source of training, employment and industry data The Australian Industry Skills Committee (AISC) has launched the National Industry Insights Report, which you can access from the AISC’s home page. According to the AISC, the Insights Report: ‘…is a collection of information, data and insights for individual industry sectors. It captures

International speaker on March 8th Federation University is mounting an event, open to all VET practitioners, at the VDC on Thursday March 8th from 2.00pm-4.00pm, featuring international expert on VET teaching Professor Kevin Orr. Kevin, Professor of Work and Learning, is currently leading a national project in the UK on the topic of subject-specialist pedagogy