Workplace Development

Another big focus area for policy in 2024 is likely to be foundation skills. Indeed, improving access to and support for foundation skills forms part of the skills reform agenda. A discussion paper released by Jobs and Skills Australia also looks at this issue. VDC took a look at this paper at the time and […]

This NCVER report and associated documents for 2023 was released late last year. It covers both student outcomes and satisfaction for qualification and course completers as well as part completers. It also covers short course and subject only completers as well as short course part completers. So, it’s pretty comprehensive. What the data tell us

Rethinking Tertiary Education: Building on the work of Peter Noonan was recently released by Melbourne University Press. Edited by Peter Dawkins, Megan Lilly and Robert Pascoe it presents chapters on a range of issues that were close to Peter’s heart. Readers can purchase it in hard copy or in downloadable form. The intent of the

In this ‘at a glance’ publication from the OECD, they seek to spotlight VET’s role, particularly in upper secondary education. It notes that: “The organisation and structure of vocational education vary considerably from one country to another. Approaches range from not having a differentiated vocational track in initial upper secondary education at all, to having

The latest employer use and views survey has just been released by NCVER. It collected information from 6,290 employers between March and June 2023. According to NCVER’s press release, the results tell us that “employers continue to engage with the accredited training system while increasing their use of unaccredited and informal training in 2023.” This

We wrote a bit about skills passports in VDC News in October this year, arising – as it did – from the Employment White Paper. In that article we noted that while there might be positives about setting such a system up, a key issue was quality control of what the passport contains, especially if

This recently released report, entitled “Uncovering Adult Literacy and Numeracy Needs in Australia” Using surveys and focus groups the research aimed to build a national picture of the current community need for adult LLN & D programs and support as well as identify the barriers faced by adults in accessing courses and support, and by

This ‘think piece’ draws on some articles in recent editions of the Australian Education Union’s magazine ‘The Australian TAFE Teacher’ and are focused around teachers and teaching issues. The first, by Valerie Braithwaite, published in the Autumn edition of 2017 (pp 23-25) asks ‘How do we support quality teaching in Australian VET?’ This article draws