The concept of employability extends beyond initial occupational preparation into the ability to remain employable as, inevitably, occupational capacities and workplace requirements change frequently across working lives. Hence, the need to continually learn to remain occupationally current and respond to changing workplace requirements becomes…

When individuals select a particular occupation, they, their families and the community invest significant resources in their preparing for, learning about, and effective participation in that occupation. Yet, given the high attrition rates during that preparation and high levels of early separation from occupations, selection of occupations is…

Australian Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institutes are perhaps the most heterogeneous of the nation's educational sectors. However, TAFE institutes' capacity to provide inclusive education is constrained by their curriculum focus and pedagogical practices and culturally premised assumptions that may inhibit learning for students from…

A project funded through the National Vocational Education and Training Research and Evaluation program investigated higher education programs--mostly bachelor's and associate degrees--offered by technical and further education (TAFE) institutes. This overview highlights some of the implications for teachers identified by this project. [This…

Three Australian studies identified attributes of workplaces as learning environments: authentic activities, experts, other workers, and task engagement. Limitations of workplace learning included inappropriate knowledge, lack of access to activities, expert reluctance, absence of expertise, opaque knowledge, and problems with instructional media.…

The purpose of this support document is to: (1) provide a fuller version of the literature review than in the report and issues paper; and (2) provide the interview schedules that were used to gather the data for this project. (Contains 7 footnotes.) [Funding for this report was provided through the Australian Department of Education, Science and…

Interviews with skilled mine workers in Queensland, Australia, suggest that informal learning in the workplace enables authentic activities, access to experts, and sociocultural environment conductive to the development of expertise. Skilled work means technical competence in a context of sociocultural values. (SK)

The factors that influence learning in workplaces were examined through a study of guided learning in five workplaces. Special attention was paid to the dual considerations of how workplaces afford opportunities for learning and how individuals elect to engage in activities and the guidance provided by the workplace. The readiness of the workplace…

This book, which is designed for human resource practitioners and students in courses on professional development and adult and vocational learning, examines strategies for effective practice in workplace learning. The introduction discusses interest in and ambivalence toward workplace learning and key premises of workplace learning. The following…

Understanding how learning for small businesses should best proceed constitutes a worthwhile, yet challenging, pedagogic project. In order to maintain their viability, small businesses need to be able to respond to new practices and tasks. Yet small businesses seem neither attracted to nor to value the kinds of taught courses that are the standard…

A study conceptualized bases for learning in workplaces, examining reciprocity between how individuals are afforded access to workplace activities and guidance and how workers elect to engage in what they are offered. These reciprocal bases for thinking, acting, and learning are called "co-participation at work." The contributions that…

The contribution of competency-based training (CBT) to the development of an adaptable and flexible workforce was examined by analyzing documents and gathering data from teachers, industry representatives, enterprises, and students in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan sites in two Australian states: Victoria and Queensland. The study focused on…

A 1998 study conducted by researchers from the Centre For Learning and Work Research at Griffith Univ. and The Studies of Work, Education and Training, at Monash Univ. sought to evaluate the contributions of competency-based training (CBT) and assessment to Australian vocational education and training. "Introduction" (Stephen Billet,…

Recent research on Australia's vocational education and training (VET) system and women in small business was synthesized to identify ways of making VET more responsive to the needs of women in small business. Special attention was paid to the following topics: key issues affecting public policy (globalization, economic development, industry…