The study reported here used a practice theory lens to understand vocational education and training (VET) teachers' current practices in supporting integration of learning in educational institutions and workplaces -- specifically for refugee and migrant students. A case study was conducted with 10 teachers delivering aged care programmes in South…

This publication provides a summary of the outcomes of international students who completed a nationally recognised vocational education and training (VET) qualification in Australia during 2019 using data collected in mid-2020. These students were surveyed as an additional component to the 2020 National Student Outcomes Survey. Information is…

The purpose of this article is to describe the experiences of culturally disparate adult learners undertaking an initial teacher education (ITE) placement in Australian school settings. Using a hybridised phenomenological methodological approach, the accounts of these students were interpreted to reveal instances of symbolic violence that…

This occasional paper provides a stocktake of recent developments in continuing professional development for VET practitioners. It explores issues such as industry currency, the debate around a professional association for VET and the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment as the minimum qualification for VET practitioners. Through synthesising…

The introduction of strict social distancing measures and mandated lockdowns necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic created new and unprecedented challenges for the vocational education and training (VET) sector. In response, approximately three-quarters (75.2%) of registered training organisations (RTOs) surveyed in early 2021 moved training to…

This publication provides a summary of the outcomes of international students who completed their vocational education and training (VET) qualification in Australia in 2017. These students were surveyed as an additional component to the 2018 National Student Outcomes Survey. The international component comprised international onshore graduates…

This report provides a summary of the outcomes of international students who completed their vocational education and training (VET) qualification in Australia in 2018. These students were surveyed as an additional component to the 2019 National Student Outcomes Survey. Highlights include: Reason for training - 70.0 per cent of international…

It is now more than 10 years after the publication of the monograph, "The Activist Teaching Profession," which, at the time, could be described as a call to action for the teaching profession. I reflect here on how far has the profession progressed in responding to that call to action. The idea of a "call to action" could be…

This study explores employers' perspectives on workforce training from 10 firms in three industries (red meat processing, road freight transport, and freight forwarding) located in urban and regional areas of five states on Australia's eastern seaboard. The analysis draws on data collected at interviews with senior managers and internal and…

Digital technologies offer immense potential for transforming teacher learning and the delivery of professional development activities throughout teachers' careers. As the COVID-19 pandemic has made face-to­-face professional learning challenging or impossible for teachers to attend in many contexts, online professional learning options for…

This paper proposes social living labs for informed learning as an innovative approach to interprofessional and community education. It presents a new conceptual model and practice framework suited to rapidly changing, information-intensive work and social environments. The proposed approach is theoretically informed and evidence based. It…

Knowing how adults learn through work is central to understanding their development across working lives. That development is important for their personal trajectories, and ability to contribute, sustain and advance the interests of their workplaces, and collectively to the social and economic viability of their communities and nations. This paper…

Contemporary global transitions are remaking education as a social institution and re-positioning educators in a lifelong learning political order. In this paper, I reflect on a research project that investigated the teaching occupation in learning societies in order to explain the concept of "educational work": the form of labour that…

Public policy discourses claim that there is a "crisis" in the literacy and numeracy levels of the Australian workforce. In this paper, we propose a methodology for examining this "crisis" from a critical perspective. We draw on findings from an ongoing research project by the authors which investigates production workers'…

Global concerns about the growing impact of ageing populations on workplace productivity and on welfare budgets have led to a range of government-supported measures intended to retain and upskill older workers. Yet, a consistent theme in the research literature is that older workers are reluctant and harder to train than younger workers, and that,…