Rapid advances in technology have resulted in a worldwide drive to enhance science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforces to remain internationally competitive and ensure economic prosperity. Despite this, there is ongoing debate about the best strategies for promoting STEM literacy and building national STEM competencies.…

Microcredentials enable a digital transformation of educational offerings that build skills of learners and the capability of organisations; however learners struggle with balancing study on top of work and family commitments unless they are motivated and self-regulated in their learning. Designing microcredentials that intrinsically motivate…

Indigenous student completion rates remain very low relative to non-Indigenous students. Some universities have higher Indigenous student completion rates than the national average but research-based evidence of these universities as 'success models' is limited. Drawing on findings from interviews with Indigenous university graduates and staff as…

While no major change in relation to student attrition and retention data has been recorded over the past 20 years, the increasingly neoliberal agenda imposed on Australian higher education institutions has led to increased scrutiny around such data. In this case study, we explore discourses of attrition and retention to understand better the…

Quality in vocational education and training (VET) is a perennial topic of interest, attracting much attention from participants, providers, funders, regulators and public commentators. Quality is as much subjectively in the "eye of the beholder" as it is objectively assessed through hard data, measures and surveys. This paper summarises…

A wide range of graduate attributes are listed, categorized and prioritized by different higher education institutions. However, one attribute that is less visible in the literature is creativity. In the current study, creativity has emerged as a desirable graduate attribute among students and employers. This paper presents an exploratory…

This paper explores the impact of a Teaching and Learning Audit of all government schools in Queensland, Australia. This audit has a concern with the extent to which schools "differentiate classroom learning". We note that in England, since September 2012, one of the standards that teachers have been expected to demonstrate is an ability…

This study aims to identify and categorize barriers to e-learning adoption and the relative impact of those barriers on learners. It contributes to the understanding of learner perceptions of barriers, the different types of barriers and their relative importance. This study used a quantitative methodology grounded in previous literature. The…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate an innovative way to train adult apprentices for the construction industry. Design/methodology/approach: The paper emphasizes that, in order to address skills shortages for international construction, training methods must be improved. It looks at the example of an adult apprenticeship scheme in…

In the Australian vocational education and training (VET) context, attention is often given to what youth work training programs should consist of, resulting in less attention on how youth work education and training programs might be imagined, constructed and implemented. In this paper, a particular South Australian youth work training program is…

This study identifies the factors which explain why individuals enter or do not enter traditional trade apprenticeships. Two sources of information are used--students in secondary schools and current apprentices (including those who have recently completed their training). Specifically, information was obtained from about 800 apprentices and close…

Values are important in understanding what a person wants from life, from work, and from the various roles that one plays in life. This study examined the most and least popular values chosen by diverse groups of people: 9,650 U.S. students in grades 7 through 12; 2,925 U.S. college freshmen; 571 Spanish-speaking Americans from Massachusetts and…

Previous research has shown that the majority of the characteristics of vocational education and training (VET) learners in Australia typically lie in the quadrant of "dependent" and "non-verbal," and preferred to learn from hands-on direct experience rather than through reading or listening. Workplace educational delivery…

These proceedings consist of 46 papers on the influence of vocational education and training (VET) research on policy and practice. These papers are grouped into these categories: impact of research; equity in participation; partnerships and stakeholders; practice and practitioners; research and policy; learning, work, and organizations; and VET,…