Research has shown that employers and industry are key partners in work-based learning and can hinder or enhance access to vocational education training (VET). Our capabilities approach focus concerns increasing employer understanding of what is involved in engaging in the work-based component of school-based VET for students with disability. It…

Australia's system of vocational education and training (VET) is based on the principle of partnerships between key stakeholders: governments (Commonwealth, state and territory), training providers, employers and employees. Industry representation and governance in the VET sector in Australia has undergone several transformations in the past, and…

In the context of ongoing globalisation and faster technological change, economies are becoming more entrepreneurial and more knowledge-intensive. Entrepreneurial economies and societies require institutions, organisations, regulations and relationships different from those of the industrial societies of the late twentieth century. Consequently,…

This report sets out a framework for vocational learning and vocational education and training (VET) delivered to secondary students. It updates the New Framework for Vocational Education in Schools released in 2001 by the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs. The framework has been developed by a working group…

Industry policy emphasises the importance of competition between firms as the basis of efficient markets and as a stimulus for improved firm efficiency. Yet research has shown that much can be gained from cooperation among firms in a range of activities, especially those involving the transfer of knowledge, such as training. These cooperative…

Despite a lack of applied research, social partnerships are increasingly being adopted by both government and non-government agencies to meet localized needs in education and other fields. This article discusses the findings of an investigation of how social partnerships can best be formed, developed and sustained over time. Earlier work…

This paper explores participation in social partnerships as a space for learning. It analyses interview data about participation in social partnership from partnerships involved in vocational education and training (VET) to argue that social partnerships constitute a form of learning space. Partnership participants engage in new learning through…

As community assets, schools are central to community development and are best suited to provide a learning community that can build the whole community's capacity to address educational disadvantage. Community capacity building means strengthening a community's ability to become self-reliant by increasing social cohesion and social capital. In…

The paper discusses some of the issues involved in the transition of students from school to work in Australia. First, there is an overview of the Schools Commission's views on school-work transition as expressed in its reports. The reports draw attention to the necessity for recurrent education to allow every member of society to have access to…

In preparing this report, the recommendations of the (Australian) National Review of Education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples were cross-referenced to the 21 goals of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Policy (NATSIEP) and aggregated into 8 priorities. These are: 1) to arrange for the participation of…

Community-based learning (CBL) is a structured approach to learning and teaching that connects meaningful community experience with intellectual development, personal growth, and active citizenship. Enthusiasm for CBL is emerging in Australia and elsewhere because it is seen as the following: strategy for whole-school reform, especially in…

One strategy to increase participation in vocational education and training (VET) by Australians with a disability involves intervention at the secondary school level to reduce early school leaving by providing structured VET learning and work placement opportunities. The Enterprise Career Education Foundation's Lighthouse initiative, which was…

Recent international discussions provide information on various countries' responses to lifelong learning, including the following: (1) existing unmet needs and emerging needs for education and training; (2) funds required compared with what was provided; and (3) methods for acquiring additional funds, among them efficiency measures leading to…