A survey of over 500 teachers and trainers in the Australian Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector was carried out to examine whether their teaching practices and approaches varied with their qualification levels. The survey, carried out with teachers and trainers from different types of training providers -- public and private -- formed…

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to examine whether there really is a shortage of VET teachers, and if so, whether there are links to the salary offered and to the qualifications required. Design/methodology/approach: The paper uses three main approaches to examine the narrative of a shortage of VET teachers in Australia. Findings: There was no…

This paper shows how system-level data can generate useful insights into the profile of first-year graduates who are teaching out-of-field (OOF). Understanding in-school demand and impacts on first-year graduates teaching OOF is important, especially when the first years of teaching are complex, busy, and involve a steep learning curve. A mixed…

This paper employs Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as an analytical heuristic in exploring the internationally prevalent situation of teaching out-of-field. Drawing on interview transcripts, we use CHAT to frame the activity of a young teacher teaching mathematics out-of-field in a small rural K-12 school in Australia. We identify and…

Typically, leadership is identified as a key to constructing high-quality early childhood education services and creating provisions to promote children's successful outcomes. However, leadership does not occur in isolation. Organisational management scholars point out that success in organisations is mostly reliant on effective followers. Despite…

Cognition research has demonstrated that babies, from birth, can detect numerical correspondences and abstract properties of objects and events. However, this limited existing research is often distant from educational practice, and thus, this information may be inaccessible to early childhood educators; most of whom hold pre-Bachelor level…

Over the past two decades, there has been a growing interest in the role of universities in developing generic skills, in addition to disciplinary ones, to help students adapt to a changing workplace. The need to develop these skills is particularly critical for healthcare students who must face challenges in health systems. This scoping study,…

The efficacy of the Australian Disability Employment Services (DES) for autistic jobseekers has not been examined and is currently undergoing Government reform. To help inform the new DES strategy, we sought the views of: 24 autistic individuals; seven family members of autistic individuals, and; 46 DES employees. Data were collected using surveys…

Teacher registration is increasingly utilised as a governance mechanism to audit teachers' work and drive professional practice. There is limited and mixed empirical evidence, however, as to whether registration drives teaching quality. Our study extends this limited empirical base by critically examining the policy trajectory in Australia to…

In Australia and elsewhere, aged care and disability services are being transformed by the introduction of person-centred approaches. This radical reform to prioritise the dignity and needs of the people receiving care or support is an urgent matter of justice. Person-centred approaches are also transforming the organisation and conditions of…

Concerns about the poor outcomes from school-based vocational education, which is heavily concentrated in schools serving disadvantaged communities, has led the State Government of Victoria, Australia, to implement major reforms, including abolishing the Victoria Certificate of Applied Learning. Instead, from 2023, learning in vocational education…

Purpose: In the wake of a skills shortage in Australia and its impact on the economy, the need for students to complete their vocational education and training (VET) programmes and enter the workforce is critical. This study aims to identify to what degree student programme choice and perceived personal benefits as well as various confounders act…

The Higher Education Standards Framework 2021 and the Australian Qualification Framework (AQF) set out requirements for recognition of prior learning (RPL) and granting credit in the higher education sector. Credit is a recognition of equivalence in content and learning outcomes between different types of learning and/or qualifications. Credit can…

Maintaining the quality and comparability of qualifications has become a major priority for vocational education and training (VET) systems world-wide, especially for those countries which have decentralised assessment and reporting systems. In the absence of external examinations, one policy solution to align the assessment standards of different…

This report provides a summary of the outcomes of international students who completed their vocational education and training (VET) qualification in Australia in 2022. These students were surveyed as an additional component to the 2023 National Student Outcomes Survey. Information is presented on international onshore VET qualification…