Both government reports and academic literature concur in claiming that the low standing of vocational education and training (VET) and the occupations it serves in the community is a major problem for increasing the engagement in this educational sector in an era of high aspiration. An initial analysis from a project capturing school students,…

Courageous and innovative individuals are needed urgently to work on the wicked problems and challenges of our modern world. This paper explores a critical solutions source, namely the education of transformationally gifted adolescent girls who "seek positively to change the world at some level -- to make the world a better place"…

Unfortunately, it remains a common theme that when students reach the end of secondary school, they have focused most of their efforts on academic achievement but not on preparations for future employment (Hewett, Douglas, & Keil, 2014; McDonnall, 2010). Important employability skills for students with visual impairments are detailed within…

Governments recognise that careers guidance, underpinned by accurate labour market information, can help learners make post-secondary education choices that match their interests, aptitudes and abilities, and lead to rewarding employment. For this reason, they have invested in building linked education/employment information systems and other…

In this paper, we seek to operationalize Amartya Sen's concept of human capability to guide a scholarly investigation of student career choice capability. We begin by outlining factors affecting youth labour markets in Australia; a prosperous country that is affected by a "two-speed" national economy. We then examine recent government…

Global progress has arisen from scientific advances and we currently live in the age of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM); science as a way of increasing the knowledge base, technology as a means of manifesting the science, engineering as a way of building and creating with it, and mathematics to devise the language we use…

Can changes in teacher pay encourage more able individuals to enter the teaching profession? So far, studies of the impact of pay on the aptitude distribution of teachers have provided mixed evidence on the extent to which altering teacher salaries represents a feasible solution to the teacher quality problem. One possible reason is that these…

This paper was presented at the Australian Federation of Travel Agents Industry Leaders & Educators Engagement Symposium held in Sydney on February 12, 2015. With industry sustainability becoming a strong concern, even within growth sectors, this paper identifies issues to be considered in ensuring that the education and training system can…

Drawing on data gathered from British Council seminars in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Dubai on "Absent Talent: Women in Research and Academic Leadership" (2012-2013), this paper discusses academic women's experiences and explanations for women's under-representation as knowledge leaders and producers in the global academy. Participants from…

Low post-compulsory science enrolments for secondary students have been a growing concern across the Western world. Research has examined factors relating to science curricula and students' attitudes about science, but parental views of science education remain largely unexplored in Australia. Because parents have a strong role in shaping their…

A free response survey was administered to 100 self-identified mid and late career teachers in regional New South Wales to determine why they had chosen to work in a rural location, and identify the positive and negative aspects of their choice. This paper focuses on the 53 survey responses from these mid and late career teachers. A range of…

A multimedia university programme with relatively equal numbers of male and female students in elective programming subjects provided a rare opportunity to investigate female motivation to study and pursue computer programming in a career. The MSLQ was used to survey 85 participants. In common with research into deterrence of females from STEM…

This paper presents a critical analysis of literature relating to why males choose to become primary school teachers. Discussion within the paper concentrates on identifying and exploring connections between what is currently known about being a male primary school teacher and what motivates these men as they both pursue and practice within the…

This article draws upon data from semi-structured interviews with Australian Indigenous teachers to explore the role their mothers played in shaping their decisions to become teachers. The findings suggest that their mothers' emotional involvement and investment in their sons' and daughters' education generated significant reserves of emotional…

The success of languages education in Australia depends on a dedicated force of proficient and qualified teachers. The reality, however, is that we are losing our teachers at an alarming rate. While teacher attrition across Australia has been widely researched, little investigation has been conducted specifically into the post-graduation…