Kira Clarke

The marginalisation of VET in an Australian secondary school

It has been argued that the culture and traditions of secondary schooling explicitly exclude vocational learning from the mission of secondary schools. Analyses have further highlighted the role played by vocational learning in sifting and sorting students by social background. In many continental systems, Germany, France or Italy for example, the fragmentation of the upper secondary curriculum into general and vocational tracks has been the means by which the ‘integrity’ of the academic stream has been maintained. In the Australian context, the abolition of technical schools in favour of a more comprehensive model of provision has not erased existing social inequalities. This article argues that the maintenance of the dominant academic curriculum and its associated forms of knowledge has involved a number of processes designed to exclude or accommodate different kinds of learners, to marginalise applied learning pedagogies and curricula and to ensure differentiated learning experiences for different sub-groups of young people. Drawing on views and perspectives of students and teachers in a large secondary school in an industrial provincial city of Australia, this article presents an analysis of the school-level processes which have contributed to the construction of the learner identity of students in vocational programs in Australian schools.

Strong on retention, weak on outcomes: the impact of vocational education and training in schools

The re-shaping of the Australian senior secondary landscape in recent years and the emergence of a new space for vocational knowledge within Australian senior secondary certificates of education have been underpinned by a national focus on raising retention rates and achieving Year 12 or equivalent attainment rates in the context of a diversifying senior secondary cohort, and on delivering effective training to meet the skills needs of the growing economy. Absent from this policy agenda is a focus on the efficacy of the expanding vocational education and training (VET) in Schools. At the core of this discussion are the impacts of ongoing tensions between the instrumentalist labour market role of VET in Schools programmes and the expectation that an equitable senior secondary landscape should respond to the education and training needs of all students. Despite rapid growth, low achievers and socioeconomically disadvantaged learners remain the dominant participants in VET in Schools programmes, and pathways for these students into post-school education and training or full-time employment remain weak. This paper draws on the views of students, teachers, and policy-makers to examine the ways in which vocational programmes are delivered within the different curricular contexts of VET in Schools across Australian senior secondary education systems.

Apprenticeships should work for women too

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore some of the issues affecting successful employment outcomes for young women in male-dominated careers, focusing on those generally accessed via a traditional Australian apprenticeship model. Current patterns of participation in trades-based fields of education and training reinforce the highly gender segregated nature of the Australian Labour Force. Women are particularly under-represented in the large industries of construction, mining and utilities, where female employees account for only around 12, 15 and 23 per cent of employees, respectively, an issue of concern both in terms of increased economic participation of women and girls, and gender equality more broadly. The foundations for transition from education and training to employment are established during school. It is during these formative years that young men and women have notions of what is possible for them, and what is not possible, reinforced. Unfortunately, gendered stereotypes and percept...

Working Their Way to School Completion: A Snapshot of School-Based Apprenticeships and Traineeships for Young Australians.

Abstract This paper highlights troubling patterns within the Australian School-based Apprenticeships and Traineeships (SBATs) by analysing statistical data of 21,000 of 15–19 year old apprenticeship/traineeship learners engaged in Vocational Education and Training in School (VETiS). It confirms the alignment of social groups to certain qualification fields and levels and provides a compelling picture of the learner profile of SBAT including the type of occupations and qualifications being undertaken at school level. In a complex policy environment, where VET in Schools has been assigned the important task of preparing ‘workforce job-ready’ students for the ‘high skill and high earning roles our economy demands’, we argue that the SBAT pathway is not yet adequate to meet these high expectations. It is not an effective apprenticeship pathway as it potentially ‘locks-in’ already disadvantaged young people to precarious pathways, and reinforces the nature of an already highly gender-segregated Australian labour market. The paper helps to focus attention on endemic weaknesses in the Australian VET system that serve to entrench disadvantage in Australian society.

Student engagement, non-completion and pedagogy: Development of a measurement tool:

A significant body of research documents the negative consequences of dropping out of school for both the individual and society. In attempting to respond to the problem of early school leaving, schools and systems internationally have put in place a range of system-level and local responses such as mentoring, targeted additional career guidance and homework clubs. Unfortunately, these ‘add-ons’ often stop outside the classroom door, and do not consider the impact of teaching practices on students’ engagement in school and their decisions to remain or leave. This article reports on the development of instruments aimed at measuring four constructs that have been shown to be related to student engagement and school completion, namely competence, autonomy, relatedness and an appreciation of subject relevance. Analyses of data from a small sample of Year 9 students (N = 48) in two Australian secondary schools indicated that, with some adjustments, the research instruments developed provided reliable and valid measures of the four constructs for use in large-scale research with students.