Michele Simons

The Relative Contributions of Institutional and Workplace Learning Environments: An Analysis of Apprenticeship Training.

Abstract This article reports an exploration of the experiences and perceptions of apprentices, workplace host employers and off-the-job teachers engaged in an apprenticeship programme regarding the nature and contributions of on and off-the-job environments to apprentices’ learning. An interpretive (expressive) approach was taken, using individual interviews and focus groups. Learning on-the-job was perceived to be more real life and focused on the ‘how’. Learning off-the-job was less pressured, broader in scope, more theoretical and concerned with ‘why’. The findings indicate that these two environments make valuable, but different contributions to apprentices’ learning and supports the need for both.

Exploring the notion of retention in apprenticeship

Purpose – Proposes to provide a description of the factors that underlie retention and to develop a model of the process of retention.Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative study was conducted in a selected number of occupational areas. Interviews were conducted with apprentices and trainees employed under a contract of training; apprentices/trainees who had recently completed their contract of training; employers/workplace supervisors and teachers/trainers.Findings – Provides information about a range of factors and how they combined to shape the process of retention. Recognises that some of the identified factors are more amenable to interventions to enhance retention than others.Research limitations/implications – The study did not attempt to cover all occupations in which apprentices are employed, or to provide any ranking of importance of factors in relation to the retention process. The study encourages a holistic understanding of the process of retention and emphasises the dynamic nature of th...

Peripheral journeys: Learning and acceptance of probationary constables

In the 1990s, one of Australias police services moved from a centralised, academy‐based system of training towards a more integrated model of professional development. As a consequence, probationary constables spent reduced time in the police academy (6 months) before moving into the workplace for 18 months of work‐based learning. This paper explores how those changes affected the ways in which probationary constables are viewed and accepted into the workforce. A useful model for this exploration is that of legitimate peripheral participation, as advocated by Lave and Wenger in 1991. Although Lave and Wenger acknowledge that peripherality, rather than being a negative term, allows for an understanding of inclusion into a community of practice, there is still a long journey to be travelled before full acceptance is accorded to the newcomer. By exploring the “voices” of the probationers and their senior officers, the conflicts and difficulties that arose during their work‐based probation and the negotiations required to help develop competent police officers, it is possible to trace the journey of probationary constables from periphery to a more central acceptance. This paper explores how the probationary constables were viewed and accepted into the workforce to become full and trusted members of a community of practice.

VET practitioners working with private enterprises: a “third space”?

Purpose – This paper aims to analyse, through the lens of learning network theory, ways in which external VET practitioners work within private enterprises to promote learning within these organizations.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on analyses of six case studies in two Australian States, each comprising a vocational education institute and an enterprise. In total, 34 interviews were held with four groups of participant – TAFE managers and practitioners, enterprise personnel and worker‐learners – from different industries.Findings – The paper finds that the overlaying of an external learning system on existing learning systems brings inevitable tensions that need to be carefully managed. VET practitioners working in industry operate in two worlds with very different cultures. They need to learn how to work within different power structures, how to build around existing work and learning networks, and how to mesh in with the flow of enterprise work. In the process of working with compan...

The Understandings about Learners and Learning that are Imparted in Certificate IV Level Courses for VET Teachers and Trainers

Abstract Much of the literature on Vocational Education and Training (VET) professional development for teachers and trainers in Australia has been descriptive, outlining the development, construction and outcomes of a range of initiatives or analysing the nature and extend of initial and ongoing professional development for teacher sand trainers. There has been little critical analysis of curricula which led to the attainment what has been the most common Australian initial VET teacher/trainer qualification – the Certificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training, either in terms of the intended or enacted curricula as it was delivered in many hundreds of locations across Australia. This paper addresses this gap. It presents the outcomes of research that examined ways in which learners and processes of learning were constructed, understood and embedded in the delivery of the Certificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training (AWT). This qualification was delivered from 1998 until November 2006. In late 2004 a new Certificate IV in Training and Assessment (TAA) was introduced, but there was a ‘teach-out period’ of two years on the old qualification. The study involved 16 case studies of registered training organisations that delivered the Certificate IV in AWT. The paper updates the study by examining how the changes associated with the new qualification may affect understandings of learners and learning.

Workplace trainers in enterprises : merging and emerging areas of practice

Workplaces are important sites for promoting the skill development required to meet goals for increasing the number of workers attaining vocational qualifications. Since the earliest training reforms of the 1990s in Australia, one of the most important outcomes has been the (re)-claiming of the workplace as a legitimate learning environment. Current policy imperatives in vocational education and training (VET) in Australia acknowledge the value of lifelong learning and the important role that professionals play in ensuring that quality learning opportunities are available to meet the needs of individuals, enterprises, and industries (Hoeckel et al. 2008). The VET system has expanded and now includes over 3,000 private training organisations as well as technical and further education (TAFE) providers (Harris et al. 2006). Enterprises are increasingly engaging in the process of providing learning opportunities for their staff, drawing on the services of the TAFE sector, private providers and consultants, and, where available, their own in-house capabilities. Many of those now engaged in the process of facilitating learning in the VET sector are drawn from a wide range of occupations. These persons may hold a variety of qualifications (e.g., specific trade, human resource development/management, adult education, and other professional qualifications) and work under a variety of non-teaching awards and conditions (Simons et al. 2007, p. 16).

Workplace Trainers in Action: Their Role in Building a Training/Learning Culture

Australia, like many other countries, has witnessed a decade of training reform. One of the most important outcomes of this training reform has been the (re)-claiming of the work site as a legitimate learning environment. Government reform has gradually been shifting the balance from a supply to a demand-driven system of vocational education and training (VET). In this move to de-institutionalise training, workplace trainers are being expected to assume an increasingly critical role in the provision of training opportunities. The key issue is to what extent workplace trainers (especially in small business) are ready, willing and able to meet this enhanced commitment.

Towards an epistemically neutral curriculum model for vocational education: from competencies to threshold concepts and practices

Debate about the benefits and problems with competency-based training (CBT) has not paid sufficient attention to the fact that the model satisfies a unique, contemporary demand for cross-occupational curriculum. The adoption of CBT in the UK and Australia, along with at least some of its problems, can be understood in terms of this demand. We argue that a key problem with CBT is that as a cross-occupational curriculum model it impacts too strongly on the way particular occupations are known and represented. Following this line of argument, we propose that more effective models will be those that are ‘epistemically neutral’ and thus responsive to the inherent knowledge and practice structures of occupations. We explore the ‘threshold concepts’ approach as an alternative that can claim to be sensitive to occupational structures. We indicate ways it contrasts with CBT but also note some difficulties with the approach for vocational education.

A case for scholarly activity in vocational education in Australia

Purpose – As neoliberal reforms take hold in the vocational education and training (VET) sector in Australia, there is renewed interest in the quality of teaching practice. However, despite the value of practitioner inquiry to the quality of teaching in schools, scholarly practice in higher education, and established links between the quality of teaching and outcomes for learners and between practice-based inquiry and pedagogic innovation in VET, the practices has received little attention. The purpose of this paper is to explore the value of a college-wide culture of scholarly activity to learners, enterprises, VET institutions, educators and the national productivity agenda. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on the education literature, empirical examples of scholarly activity drawn from the authors’ experiences of working with VET practitioners, this paper asks what constitutes research and inquiry in VET, why should these practices be integral to educative practice and what value do they bring to ...

Educational leadership in Australian private VET organisations: how is it understood and enacted?

Ongoing reform in vocational education and training (VET) has placed significant pressure on leaders in private training organisations in terms of striking an ‘appropriate’ balance between educational and business imperatives. This paper draws on data from 34 interviews with leaders from 16 private registered training organisations in Australia to investigate how educational leadership is understood and enacted in their work. The study found that these leaders were able to articulate clearly the tensions between managing business imperatives and assuring quality educational outcomes. Further, they were conscious of the ways in which their leadership extended beyond their organisations into external environments in order to further educational as well as business goals. The findings suggest that, contrary to the popular notion of seeing educational and business leadership as competing priorities, leaders view them as complementary and integrated domains. They are therefore better understood as situated practices embedded in specific organisational contexts.