Roger Harris

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...

Discipline, Governmentality and 25 Years of Competency-Based Training.

Abstract Among the many critiques of competency-based approaches to education and training (CBT) is a strain which draws on Foucaults analysis of ‘disciplinary’ power and knowledge. Foucault offered an interpretation of modern institutions, such as prisons, armies and schools, which revealed subtle mechanisms of surveillance and systems of knowledge that shaped the self-understanding and activity of participants. Robinson (1993) and Edwards and Usher (1994) were among the first researchers to call attention to the disciplinary potential of CBT. But Foucault went on to argue that discipline is a component in an overarching system he called ‘governmentality’. The analysis of governmentality augments the analysis of discipline by foregrounding the effects of knowledge of populations and modes of power that operate at a distance. In this article, the disciplinary critique of competency-based systems is extended by demonstrating the relevance of Foucaults analysis of governmentality to a contemporary national system of CBT. The authors use a case of 25 years of CBT in an Australian vocational education institution as a scaffold for the argument. This case is germane because it presents a succession of practices of CBT which allows us to trace and scrutinise a shift from a disciplinary to a governmental framework.

What hinders and what helps? Searching for solutions to mature aged unemployment and the residential aged care workforce crisis

Objective:  This paper provides an overview of a research project that investigated strategies to address the workforce crisis currently threatening the provision of health and residential care services to Australias rapidly ageing population. Underpinning this projects development was the need to understand why, in the face of high levels of sustained mature age unemployment (and under‐employment) and the urgent need for staff in residential and community aged care, mature aged people do not consider, or are unable to undertake, further education and training to gain the necessary skills to work in this particular area.

A Quarter of a Century of CBT: The Vicissitudes of an Idea.

Abstract In 1983, a competency-based vocational education (CBVE) program began in Croydon Park College of TAFE, South Australia. This was six years before the Australian State Ministers of Vocational Education and Training decreed competency-based training (CBT) to be the national training imperative. Two reports were produced in 1985 and 1987, based on evaluations over a three-year period. 25 years on, the two authors have tracked down and interviewed some of the original staff in the program. This paper traces the vicissitudes of an idea – CBT – as it was conceived in 1982, implemented from 1983, evaluated over a three-year period and as it became transformed over the next generation. What were the features of CBVE then? How did these features alter over time? What contextual factors may account for shifts over this period? To respond to these questions, the paper uses data from 1983–85 and interview data from 2008.

Lifelong learning in work contexts

Abstract Lifelong learning within work environments is a complex and yet increasingly important issue in todays rapidly changing society. This article highlights the shift in meaning in the notion(s) of lifelong education in the early 1970s and the notion(s) of lifelong learning in the late 1990s. This shift can be largely accounted for by the changed milieu in which these terms have emerged and from which they derive their meaning. Within the current economic-technological climate, the learning that occurs in workplaces is an important phenomenon to research if we are to understand the possibilities in lifelong learning. The article analyses several key elements of current Australian policy in terms of their potential contribution to the fostering of a training (or learning) culture, seen officially as a support for lifelong learning. The article also draws on a number of research studies into the nature of workplace learning and the role of the workplace ‘trainer’ as key ingredients in this process.

Building career capital through further study in Australia and Singapore

In modern society, individuals are having to assume increasing responsibility for their own career trajectories. One of the key ways in which individuals can engage in such ‘career self-management’ is by taking up learning opportunities through further study. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to explore, using the conceptual framework of career capital, ways in which samples of adults in Australia and Singapore perceive that they are self-managing and leveraging their careers through continuing education, and the nature of the career capital they are accumulating. It draws on data from two different research projects undertaken in Australia and Singapore. These projects involved individuals who had undertaken studies in two different educational sectors: the academic and the vocational. Australian respondents (n=190) had studied in both the vocational education and training (VET) and the higher education (HE) sectors; Singaporean respondents (n=101) had graduated from both the formal tertiary education (PET) and the Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) sectors. Data were gathered through online surveys and in-depth interviews. Based on the reports from these samples, the study found that the building of career capital was being played out relatively consistently despite educational, political and cultural differences, but that different emphases were placed on the types of career capital, with ‘knowing-how’ the most important.

Learning and Personality on Study Tours Abroad.

Study tours abroad are important arenas for post-compulsory education. This paper focuses on how personality affects students’ learning on study tours abroad. The research involved 66 learners from one higher education institution in Taiwan on tours to the UK, the USA and Australia. Data were gathered using questionnaires and learning journals, and informed by participant observation of the first author as tour leader. Findings can be only indicative as the study was limited to a relatively small sample from one institution and the tours were short term. The paper illustrates how study tours are a special example of experiential education. Data reveal notable, self-reported improvements in English language ability and cultural knowledge, supporting findings of other researchers. They also indicate, in terms of type theory, that extraverts and sensates derive the most benefit from study tours. The findings hold important implications for study tour leadership and organisation.