Teachers aren’t the only source of future efficiencies in VET, says John Mitchell. The recently announced review of the VET workforce by the Productivity Commission will be a critical research project with its focus on trainers and assessors. However, productivity ...

Australia needs to think laterally, and explore what’s happening overseas, to find new ways of encouraging people to sign up for apprenticeships – and then stick with them. Income-contingent loans, tax rebates, tax credits, industry levies and even early access ...

The equity agenda is driving some interesting initiatives, but Sharon Bell wonders about the sincerity behind some of them. The second opening of the academy in Australia – a move from mass to universal entitlement to participation in higher education ...

The Productivity Commission will look at workforce issue in all education sectors from early childhood to VET. But what about higher education? Julie Hare reports. The vocational education and training sector will be the first cab off the rank in ...

New demands are being placed on education. Globalisation and increased competition are heightening the need for workers able to engage with organisational goals, share information, work in teams, make appropriate decisions, and be enterprising to improve productivity. Globalisation and international ...

John Ross was right to report the problems with the Victorian government’s decision to restrict its subsidised vocational education for students over 19 years to qualifications at a higher level than any qualification they already hold (CR, 19.04.10).He might have ...

Being able to accurately measure a student’s socioeconomic background is critical under the new policy agenda. But what’s the answer? By Sam Sellar and Colin MacMullin. The federal government is developing a new measure of socioeconomic status (SES) for the ...

For all their ability to earn much more over the course of their working lives, new research shows university graduates are no happier than there young people who had undertaken an apprenticeship or trade, or even early school leavers. Darragh ...

Are governments sending mixed messages to public providers, asks John Mitchell. Beginning about 18 months ago, when major reforms to VET were announced in Victoria, there were complaints among public providers that governments were sending them vague or mixed messages. ...

The Victorian TAFE Association has called for a softening of the state government’s punitive eligibility criteria which reserve government-funded VET places for people undertaking progressively higher level qualifications.uffering. “For example, many people wantingto become librarians have already done a base ...