Standards: are they objective, limiting or alarming? By Robin McTaggart. Despite the will of politicians, pedants and the public, academic standards cannot be objectively stated. It follows that any judgment of compliance with a standard cannot be objective either. Standards ...

Many coalface academics find themselves leading their peers with little or no preparation, writes Judy Nagy. When we think of leadership in teaching and learning, we tend to think of senior staff – the vice-chancellor, the various DVCs and, perhaps, ...

The disadvantage of rural and regional students will be amplified by changes to Youth Allowance, writes Fiona Nash. The surest way for a political party to gauge public sentiment on a policy announcement is to penalise people who have made ...

The government needs to move quickly to find alternative solutions to regional and rural provision, writes David Battersby. The recent abandonment of the National University for Regional Australia initiative is to be expected. The three instigators of this project – ...

Are TAFE colleges capable of maintaining quality while taking risks, asks John Mitchell. TAFE colleges are receiving mixed messages from their government owners. One message is to ensure their quality systems are in place, their student satisfaction ratings are high ...

The philosophy toward embedding language, literacy and numeracy in training packages needs to be re-examined, says Anita Roberts. Built-in not bolted-on aimed to integrate the delivery of vocational and LLN skills based on recognition of the interdependent nature of these ...

Rudd to create 20,000 green training places Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last week announced spending of $94 million to create 30,000 training places to develop “green skills” in the building and construction sectors, 10,000 places in a National Green Jobs ...

Apprentices and trainees in the trades are taken significantly less time to complete their training than a decade ago. But attrition rates are still running at nearly 50 per cent and haven’t budged despite massive federal government investments. So it’s ...

The federal government’s latest initiative to ensure that migrant tradespeople meet Australian occupational standards is an implicit admission that the national training system doesn’t work as it’s supposed to, according to two Griffith University VET experts. In the May budget, ...

The $2 billion Productivity Places Program (PPP) is gaining momentum with Western Australian TAFEs, according to the chief of the state’s largest public training provider. Swan TAFE CEO Wayne Collyer told Campus Review he expected to enrol around 2500 PPP ...