A senior Canberra bureaucrat has conceded that more research may be needed to justify proposed market-based reforms of Australia’s skills system. But rather than complain about “evidence-free policy”, VET commentators should themselves compile research in the area. Craig Robertson, group ...
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Broadband raises questions about VET
Will improved broadband do more than simply let VET providers share larger files with their students, asks John Mitchell. The unexpected announcement that the federal government will invest $43 billion in rolling out a broadband network over the next eight ...
More »Learning through reflection
Reflection is both a starting point and a tipping point for improving self-perception, and in turn, the nature and quality of vocational learning, says Larry Smith. During 2008, Berwyn Clayton from Victoria University and I interviewed a wide range of ...
More »A managed VET market and a single tertiary regulator: Skills Australia’s wish list
VET marketisation is back on the agenda, with the government’s key skills advisory body proposing a “managed market reform approach” to VET funding. And Skills Australia wants a single national regulatory body covering both VET and higher education. The proposals ...
More »Indigenous strategies that work
Concentration on the early years of development, coordination of programs across higher education and forceful messages about young indigenous people’s responsibility to their elders, families and communities – these are among the strategies recommended by indigenous education leaders to help ...
More »Not the GFC, again
International education has shown no signs of weakening, but remains overlooked by government, says Stephen Connelly. If Kochie* and Pottsie* think the GFC (global financial crisis) is over, it must be true. Admittedly, Pottsie finished seventh in a field of ...
More »2025: getting the focus sharper
Universities always seem to meet government targets, but something, usually quality, gives along the way, writes Jane den Hollander. The vision for Australia where 40 per cent of our citizens are educated to at least bachelor degree level and where ...
More »Is there hope for the unit information guide?
Joseph Gora has some suggestions for converting the unread and the unreadable into something to behold. The unit information guide (UIG), or its simpler derivative, the unit guide, is a document imbued with great significance in the wacky world of ...
More »Multiple models will persist in post-Bradley VET: Bullock
VET will buddy up with higher education (HE) to help make Denise Bradley’s integrated tertiary sector a reality, predicts Philip Bullock, chair of Skills Australia. But VET’s main players may struggle to integrate with each other, Bullock told a Sydney ...
More »Crossing over
Is the transition between VET and the university sector a case of spanning bridges or crossing moats full of crocodiles, asks Ros Brennan Kemmis. In her speech of 4 March, Julia Gillard commented that in terms of Australia’s productivity and ...
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