Vocational Voices

Unaccredited training and why employers use it

Why do around half of Australian employers look outside the nationally accredited VET system to provide their employees with training? To find out, Steve Davis talks to NCVER Managing Director Simon Walker and NCVER researcher Ian White, who discuss the reasons why employers choose unaccredited over accredited training, and whether it meets their skills needs.

The student journey: skilling for life

Steve Davis interviews a collection of presenters from the 28th National VET Research Conference ‘No Frills’, held on 10-12 July 2019 in Adelaide (80 mins)

While every student's journey is different, more and more research and discussion underlines the importance of workers becoming lifelong learners so they can grow and evolve with their jobs. And more than ever before, Australia relies on the VET sector to play a critical role in making this happen. Hear from a variety of VET experts about their ideas and research as they discuss how Australia can tackle the many challenges of the changing world of work.

Topic	Presenter	Start time
Employability skills in entry level roles in STEM-rich and care/support industries	Kate Perkins, ACER	01.41
Life skills for a digital future	Mori Hajizadeh & Kevin O’Leary, Australian Industry Standards	13:00
Student outcomes in aged care and cookery	Melinda Brown, Skills IQ	27:57
When is a worker truly competent? Training and assessment	Michael Hartman, Skills Impact	38:21
RPL: difficulties & mitigating strategies	Deb Carr, Think About Learning & Helen Smith	52:09
How can educators better support students with psychological-based individual differences?	Cameron Williams, Black Dog Institute	01:03:38
Student choice in a contestable market	Don Zoellner, Charles Darwin University	01:13:43

To view the full conference program and abstracts, please visit Past events on the NCVER Portal.

Apprenticeship rates - should you believe the hype?

It is hard to dispute that the apprenticeships model, which combines employment with formal training in a trade, is an effective way of developing skills while still earning a wage. So why do apprenticeship numbers appear to be so dire? To find out, Steve Davis talks to NCVER Managing Director, Simon Walker and National Australian Apprenticeships Association Chief Executive Officer, Ben Bardon, who reveal that the situation is more nuanced than recent media headlines might suggest. They start by discussing the difference between apprenticeships and traineeships, which can skew the perceived decline.

Industry 4.0 - what does it mean for jobs and skills?

How will Industry 4.0, or the Fourth Industrial Revolution as it’s also known, affect the jobs we do and how we train for them? To find out, Steve Davis talks to NCVER Managing Director, Simon Walker and AiGroup Head of Workforce Development, Megan Lilly. The challenge, they say, is to develop an agile skill base that can continually learn and grow, which means traditional education systems will also need to evolve.

What next for tertiary education? Some preliminary sketches

In this interview, Steve Davis talks with author Francesca Beddie about her paper, What next for tertiary education? Some preliminary sketches, which presents the culmination of the ideas discussed between prominent tertiary education thinkers who came together to reflect on the Committee on the Future of Tertiary Education report (the Martin report). These ideas are intended to generate discussion on the possibilities for the future of tertiary education in Australia. She emphasises the importance of going beyond the funding debate, to talking more broadly about how we should be educating our citizens in the 21st century.

Original broadcast date: 25 August 2014

Industry currency and professional obsolescence: what can industry tell us?

In this interview, Steve Davis talks with researcher, Berwyn Clayton, about the report Industry currency and professional obsolescence: what can industry tell us?. The purpose of the study is to take an industry focused approach to investigating the issues of professional obsolescence and industry currency and how they apply to VET practitioners.

Issues covered included, the importance of industry currency for practitioners training and assessing in the VET sector; strategies used by employers to keep trades people current with new technology and changing ways of working in various industry sectors; and strategies used by leading edge organisations to keep people up to speed with new knowledge and skills.

Original broadcast date: 21 June 2013

The impact of schools on young people's transition to university

In this interview, Steve Davis talks with former NCVER Managing Director, Tom Karmel, about his report which uses data from the 2006 cohort of the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) to investigate how schools influence tertiary entrance rank and university enrolment over and above young people's individual background characteristics. A point of discussion was the authors' finding that schools do matter and although young people's individual characteristics are the main contributors to university entrance, the school characteristics are responsible for almost 20% of the variation in tertiary entrance rankings.

Original broadcast date: 24 April 2013

Educating oneself out of social exclusion

In this phone interview, Hielke Buddelmeyer, talks about his report which explores the impact of education and training on social exclusion using a multidimensional measure that focuses on seven domains. Education, he says, is a 'sleeper factor' in that it operates on many different levels and has an impact on the other six domains, such as health. Hielke also points out that the current focus on human capital, including social inclusion, follows previous market reforms that have been implemented to position Australia in changing economic times.

Original broadcast date: 2 November 2012

Shaken not stirred? The development of one tertiary education sector in Australia

In this 13 minute interview, Steve Davis talks with Leesa Wheelahan about the report Shaken not stirred? The development of one tertiary education sector in Australia. This report examines universities that offer a small amount of VET and private providers that offer both VET and higher education, building on previous research examining TAFE intitutes that offer higher education.

This research suggests that mixed-sector and dual-sector providers are likely to become more important but they face specific challenges in the quality of their provision. While the sharp distinctions between VET and higher education are giving way to a more differentiated single tertiary education sector this is resulting in a more stratified and hierarchical structure as university providers become the 'comparator'.

Original broadcast date: 17 January 2012

Attrition in the trades

In this 9 minute interview, Steve Davis talks with former NCVER Managing Director, Tom Karmel, about the report Attrition in the trades. This report investigates attrition in the trades by comparing the rate at which tradespeople leave their occupation with that of professionals. It also determines whether attrition is influenced by economic conditions, and if a trade can provide a good start to a career in the professions. The report concludes that attrition in the trades is no higher than in the professions; the rate of leaving particular occupations may vary, but overall the results between the two are very similar. The economic climate also makes little difference to the attrition rate.

Original broadcast date: 18 November 2011