During 2008-2011, the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) funded a programme to build Australian VET research capacity and rejuvenate what has been seen as the existing "greying" researcher pool. This paper is a reflective narrative about experiences of constructing the programme with a specific focus on the mentoring…

This work is based on the experience of the authors' involvement in the development of a Masters of Vocational Pedagogy program in Uganda and Southern Sudan between 2007 and 2011. This is also grounded in work with Vocational Education and Culture (VET) over many years. The terms VET and Culture are interdependent; both terms are highly contested…

Governments in advanced liberal democracies have assigned Vocational Education and Training (VET) a critical role in preparing a productive workforce for the broader economy. This linkage opens the way to use economic theories to expand the understanding of VET. Noted economic theorists have described the use of one economic reductionist technique…

The Federal government is seeking to increase the proportion of Australians with bachelor degrees and to increase the proportion of low SES students in higher education. This will focus attention on degree completion rates for all students, including non-traditional students who have previously been reported as having lower higher education…

This paper explores the methodological and epistemological implications of the relationships between R&D, policy and practice. The proposals towards "evidence-based policy and practice" are analysed with respect to this triangle from three angles: (1) meaning; (2) production; and (3) use of evidence. A comprehensive model of the research cycle,…

This paper argues for approaches to research methodologies that interrupt the machinic metaphors and relationships for living circulating in so much VET research. Using the schematic of "cyborg as a figuration" and Wilson's (2009) four epistemological interventions (witnessing, situating, diffracting, acquiring) the authors practice a form of…

The complex interplay of technological advances, global demographic trends and macroeconomic forces has seen the emergence of global markets, economies, supply chains and labour markets. The use of skilled migration policy and initiatives for many countries feeling the effects of aging populations and skill shortages adds another dimension to this…

This paper uses data from a recent national project on workforce development for vocational education and training (VET) practitioners in the service skills sector to examine the issue of teaching qualifications for VET practitioners in Australia. Data on the level of qualifications is limited and incomplete (Mlotkowski & Guthrie, 2010) and the…

Australia appears to be in the grip of a "literacy crisis" in workplaces. Media reports and industry/skills organisations are decrying the low literacy and numeracy levels of workers and the negative effects these have on productivity. As a consequence, the Australian government has increased funding for workplace literacy and numeracy programs…

The study investigated employee learning strategies in community pharmacies in Australia and the factors that explain differences among pharmacies in the strategies employed. A qualitative methodology was applied, involving semi-structured interviews with owners, managers, or senior employees of 12 pharmacies. The findings revealed learning…

Since the opening up of private universities and colleges in the Kuwait education system in the late 1990s, there has been an explosion of tertiary institutions (both domestic and international) established in the country, with many of them offering vocational education and training. The move towards vocational and educational training forms part…

This paper meets at the crossroads of personal experience and public policy. The personal is the experience of learning as described by five TAFE students with a mental illness. The public policy context is the increased political pressure on Australia's major vocational training providers to increase workforce participation of people with mental…

Victoria University, like many other educational institutions, has recently nominated workplace learning as an essential feature of all its courses. As a contribution to the framing of this shift in an educationally responsible way, this article explores the question: How can tertiary education organisations design on-campus work-based experience…

This paper seeks to understand how practitioners learn about, develop and work with educational theory, and how this informs and influences their practice. It is based primarily on an in-depth interview with one pre-vocational program teacher working in a large, metropolitan TAFE (Technical and Further Education) institute. It also draws on the…

Over recent decades the nomenclature of "innovative" pedagogic approaches in vocational education and training (VET) has undergone a number of changes. In almost all cases "traditional face-to-face" teaching is set as the comparative benchmark and painted in pejorative terms. Using aspects of Basil Bernstein's theoretical framework and definitions…