The Teacher Education of VET in Schools (VETiS) Teachers

The Teacher Education of VET in Schools (VETiS) Teachers - Report, 2017

This study investigates the professional preparation of teachers working in Vocational Education and Training (VET) programs in Australian secondary schools. It also investigates the similarities and differences and the enablers and blockers that occur across the various states and territories in their approaches to providing teacher education for VET in Schools (VETiS) teachers. The research focuses on the supply-side of university-based VET teacher education programs and offers a stocktake of the VET method area offerings that are available (and not available) for pre-service teachers in Australia.

Handbook of Vocational Education and Training, 2019

The effectiveness of vocational education and training (VET) systems depends upon their teachers. The teachers are regarded as "dual professionals," requiring expertise in both their background industry areas and in VET pedagogy itself. This chapter uses Australia as a case study of what happens when the accepted regime of qualifications for VET teachers alters. In Australia full-time VET teachers were, until recently, required to undertake degree level qualifications in VET pedagogy, taught at universities, either before or, more usually, after entering the occupation. The required level has now reduced to the regulatory minimum of a Certificate IV level qualification, taught by training providers not E. Smith

This paper reports on some initial research into what students, teachers and managers in training providers think about qualifications for vocational education and training (VET) teachers and trainers. In 2011, a Productivity Commission research report on the VET workforce identified 'some clear deficiencies [that] should be addressed', but rejected a change to required qualifications because of lack of research evidence, at that time, that higher-level qualifications would make a difference. This paper reports on preliminary observations from a major Australian Research Council funded project that set out to investigate this matter. The project has several stages, and this paper, by two of the projects' four researchers, examines early data from four of eight case studies. The case study sites were based in two states and comprised two TAFE institutes, a not-for-profit college, and a for-profit private VET provider. In the case studies, senior managers, teachers and trainers in different discipline areas, and learners, were interviewed to elicit their views on whether or how teachers' pedagogical and industry qualifications mattered in the quality of teaching and in teachers' contributions to the institution. The paper explains the different participants' views and the reasons they gave for their views. The project as a whole includes several other data sources.

International Journal of Training Research, 2017

Welcome to this Special Edition of the International Journal of Training Research, with the theme of VET Teaching and Teacher Education. Within this edition are six articles, each addressing a particular aspect of the central theme, and I hope you enjoy engaging with all of them. This Special Edition is the culmination of a number of activities beginning in 2010 when Professor Erica Smith, one of Australia's champions of Vocational Education and Training (VET) teacher education, instigated the creation of a VET working group that would sit within the Australian Council of Deans of Education (ACDE). Erica circulated a plea to all deans of education in Australian universities, asking them to nominate their VET teacher-educator (if they had one!) to join our group. For me, as the sole VET teacher-educator at the University of Tasmania, it was wonderful to connect with like-minded peers across Australia, all of whom are passionate about the value of VET teacher education and the need for it to remain part of the offerings in our universities. Since that time, Australian Council of Deans of Education Vocational Education Group (ACDEVEG) (as we became known) has worked collaboratively on a number of activities, from representations to the Productivity Commission's research into the VET workforce, to responses to federal government inquiries, and providing support and advice to each other in our mission to encourage and strengthen VET teacher education. Our group represents a wonderful example of would-be competitors working together for the betterment of a common cause. In Melbourne in 2015, ACDEVEG organized its first national VET conference. The conference marked a long-overdue return to such an event, with the previous one being held in Coffs Harbour in 1996. The 2015 conference was a great success, with delegate numbers quickly reaching our venue-enforced limit of 100 and spilling over to a waiting list. It confirmed what we suspected: teachers, trainers, researchers, teacher-educators, employers and government agencies all wanted to connect, share and learn from each other. The 2015 conference was the catalyst for this Special Edition, with the majority of the articles being presented at that time. The success of the 2015 VET Conference ensured that it would once again become an annual event, with 2016 seeing us reconvene in Sydney, while this year, in December, we will gather in Brisbane. The 2015 VET conference was special in another way, and that was its celebration of the life of Ros Brennan Kemmis, one of our most loved and respected members of ACDEVEG, who had passed away earlier that year. It is with great honour that we dedicate this Special Edition to her memory. Erica Smith, a long-time friend and colleague of Ros, contributed the following passage to the 2015 Conference Program: Ros spent her entire life involved with multiple sectors of education with a passion for public education and social justice for all. She was dedicated to adult literacy in the 1980s, including working with prisoners to improve their literacy as well as running a family literacy 'bus'-which led her to become involved in VET, with a great interest in VET teacher education. Ros was an inspired teacher in face-to-face and distance education at Charles Sturt University (CSU). She developed amazing rapport with distance and online students, supporting them with her great and deep knowledge as well as warmth, patience and practical help. She visited many Technical and Further Education (TAFE) colleges around New South Wales (NSW) to set up support for the TAFE teachers, who were often struggling with a new job as a TAFE teacher as well as university study. She wrote many subjects and components for the suite of VET courses offered at CSU.

Berufsbildung zwischen Tradition und Moderne, 2018

The question as to why national vocational education and training (VET) systems differ generates ongoing debate. Typologies are frequently constructed around structural or political differences, yet the insightful work of Professor Thomas Deissinger has drawn our attention to the influence of historical and cultural aspects as being the critical factor underpinning VET policy and practice. It is unsurprising that VET teacher education is also affected by history and culture since the quality of VET depends primarily on the quality of its teachers and trainers. This chapter therefore focuses on the historical and cultural factors influencing the rise and decline of Australian VET teacher preparation and professional development, with passing reference to the contrasting situation in Germany. In the mid-1970s, VET teacher education moved from being mainly inhouse within State departments into higher education institutions. Today, there is the closure of many such degree programs in universities and the settling on the default position of the Certificate IV in Training and Education as the de facto qualification for all VET teachers and trainers. This chapter analyses what has happened, and critically questions whether Australia's VET practitioners are becoming deprofessionalised.

2017

This paper reports on the professional development of vocational education and training (VET) teachers and trainers in Australia. It utilises the data on professional development (PD) gathered from two national surveys undertaken in 2016 as part of a major [Australian Research Council] ARC-funded national research project on VET teachers and their qualifications. Part of the first survey, which focused mainly on VET teachers' qualifications and teaching approaches, examined the PD activities undertaken by the respondents. It explored the nature and frequency of the activities, the motivations for participation and the support provided for PD. The second survey was sent to VET teachers/trainers who had participated in PD activities offered by three major PD providers for VET. It focused on the external PD activities undertaken by respondents and explored the frequency, content and nature of activities.

International Journal of Training Research

in Marginson, Simon (ed.), Tertiary Education Policy in Australia

The qualification needed to be a vocational education and training (VET) teacher in Australia is a Certificate IV in Training and Education. This qualification does not equip teachers with the knowledge and skills they need to be autonomous practitioners who can support students’ learning. In drawing from a 2010 research project on the quality of VET teaching in Australia, this chapter argues that VET teaching needs to be professionalised, and that VET teaching qualifications need to be differentiated to reflect the different types of students, industries, fields and levels in which teachers teach. The current approach to VET teaching is based on low trust and high levels of regulation and compliance. VET teachers have been demonised as being inadequate, and attempts made to teacherproof the curriculum through competency-based training models of curriculum. We need a high-trust model of VET teaching based on teachers’ professionalisation through developing a qualifications framework and model of continuing professional development that will support high quality teaching, and a professional body to take responsibility for developing the profession.