Value of Vocational Education and Training in a Non-Metropolitan Community. CRLRA Discussion Paper Series
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DOCUMENT RESUME CE 080 815 ED 446 226 Falk, Ian; Kilpatrick, Sue AUTHOR Toms, Jon; Golding, Barry; and Training in a TITLE Value of Vocational Education Non-Metropolitan Community. CRLRADiscussion Paper Series. (Australia). Center for Research INSTITUTION Tasmania Univ., Launceston and Learning in RegionalAustralia. Authority, Melbourne. SPONS AGENCY Australian National Training REPORT NO CRLRA-D11/1998 ISSN ISSN-1440-480X PUB DATE 1999-04-00 "Quality and Diversity in VET NOTE 15p.; Paper presented at Research," the Annual Conferenceof the Australian Vocational Education and TrainingResearch Association (2nd, Melbourne, Australia, February11-12, 1999). For related documents, see CE 080 809-818. P.O. Centre for Research andLearning in Regional Australia, AVAILABLE FROM 6324 Box 1214, Launceston,Tasmania 7250, Australia, Tel: 03 3142, Fax: 03 6324 3040,E-mail: [email protected], Web site:http://www.crlra.utas.edu.au ($3 Australian). Speeches/Meeting Papers (150) PUB TYPE Reports Research (143) -- EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. Skills; Developed Nations; DESCRIPTORS Adult Education; *Communication *Economic Development; EconomicImpact; Empathy; Employment Qualifications; Foreign Countries;Informal Education; Job Training; *Lifelong Learning;*Nonformal Education; *Nonmetropolitan Areas; Outcomesof Education; Postsecondary Education; Regional Characteristics;*School Community Relationship; Secondary Education;Vocational Education IDENTIFIERS *Australia ABSTRACT A study examined thequestion of how one Australian economic and non-metropolitan community consolidatesand develops sustainable The research used social activity through thelearning of community members. with these 2 major a focused interview processwith open-ended questions 2 people sub-groups in the communityand explored their interrelatedness: performance in employed in 17 industry groupsdelineated for benchmarking with groups vocational education and training(VET) and 1 person affiliated three contexts were of community organizations.Sources of learning in these home activities. explored: in recent paid work,in community activities, in of learning: at Respondents rated the value tothem of these five sources of work school, through post-schoolqualifications, through work, outside activities. from involvement with community groups,and associated with home Findings indicated nonformal andinformal learning contributed to a learning through substantial proportion of anindividual's learning. Formal relatively lower schooling and post-schoolqualifications were assigned a qualifications as of value. While 46 percent of VETgraduates regarded VET awards were high or medium usefulness, tradequalifications and higher level Regarding their most importantskill, 47 percent named more highly valued. (Contains 19 empathy for others and 42 percentnamed communication skills. references.)(YLB) Reproductions supplied by EDRS arethe best that can be made from the original document. cts.2,±ri;" 1/440 C1 71- 4-1 MK_ I 411111___ - effir i :41 ' A f te: 74 /1) .). fl'..-7.1,---- f 4 . a ue_ooca On s. EDUCATION --":5; in U.S. DEPARTMENT OFand Improvement t Office of Educational Research 1..7.1e :,`" 4 INFORMATION gi ,ti' .7.7" EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES tr CENTER (ERIC) This document has beenreproduced as Edtkation received from the person ororganization originating it. 'k.t, 1 -;.;4/7 O Minor changes havebeen made to .sit,-,--:.'-.-%-- I rvt. aining in a improve reproduction quality. S. " Points of view or opinionsstated in this represent d 7,td4-"' document do not necessarily ...:--i.,*, on-metroPotit 1 official OERI position orpolicy. -:4-?,-R-_,,y e. ` ( mmunity, . , PERMISSION TO REPRODUCEAND MATERIAL HAS DISSEMINATE BEEN GRANTED BY #ifltL . -(---i'Von Toms, Barry Golding- . g S auen' Kilpatrickr 4,1:43 r Discuss on Paper D11/1998 TO THE EDUCATIONALRESOURCES 4, .. yr. 1 INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) , ir 10 CRLRADiscusSion Pap,eiSeiies ISSN 1440-480X mama ; MomenT_ BEST COPY AVAILABLE 0 VALUE OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN A NON-METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY Jon Toms, Barry Golding, Ian Falk & Sue Kilpatrick Centre for Research and Learning in Regional Australia Faculty of Education University of Tasmania PO Box 1214 Launceston, Tasmania 7250 Australia Phone:(03) 6324 3713 Fax:(03) 6324 3040 E-mail: [email protected] http://www.crlra.utas.edu.au Abstract This study examines the question of how a non-metropolitan community consolidates and develops sustainable economic and social activity through the learning of community members. It includes an examination of the respective contributions of schooling, post-school education and training, and learning at work as well as learning at home. Paper presented atAustralian Vocational Education and Training Research Association 1999 Conference, 'Quality and Diversity in VET Research', Melbourne, 11-12 February 1999. Paper D1111998 in the CRLRA Discussion Paper Series AESOLALIA. April 1999 mama. tunmx AVIsMITI Introduction This study starts from the premise that learningoccurs over a lifetime in a wide range of contexts outside of formal education, including in the workplace, community and home. Its methodology is orientedto collecting evidence of learning over a lifetime. It aims firstly to determine theways in which learning at work, in community life and at home integrate inways not detected by formal, linear or hierarchical models of skill andknowledge acquisition. Secondly, it anticipates that learning may not be confinedto any one sector, and that much valuable learningmay be informal or nonformal and occurs in community and workplace settings beyond formal VET provision.Thirdly, it sets out to investigate the extent to which knowledge is valued outsidethe domain of specific industry, communityor work sector. In effect, the study explores the discrepancy betweenvocational education and training (VET) as a set of policy terms andprograms and the reality of vocational learning, as experienced and valued by peoplein their everyday lives. This discrepancy is one significant problem inVET research in Australia (Falk 1998). VET research, like VET policy, also involvessimplification of the complexity of lived experience for analyticalpurposes. In this study, we make out own necessary simplifications in order to approach the value ofVET: for a small number of workers and community members (N=55)in one Australian geographic community. What we purposefully broaden,however, is the detail about the diverse forms, sites andsources of learning, and the value of such learning in community and workplace contexts for thoseindividuals over a lifetime. We also broaden the notion of value,as something which includes but goes beyond the formal, accredited, vocational and economic.Our broadening is deliberate. Public policy and research in VET has frequentlybecome stuck fast (and generalised from) remotely measured economic data,phenomena, outcomes and dimensions based around involvement in formalVET (mainly TAFE) programs by individuals, often divorced from their workplacesor communities. A large body of recent research questions the usefulnessof only emphasising the economic dimension (Marginson 1993; Butler and Lawrence1996; Hyland 1996; Lawrence 1997; Anderson 1997; Falk and Kilpatrick 1998; Childsand Wagner 1998; Billett et al.1997; Falk and Harrison 1998b). Extensive and ongoing research at the Centre for Research and Learning inRegional Australia has focussed on other dimensions through opening thebroader VET envelope of learning as it occurs in regional communities,a focus previously de-emphasised by emphases on 'capital V' VET, 'delivered' from citiesthrough TAFE. No previous research has measured the economic andvocational value of VET, incorporating the social, community and culturalaspects of life and learning for people over the course of a lifetime. This study investigateshow each of these aspects integrates during moments of learning in both community andworkplace contexts. It distinguishes between contexts of skills and knowledgeacquisition and contexts of use. This distinction helps in understandingthe value of all sources of learning when learning is used in any context throughout life. This 4 2 Value of Vocational Education and Training in a Non-metropolitan Community conceptualisation also assists in an understanding of policies and strategies related to 'lifelong learning'. VET is commonly construed, described and researched using public policy terms and assumptions based around an a priori definition of VET 'delivery'. It is widely assumed that VET is separate and distinct from other forms of training, and particularly from education. It is widely assumed that VET can be 'wrapped', as a 'training package', sold in 'markets' or 'delivered' as a training program. Once competencies are 'achieved', the learning can be 'articulated' (like behind a vehicle), taken somewhere else and 'transferred' for credit. Learning gets put on the shelf for purchasing in a metropolitan market place. Regional VET gets explained away as a thin market or treated in welfare terms as a community service obligation. The lived reality in rural and isolated Australia is different. Vocational learning derives from a range of sources other than public provision in TAFE (Technical and Further Education). While it is possible and necessary to lump, divide and simplify learning generally, and VET specifically, into its component parts for research purposes, it is an integral but integrated part of people's lives. In the forthcoming full report of this study (Toms