Vocational educators' perspectives of workplace learning: a case study on senior schooling

Abstract

This article reports on a case study to evaluate a variety of learning models, currently being implemented within vocational education, at a large private boys' College located near Brisbane, Queensland in Australia. This programme was designed to enable students to complete a traineeship or apprenticeship, and their senior certificate in accordance, with a variety of combined school and work programmes. including the New Apprenticeship Scheme. A multi-method approach was adopted which includes interviews with students, vocational educators and employers regarding their perceptions of: competencies, learning outcomes and training acquired during the programme. This paper presents the results of the first stage, i.e. vocational educators' perspectives of workplace learning.

Defining boundaries between school and work: teachers and students’ attribution of quality to school-based vocational training

“…These studies have focused almost solely on the teachers' workplace experiences as foundations for the development of school-and work-representational practice forms (Berner 2010;Vähäsan-tanen, Saarinen, and Eteläpelto 2009;Velde et al 1999). Yet, other studies of students' transitions between school and work show that many students also become experienced workers whilst in school (Chisholm 1997;Rudd and Evans 1998).…”

“…Thereby, the potential of school-based vocational training for overcoming such difficulties may have been overlooked. As a response to these proposed difficulties with providing work-relevant school-based vocational training, several related studies have turned their attention towards describing how school-based vocational training can be organised to bridge the differences between learning in school and learning at work and thus better prepare students for the transition to future work (Berner 2010;Harreveld and Singh 2009;Higham and Farnsworth 2012;Persson Thunqvist and Axelsson 2012;Velde et al 1999;Vähäsantanen, Saarinen, and Eteläpelto 2009). Moreover, as Farnsworth and Higham (2012) have argued, some teachers' professional identities being a hybridization of teacher and vocational professionalism may be reflected in the curriculum and pedagogic approaches that align with the purpose of providing the students with vocationally relevant experiences.…”

Perceptions of Vocational Education and Competence: Implications for Research, Policy and Practice

“…There are several other ways that the education system generally is different in the area of VET, for example, 'in house training' and labour relations approaches are very different from those adopted in Australia. It is also argued that such an approach will assist vocational education and training institutions in providing vocational programmes which develop higher level competence needs (Velde, Cooper, Harrington and Mailler, 1999). Some private technical colleges set up their own employment agencies, or are associated with such service providers in order to place their students before they graduate.…”