Positioning vocational education and the occupations it serves as worthy post-school pathways - Oceania
English
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Experts from many international, regional and national agencies generously share their views, experiences and findings on skills, helping policy-makers among other stakeholders to understand the linkages between education, training and the world of work, and how to integrate skills into national development planning to promote employment and economic growth.
Career guidance and employment services
Career guidance and counselling, career education and lifelong development of skills for employability are key for success in learning activities, effective career transitions, livelihood planning, entrepreneurship and in increasing labour market participation. They are instrumental in promoting skills utilization, recognition (RPL), as well as in improving enterprise human resource management.
Career development activities encompass a wide variety of support activities including career information and advice, counselling, work exposure (e.g. job shadowing, work experience periods), assessment, coaching, mentoring, professional networking, advocacy, basic and employability skills training (curricular and non-curricular) and entrepreneurship training. It is often an area which is fragmented across different ministries (e.g. education, TVET, employment, youth) requiring an effort to achieve the necessary coordination to provide adequate support to individuals during learning, employment and unemployment/inactivity periods.
Lifelong learning
There is a critical need for a greater overall investment in education and training, particularly in developing countries. Education and training investments should be closely linked to economic and employment growth strategies and programmes. Responsibility should be shared between the government (primary responsibility), enterprises, the social partners, and the individual. To make lifelong learning for all a reality, countries will need to make major reforms of their vocational and education and training systems. School-to-work schemes for young people should integrate education with workplace learning. Training systems need to become more flexible and responsive to rapidly changing skill requirements. Reforms should also focus on how learning can be facilitated, not just on training for specific occupational categories.
Skills policies and strategies
Skills and employment policies should be viewed together. The full value of one policy set is realized when it supports the objectives of the other. For investments in education and training to yield maximum benefit to workers, enterprises, and economies, countries’ capacities for coordination is critical in three areas: connecting basic education to technical training and then to market entry; ensuring continuous communication between employers and training providers so that training meets the needs and aspirations of workers and enterprises, and integrating skills development policies with industrial, investment, trade, technology, environmental, rural and local development policies.
The relative low standing of vocational education and training (VET) and the occupations it serves is an impediment to how this important education sector is resourced, supported and engaged with by schools, young people and their parents. Increasingly, in an era of high aspiration, VET is viewed as an option only for those unable to secure university entrance. This can lead to mismatches between the kinds of skills young people are learning in tertiary education and employment opportunities, with what employers seek in employees, and lengthy and potentially unproductive tertiary education pathways. Positioning VET as a worthwhile post-school pathway for young Australians is now important for them individually, for communities needing these skills and workplaces whose continuity is premised on employees’ skills.
This presentation reports the findings of an Australian research project investigating how to position VET as being a more worthwhile, attractive and viable options for young people and those influence their decisions about post-school pathways. The investigation comprised interviews and focus groups to secure perceptions and suggestions of Queensland parents, school and VET students, and teachers in metropolitan and regional communities. A survey was administered nationally to verify and extend these findings, followed by workshops and focus groups with teachers and administrators to review and refine draft strategies for positioning VET and the occupations it serves as viable post-school options.
The findings suggest positioning VET in this way requires an approach with four distinct elements: i) a public education process – e.g. give VET a ‘fair go’ – promoted by government; ii) actions by schools and VET institutions to holistically promote, inform and advise about post-school pathways; iii) VET institutions offering more attractive social and learning environments, easier engagement with information and enrolment processes, and broad-based program options; and iv) a concerted effort and leadership by government and industry sectors to promote the occupations VET serves. It is with these issues that the participants will engage in the workshop.
Time: 5.00pm AEST
Information on and registration for event can be found on the Queensland Guidance and Counsellling website under the twilight PD ticket Tab: https://qgca.org.au/
Career guidance
Asia and the Pacific
