Author: Ajal

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Competency-based training: different perceptions in Australia and Germany

Author/s: Silke Hellwig

Edition: Volume 46, Number 1, April 2006

Summary: The German dual apprenticeship system has traditionally been viewed as an effective system for generating a highly skilled workforce in the trades, crafts and service sectors. In addition, countries and systems looking to improve their own approaches to vocational education and training (VET) have considered as exemplary the main features of the ‘dual system’ (that is, two learning sites and shared responsibility between private employers and public vocational schools). Nevertheless, competency-based training (CBT) as it has been implemented in the Anglophone countries has increasingly attracted the attention of public officials, vocational educators and VET researchers in Germany. This attention has been especially focused on the modularisation of curriculum and the importance of vocationalism in education and training systems. Comparative studies of these dual concepts (for example Deissinger 2002, Ertl 2000) have been used to inform  policy and practice. This paper focuses on the competency-based approach to VET in Australia and examines how reforms aimed at developing a national system, and implementing CBT in curriculum, training delivery and assessment are evaluated by stakeholders (for example, representatives of government, educators and academics). It also compares reforms to VET in Australia with those used in Germany for reforming and restructuring the dual system. This analysis is used to generate conclusions about the extent to which aspects of the Australian CBT model might be successfully applied to dual system reforms in Germany.

Keywords: dual apprenticeship, VET, competency-based training, Germany

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The age at which Indigenous Australians undertake qualifications: A descriptive analysis

Author/s: Nicholas Biddle

Edition: Volume 46, Number 1, April 2006

Summary: Reducing disparities in education outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is one of the main ways in which the relative disadvantage Indigenous Australians face will be overcome. Relative and absolute participation rates in all forms of education have improved, however they are still unacceptably low. Those Indigenous Australians who do undertake post-school education do so for the most part at a later age than the non-Indigenous population. This paper gives a descriptive analysis of the age at which Indigenous Australians are currently undertaking education, and the age at which Indigenous Australians obtained their qualifications in the past, making comparisons where appropriate with the non-Indigenous population. It also examines how certain characteristics of students vary across different age groups.

Keywords: Indigenous, disadvantage, post-school education, characteristics, students, age groups

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Learning in and through social partnerships

Author/s: Kathleen M. Fennessy, Stephen Billett and Carolyn Ovens

Edition: Volume 46, Number 1, April 2006

Summary: This paper explores participation in social partnerships as a space for learning. It analyses interview data about participation in social partnership from partnerships involved in vocational education and training (VET) to argue that social partnerships constitute a form of learning space. Partnership participants engage in new learning through the interactions and activities inherent in partnership work, and relational learning is the kind of learning most supported in these learning spaces. By fostering learning about the self and its relationship to others, social partnerships have potential to enhance capacity for action and responsibility, which underpins citizenship as a learning process. In this way, social partnerships are learning spaces that potentially build collective, even democratic, understanding by enhancing the individual’s cognitive and affective competencies. This cultural learning is embodied in the social partnership through engagement in effective partnership work.

Keywords: social partnerships, space for learning, VET, citizenship, responsibility

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A study of hospice nursing

Author/s: Susan Bardy

Edition: Volume 47, Number 3, November 2007

Summary: Hospice nursing is regarded by many as both physically and emotionally demanding work. Nursing literature is rich in discussing palliative care modalities, clinical practice techniques and care for family and friends, but is less forthcoming in describing the clinician as an individual. It is clear that people working in this area do so for reasons that may be more than skin deep, and that is why there is a need for explicating the reasons and motivations of the professional who finds fulfilment in caring for patients without expecting the  satisfaction of healing the wounded body.

Keywords: hospice nursing, palliative care, clinical practice, individual

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Distance education and its potential for the Red Sea nation, Eritrea – a discourse

Author/s: Ravinder Rena

Edition: Volume 47, Number 3, November 2007

Summary: Across the world, the distance mode of education is gaining momentum. It is a system in which schools, universities and other educational agencies offer instruction wholly or partly by mail. Eritrea is a newly independent country in Africa and is facing many challenges, particularly in its education sector. It does not have many educational institutions at tertiary level. Thus, distance learning is a valuable option for this country. The distance education program could promote higher education by providing access to large numbers of urban people and disadvantaged groups in rural and remote areas, including working people, fighters, women and  other adults. This paper discusses various issues related to the establishment and development of distance education. It presents the distance education programs so far undertaken in the country and explores the potential for distance education in Eritrea.

Keywords: distance education, Eritrea, Africa, disadvantaged, rural and remote

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Intersection of training and podcasting in adult education

Author/s: Ashok K. Roy and Priya A. Roy

Edition: Volume 47, Number 3, November 2007

Summary: Podcasting is becoming more and more common as a method of delivery at universities and for training purposes. The concept to set up podcasting is simple, and the costs vary. The advantages of podcasting are enormous. Podcasting is especially effective for adult education programs.

Keywords: podcasting, training, universities, adult education

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Keep in mind the quality, Sir, when you go with width!

Author/s: Silvia McCormack

Edition: Volume 47, Number 3, November 2007

Summary: Australian universities need to maintain their high reputation for quality in order to attract and retain buyers of Australian education-related products. Learners are becoming increasingly discerning in terms of what they are buying and why they should buy it. Thus, quality is a critical issue for Australian university programs in general as well as university foundation programs in particular. This paper describes the quality assurance process for the Monash University Foundation Year, a pre-tertiary pathway program for international students into Monash University Australia, Malaysia or Monash College Diploma 1 or Diploma 2 programs. The program is managed by a commercial arm of Monash University (Monash College Pty. Ltd.) and delivered by licensed providers offshore and in Australia. Quality assurance is seen as a means to improve and enhance the learning experience of students as well as a risk management strategy.

Keywords: education-related products, Australian university programs, quality assurance, Monash University Foundation, risk-management

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Bridging to the future: What works?

Author/s: Helen Anderson

Edition: Volume 47, Number 3, November 2007

Summary: This paper discusses three levels of ‘what works’ in enabling education – namely, current and successful engagement, transition and future participation, and managing uncertainties. It points to the importance of high quality programs that get the students involved with learning, effectively preparing them for further study and providing the necessary survival skills for an essentially unknown and technology-driven future.

Keywords: engagement, transition, participation, enabling education

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‘I’m not stupid after all’ – changing perceptions of self as a tool for transformation

Author/s: Ms Julie Willans and Ms Karen Seary

Edition: Volume 47, Number 3, November 2007

Summary: When adult learners return to formal education after a period of absence, coping with change is a constant and often omnipresent challenge. As they come to break down previous barriers to success in an educational arena, many adult learners are able to change the perceptions they have of themselves as learners. Previously held assumptions are often challenged and perceptions of how individuals come to hold these views undergo scrutiny. Using Cranton’s (2002) phases of perspective transformation as a framework, this paper explores the notion that some learners can and do change their perspectives regarding their abilities as learners. This occurs when they are provided with opportunities to reflect critically upon themselves as learners, and deconstruct the origins of past assumptions. Based on data collected during the thirteen week academic writing course within the Skills for Tertiary Education Preparatory Studies (STEPS) program at Central Queensland University, evidence suggests that upon critical reflection of previously held assumptions about their learning abilities, many students revise those assumptions and become more empowered individuals.

Keywords: formal education, adult learners, transformation, opportunities, reflection

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The relative value of investment in ‘second chance’ educational opportunities for adults in Sweden and Australia: a comparative analysis

Author/s: Tom Stehlik and Michael Christie

Edition: Volume 47, Number 3, November 2007

Summary: The article presents a comparative analysis of educational policy and provision in Sweden and Australia, with particular emphasis on the relative investment in continuing and further education in both countries. The authors investigate the extent to which further education opportunities provide a ‘second chance’ at learning for adults and contribute to social and economic capital.

Keywords: educational policy, provision, Sweden, Australia, investment, further education

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