At A Glance: Employer- provided training

Findings from Case Studies - NCVER
full report in pdf

p6 There's a mixture of push and pull factors at play in why employers provide training
(image sourced from pdf)

p7 There's a substantial effect of employer size on provision of structured training: Small businesses (<20 employees) 38.5% vs large businesses (>100) 97.5%

TAFE practitioner's ways of working with private enterprises

link to pdf

A Huge Learning Curve - TAFE practitioner's ways of working with private enterprises
Report for NCVER
Authors: Roger Harris, Michele Simons, Julian Moore

The key issue, then, is: In what ways and how effectively do public VET practitioners work with private enterprises? p12

Key to effective working in VET are:
- using the 'right' people
- understanding and adapting to cultura ... read more

Personal Care Workers in Aged Care

NCVER - Workplace training practices in the residential aged care sector
Title: Workplace training practices in the residential aged care sector

Authors: Robin Booth, Sue Roy, Helen Jenkins, Berwyn Clayton, Sarah Sutcliffe
"Personal care workers in residential care facilities, who make up one in two of the workforce, are the focus of this research. These workers require training because of new work roles linked to new policies and ... read more

Practical Guide to elearning for industry

E-learning for industry - Home
From the Australian Flexible Learning Framework:
"The Practical guide to e-learning for industry aims to increase industry's use of e-learning in the workplace."

Numeracy on the job

Research

Learning numeracy on the job: A case study of chemical handling and spraying

by Gail FitzSimons, Susan Mlcek, Oksana Hull, Claire Wright for NCVER
"Executive summary

Learning numeracy on the job: A case study of chemical handling and spraying

The processes of preparation, application, handling, storage and transport of chemicals are key elements of a range of economically significant industries, and place high demands on workers’ literacy, and especially nume ... read more

23 Theses about the Future of Work

The Future of Work Weblog: The ReFormation of Work

via Albert Ip (http://2020learning.blogspot.com/)

Posted by Jim Ware on the Future of Work Community.

This list about what the future of work will look like rings true with me - to be able to create learning experiences for our students that will assist them to develop this new world is a challenge when many of our patterns are still looking at the present and past ways of working. It is ... read more

Informal Learning - Kineo

Kineo - E-Learning & Blended Learning - Informal Learning - Summary

Summary of a longer report (which $) good basic clear writing.

Informal Learning - Summary

Value of Vocational Quals to Employers

link to pdf

For NCVER by Mark Cully - What it's worth: Establishing the value of vocational qualifications to employers

Key messages
This research starts from the premise that the value of qualifications to employers is what they are prepared to pay for them in the labour market.
There are clear differences in the way employers value the importance of qualifications for different categories of worker. Emp ... read more

Videos from Workplace Learning Conference

link to website

surprised I hadn't blogged these before.

Training of existing workers: Issues, incentives and models

nr3017.pdf (application/pdf Object)
Authors: Giselle Mawer, Elaine Jackson
NCVER Report
"This report presents issues associated with incentives for training existing workers in small to medium-sized firms, identified through a small sample of case studies from the retail, manufacturing, and building and construction industries. While the majority of employers recognise workforce skill levels are fundamental to the success of the business, their understanding and suppo ... read more

Fully on-the-job training

link to pdf
Author: Susanne Wood
NCVER Report
"Fully on-the-job training, the majority of which is conducted in the workplace as part of the normal experience of the employee, is perceived to offer benefits to apprentices/trainees, employers and registered training organisations. This report finds fully on-the-job training is viewed by learners and registered training organisations as a good way to learn as it provides flexibility for all concerned and financial inc ... read more

Workplace Learning

The Workplace as a Site for Learning:

must come back here and see if I can track down the articles.

ANTA Docs for employers

link to website

Some of the ANTA documents that have moved to the DEST website for employers about new apprentices.

Informal learning in the workplace

link to website
from Steen Elsborg, Learning Lab Denmark
"the workplace is primarily special as a learning arena due to its overriding focus on optimising the output. The informal learning takes place in a context where the ultimate goal is to produce a certain product as efficiently as possible." and "According to the consortium’s findings, there are two ways an organisation can strengthen the informal learning:

1. In ... read more

What’s in it for me? Recognition of Prior Learning in enterprise based registered training

link to pdf

What’s in it for me? Recognition of Prior Learning in enterprise based registered training organisations
NCVER report by Kaaren Blom, Berwyn Clayton, Andrea Bateman, Marie Bedggood and Elvie Hughes

This report focuses on recognition processes within enterprise RTOs (rather than recognition within public or private RTOs who have training and assessment as their core business). Six enterprises participated in the research, all medium-to-large enterprises ... read more

AusTAFE audio recordings - Industry Partnerships

link to website
via Leigh Blackall
Casting the Net Podcast: AUSTAFE Conference 2005 - David Wilson, Developing Partnerships with Industry - really enjoyed listening to David talking about Optical Dispensing Industry partnerships and impact on the training that he runs in many parts of Australia and New Zealand. You have to listen carefully to hear the questions from ... read more

New Apprentice Employer Awards 2005

link to website

2005 Minister's Awards for Excellence - Employers of New Apprentices

"The award winners were announced on Monday August 1, 2005. Now in their fifth year, these awards represent a great opportunity for all businesses to be recognised for their important work in providing training opportunities to local communities. "

Each winning employer has a 2 page pdf that links to the benefits of training, why they use new appr ... read more

Industry Training Networks

link to pdf

Building Industry Training Networks by John Mtichell for RTF

"This report on networks in the vocational education and training (VET) sector expands on
all of the above features of networks. The networks described in this report provide the VET sector with models of how to effectively build networks that impact positively on the individuals and organisations involved, as well as assisting with the implementation of the natio ... read more

Employers commitment to training existing workers

link to pdf

Enterprises' commitment to nationally recognised training for existing workers

Authors:

Erica Smith, Richard Pickersgill, Andy Smith, Peter Rushbrook

"This report aims to provide a clearer understanding of how and why enterprises use nationally recognised type of training. It finds that an enterprise's decision to engage in recognised training is not made lightly and decisions ... read more

What value do Australian employers give to qualifications?

link to website

What value do Australian employers give to qualifications?

Authors:

Lee Ridoutt, Chris Selby Smith, Kevin Hummel, Christina Cheang

"This report is about employers and how they value and use qualifications in their business decisions. The research indicates clear differences in the value placed on and use made of qualifications by employers for different groups of workers and occupations. Qualifications ... read more

Informal Learning

linkt to website

informal learning @ the informal education homepage

This looks like a rich resource. I'm sure I've been to this site before but could not find a reference to it on Toolkits, so here it is (again possibly).

informal learning - Fast Company

link to website

Learn More Now

by Marcia Conner for Fast Company

"Still think learning means school? Expand your definition of learning to include conversations with your peers and your children, from books, articles, informal networks, Internet searching, television, and what you learn through trial and error. Use everything that happens in your world as a resource to learn more now.

Picture a company cafeteria with overhead projectors, pads of paper, and pe ... read more

Comparison of Construction Apprentice Trends in Australia and UK

link to pdf

A working paper from acirrt at Uni of Sydney that discussed the impacts of trends in the construction industry that have changed apprenticeship patterns. These include decreased public construction organisations, the move to subcontracting, unionisation, training markets and licensing.

Formalising Informal Learning

link to website
From Ted Cocheu's Rapid Elearning Blog

"Informal learning is essential and inevitable and trying to formalize it past a point seems counterproductive and silly. But making it more efficient by providing more specific knowledge repositories and more precise tools to access them makes a lot of sense—and the payoff, in terms of increased productivity, would be enormous."....

Elearning in Call Centres

link to website
Stephen Downes reports on a conference presentation about elearning in call centres. The approach takes advantage of slow or down time in call volumes and focusses on 15 minute sections of learning. Through integration with other systems in the call centre, the training presented to the learner is individualised in relation to their performance. SImluation and observation of experts is one of the learning methodologies. Strong student track ... read more

Mechanisms for increasing employer contributions to Training

pdf file (589Kb)

By Andy Smith and Stephen Billett

"The aim of this paper is to identify and discuss policy options for increasing employer contribtions to their employee's training and development" (P6)

This paper compares the approaches taken in Australia and other developed countries by employers and governments in contributing to employee training. From my reading, the paper finds, without knowing which goals are driving a desire for more employer contributions, it is difficult to recommend a policy a ... read more

Skills at Work

Skills at Work is a Australian Commonwealth Government evaluation of New Apprenticeships.
Summary Report (pdf)
Full Report (pdf)

The summary report included the following findings:
The number of new apprentices has increased since 1998 when the scheme ... read more

Learning Without Lessons

link to pdf 273k

"Summary
This report presents the main findings, conclusions and recommendations from a study investigating informal and unstructured learning in small firms. The Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA) conducted this research in collaboration with the Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative (SFEDI) between September 2002 and August 2003. The project invetigated : Informal methods of learning, Links between informal and formal learning, Whether informa ... read more

Integrating Learning and Work

CEDRA Research Resource Bases

Integrating Learning and Work: Facilitating and Constraining Factors

Mike Kelleher

Open this document in a new window

This paper looks at the questions surrounding integrating learning and work. In particular it focuses on facilitating and constraining factors in integrating workand learning.These include the learning potential of the task, opportunities for feed-back, formalization of ... read more

Knowledge Map of Research about Continuing vocational training in Europe

Wissensquellen zur beruflichen Weiterbildung in Europa

Wissensquellen zur beruflichen Weiterbildung in Europa
Knowledge map > CVT < continuing vocational training

Online Education: lessons for administrators and instructors

Singh, P. and Pan, W 2004 "Online Education: lessons for administrators and instructors", in College Student Journal, June 2004 v38 i1 p302(7)

Potential for increasing communication for learners using online technologies

"The most often heard complaint and a potentially recurring problem is the perception that the Web-based online course lacks face-to-face interactions between student and instructor" (Singh & Pan, 2004, p 4). This charge has also been levelled at workplace learning, and current funding structures do nothing to encourage greater interaction. It is interestin ... read more

Employer views of VET 2001

NCVER - Australian vocational education and training statistics 2001: Survey of Employer Views on Vocational Education and Training - At a glance

Title: Australian vocational education and training statistics 2001: Survey of Employer Views on Vocational Education and Training - At a glance
Authors: NCVER
Publication date: 17 October 2001
P ... read more

Rural Industries Research & Development Corporation

link to website

Australian Industry Group website

whole lot of pdf reports

Engaging Employers

link to website

Engaging employers: overcoming the barriers faced by small businesses (G049) - Guide 2 - Skills and Education network - part of the UK Learning and Skills Council.

July 2004

There are particular barriers to employer engagement in small businesses, but given the size of the sector, providers have a particular onus to respond to these requirements. This G ... read more

E-Learning For Short Attention Spans

link to website

by Penny Lunt Crosman
"On-demand training is the latest trend in e-learning. Companies using e-learning echnologies have found that long lectures don't cut it online. Short, targeted learning segments with simulation or how-to scenarios let employees take classes when they have time or when they need the help. It's far less disruptive than taking a week-long seminar."

Collaborating With Universities to Create a Continuous Learning Culture

link to website

By Pamela Tate & Becky Klein-Collins, April 2004, from Chief Learning Officer

This article talks about the motivators of employees and employers in providing learning in and around the workplace.

Publications of David Boud

Publications of David Boud: UTS Faculty of Education

Some publications are available as PDF's or as a normal webpage indicated by the icon after the publication name.

Workplace simulations

link to website (print friendly version)
Training Packages @ Work article about using simluations. This information is drawn "mainly from the Training Package Assessment Materials Kit, published by the Australian National Training Authority and the Department of Education, Science and Training."

Workplace Learning: A critical introduction

link to webiste

Workplace Learning: A Critical Introduction
by John Bratton

Yes, I know the site's in German, but there's a book review in English.

Workplace Learning in Context

link to amazon page

Workplace Learning in Context
by Helen Rainbird (Editor), Alison Fuller (Editor), Anne Munro (Editor)
not yet released as at 1/4/04

Vocational higher education: does it meet employers’ needs?

link to pdf
LSDA UK
Brenda Little with Helen Connor, Yann Lebeau, David Pierce, Elaine Sinclair, Liz Thomas and Karen Yarrow

A team led by Brenda Little at the Centre for Higher Education Research and Information at the Open University (OU) conducted the research for this study.
This bulletin reports on a study of vocational higher education undertaken against a backdrop of government policies on education that seek to redress the balance between academic and vocational routes to high-level qua ... read more

Trends in traditional apprenticeships

link to website

Australian vocational education and training statistics: Trends in 'traditional apprenticeships'
Authors: Louise Brooks
Publication date: 16 February 2004
Publication type: Formal report

This paper analyses trends in 'traditional apprenticeships' (as defined within the report), compared to those in 'other' apprenticeship contracts, since 1996. It shows that growth in ... read more

This paper defines 'traditional apprentices' as 'someone who is employed under a contract of training in a trades occupation, training towards a qualification at AQF Lvel 3 or higher, and the expected duration of that contract is more than 2 years for fulltime workers (or more than 8 years for parttime workers)'. This conforms to the common understanding of how somebody prepares themselves for a career in trades such as plumbing, carpentry and hairdressing.

Traditional apprentices are overwhelmingly male, young, employed full time,and training towards an AQF lvl 3 certificate.

More than 3 in 4 of all teenagers employed in the trades at December 2002 were undertaking a 'traditional apprenticeship', up from around 2 in 3 at December 1996.

Page 26 "The industries where apprentices and trainees were most prominent as a proportion of employed persons in 2002 were transport and storage, accommodation, cafes and restaurants, retail trade, and property and business services."

CTE and Work-Based Learning

link to website

ERIC Digest no. 252

by Bettina Lankard Brown
2003

"Work-based learning represents the integration of workplace experiences and career and technical education (CTE) curriculum. It involves students in the construction of knowledge by engaging them in authentic tasks of the workplace that "create a context for creative decision making in uncertain situations" (Harnish and Wilke-Schnaufer 1998, p. 22). It engages students in reflective pr ... read more

Supporting Learners in Training

By Ann Montague and Linda Hopkins
published by NCVER 2002
full pdf paper
p 7
Learners in VET and enterprises believe that support services have an important impact on their success in training and in enabling them to overvome obstacles to learning
Teachers at VET institutions interviewed felt increased retention rates and completion rates were the direct result of the provision of appropriate support to learners.
P 19
1995 survey found that 1 in 5 students ( and 1 in 3 special needs stud ... read more

Employer Engagement with Learning

Successful engagement: [pdf file] guidance for colleges and providers on effective
employer engagement in post-16 learning.

"This guide provides ideas on how to engage employers effectively in post-16 learning. It gives examples of how colleges and providers are
currently responding to the needs of employers and their employees, with suggestions for extending this practice. It should be of interest to
LSC-funded colleges and providers and local Learning and Skills Councils when considering and agreei ... read more

OTJ Learning and Assessment in the UK

Adult Learning Inspectorate - quality assurance in the UK.

Report

Successful Learning at work - Good Practice in on-the-job learning and assessment. Executive summary... This report seeks to identify and illustrate the key features which make for successful training in the workplace. It groups examples and case studies of good practice into seven areas.

Hot Potatoes User Guide

Ferl: Hot Potatoes User Guide

Hot Potatoes User Guide
http://www.ccm.ac.uk/ltech/cfet/materials/files/file%2013.pdf
LSDA Tutorial introducing the software for easy-to-create quizzes. The various quiz formats (anagrams, multiple choice etc) are covered, with a detailed explanations of their menu options.
Please note this link will display an Adobe Acrobat document (PDF file) in your browser window.

Informal Learning

Informal Learning: A Sound Investment

October 2003 - Jay Cross

Informal learning is effective because it is personal. The individual calls the shots. The learner is responsible. It’s real. How different from formal learning, which is imposed by someone else. Workers are pulled to informal learning; formal learning is pushed at them.

What makes for good workplace learning

At a glance

This Research at a glance summarises some of the recent research on workplace learning in Australia. Based on our analysis, if workplace learning was working well in Australia, enterprises would have in place the elements outlined in the key findings.

12 page summary of various papers and project reports. (NCVER)

"Shared Technology"

Shared Technologies

This website supports a research project into how new technology will affect the provision of training in the vocational education and training sector. This project has been funded by the Australian National Training Authority through the ElectroComms and EnergyUtilities Qualifications Standards Body Australia.

Declining Apprentice Training Rates

"This essay provides new data on long-run apprentice training rates by broad occupational
group in the main trades, which shows there was a sustained break in the long-run apprentice training rate from the early 1990s to the present. This sharp fall in apprentice training rates is contributing to shortages of core vocational occupations, which are essential to production and maintenance in a modern knowledge based economy. The essay considers the implications of ... read more

Flexible Learning in the Workplace

link

This report documents the processes and findings of a research project examining
flexible learning in the workplace. For the purposes of the project, the researchers
determined, through consultation with the project reference group, that the terms
‘flexible delivery’ and ‘flexible learning’ would be used to define the full range of
learning/training activities occurring in enterprises including technology-based delivery
and learning.

What makes for good workplace learning

What makes for good workplace learning? At a glance
NCVER

Recent research into workplace learning in Australia is reviewed and important findings are synthesised in this publication. It finds that six elements are required to be in place for effective workplace learning and proposes that the 'ideal' workplace learning situation fosters innovation, and involves a systematic approach. Additionally, the 'At a glance' emphasises that the networks and partnerships of the workplace learning system - the workplace, individual, external training provider and a variety of community and ... read more

ODLAA Forum

My paper outlining the “Workplace Learning Profile” has been accepted as one of only two workshops in the draft three day program for the 16th Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia’s Biennial Forum, “Sustaining Quality Learning Environments” in Canberra later this year. This workshop will act as a showcase for TAFE Tasmania.
http://www.odlaa.org/forumSite/program.html#thurs

Work and Learning

This paper is a preparatory background paper for the 13th World Conference on Cooperative Education, which will be held in 2003 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and which is being organised by the Association of Dutch Universities of Professional Education (the HBO-raad) in conjunction with the World Association for Cooperative Education (WACE). The paper makes reference to a number of research projects about integrating work and learning, especially page 4.
http://www.wacerotterd ... read more