Inaugural Sino-NZ Vocational Education Research Forum - Qingdao 23 - 24 September

Day 1
In Qingdao for the inaugural Sino-NZ Vocational Education Research forum. Opens with formal welcome from Professor Qin Chuan, President of Qingdao Technical College.

Then a short speech from the vice-mayor of Qingdao Municipal Government, Liu Mingjun.

Followed by a series of speeches from various signatories of the MOE between China and NZ.

Alexandra Grace, Education NZ Regional director in China.
Gao Yong, deputy director for Central Institute for Vocational and Technical Education (CIVTE), China and Shao Wei, secretary general of China International Association for International Exchange (CEAIE).
all provide background on the formalised relationship between China and NZ to share knowledge on Technical and Vocational Education (TVET) and to learn from each other. China is placing priority in TVET due to its potential to increase economic and social levels. There are over 14000 TVET colleges on China with over 10 million students. it is important to improve teaching and learning in TVET to enhance student learning and in turn contribute to China's progress.

After morning tea, two keynotes.
one from Liu Yufeng, director of comparative education research, CIVTE on 'building a modern vocational education: China's path selection. goal of china to become more competitive, as measured on global competitiveness scales. China is on second stage of development but NZ in stage 3. TVET seen as one way to lift competitiveness through improving science, technology through improvement of human capital. Path for constructing modern VET include connection between secondary and higher VET, cooperation between school and enterprise, and improving social justice.
Then Prof. Qin Chuan from QTC with 'learning teaching and doing in one: let every student be the best of him/herself'. Students in VET weak in abstract and logic ability but good at operations, imagination and other intelligences. Move to supply appropriate learning resources, guide students to learn, motivate students to be the best. learning, teaching and doing need to become integrated.

Third keynote from Mark Flowers, CE of Wintec on 'internationalisation of vocational education and training - learning from each other'. Need to change teaching practice, meeting needs of employers / industry, and focus on our students. Skills of workforce need to lift to cope with China and NZ becoming exporters and the process of internationalisation.

Last keynote with Dai Yuwei, President of Tianjin Light Industry Vocational  Technical College, speaks on 'relying on industry guidance and innovating educational system to achieve effective vocational college education of school enterprice cooperation. Three strategies used. Understand and form a school and enterprise cooperation system, derive a model to improve and evaluate the school and enterprise cooperation system, and effective personnel training through and by the system.

After lunch, two streams present around the theme 'excellent vocational teaching'.  I present in the 'science' stream. Summaries of presentations follow. Other NZ educators present in the other stream, including Aidan Bigham, Peter Bilious, Sam Honey, Dr. Karen Vaughan, Adrian Woodhouse and Dr. John Clayton.

I am first up to provide a quick overview of the 'learning through apprenticeship' project. Basically, how to assist apprentices to become more metacognitive about their learning. Learning as becoming through learning how to do, be, feel and think like a trades person.

Zhang Yi from Baotou Vocational College on 'strengthening knowledge application by inverted teaching, improving cognitive competence by innovation of evaluation system. Focus on introducing authentic learning in the form of project based learning. Steps include introduction (connecting theory to practice, working out learning objective), exploration, practice (through project based teams where students play actual production roles), assessing (teacher, self and peer).

Jo Thomas from Wintec with 'English language teaching for a changing world' two concepts, what English should be taught?' and the learnings from a case study. Important to recognise English learning needs of students, what are they learning English for? Task based learning important. shared experiences of a blended distance learning programme for English teachers in Kwangtung.

Shao Ningping from Ningxia Vocational Technical College of Industry and Commerce on 'applications of various teaching methods on logistics management courses'. A practice / task based approach with problem and case study based learning. Requires teachers to take active role in preparing appropriate resources to support the various learning activities. Role plays often used to replicate real world practice to enhance other approaches. Modelling used to help students learn complex tasks. Enterprise cooperation (often work placement) and competition orientated learning also used.

After morning tea, Kelly Pender from Bay of Plenty Polytechnic shares 'empowerment and compassion,enhanced through experiential learning'. Shared approaches used on Certificate of Fitness (level 4). Importance of teachers setting an example. Learning concepts made easier by applying learning through 'learning by doing', improves empathy with others (clients) and understanding why they have to learn certain things.

Chen Xiaofeng from Xinjiang Institute of Light Industry Technology, on 'the teaching innovation of the chemical engineering unit operation and maintenance'. Went through understanding of curriculum planning using a job orientated curriculum. However, employers found graduates to still be under prepared. Therefore, shift to development of students' 'personality' development. Undertook an analysis of the curriculum to increase emphasis on students' 'professional' development. included practising through use of simulation software, then students discuss operation, school competitions motivate students, theory and practical now integrated, use of formative assessments and content extension becomes students' responsibility.

Julia Bruce then presents on 'engaging challenging learners'. Described her work with hairdressing students using a 'living consensus' model. Process of teachers and students sharing responsibility for creating learning environments through group agreements, on-going discussion and shared understanding. Teaching and sharing strategies include ongoing ethical practice discussions, discussions on shared cultural practice (culture share activity), shared group management. Code of practice and shared ethics understandings form the basis of the living consensus. Video diary used to record the evolution of the living consensus so teachers and students are able to reflect on their transformation. Project based learning is the underpinning learning approach.

Malcolm Doidge from Wellington Institute of Technology on 'collaboration as a teaching tool'. Mahi tahi - working together. Provided an overview of work with level 1 - 3 design programme over 3 years. Learning how to help oneself leads to helping others. Used 3 Maori principles, family (whanau), working together (mahi tahi) and principles / guidelines (tikanga) to follow. Using technology (evernote) to record project based learning (developing a board game).

A panel closes the day, followed by conference dinner.

A very packed day but heartening to see the similarities and aspirations between Chinese and NZ current teaching practice and learning focuses.

Day 2

Today there is a series of 3 class room demonstrations.beginning with Du Xiao Ni teaching a session on 'primary hall sensor'. A lesson plan provided in Chinese and the 40 minute session is to showcase 'problem based' teaching approach. the class views an introductory video and then answer a series of questions (in groups). Individual students answer questions using flip carts or diagrams. the teacher clarifies points and revises main features of the lesson. Lesson is teacher directed but good teaching shown in how the teacher draws the aswers out of the students, reinforces correct answers and using 'teaching moments' where appropriate to clarify understanding.

Second demonstration lesson is with Li Qin and a lesson on 'group analysis and modification on the draft of particulat commodities display'. A retailing course whereby students design a display and substantiate their choice. Teacher and other students provide feedback and critique. Questions are mostly from students and team members take turns to answer. Teacher provides a comprehensive critique.

The NZ contribution from Julia Bruce with a group of volunteer students. Julia based her session on helping students understand their learning style preference through completing a short questionnaire. Then discussing ways in which to enhance their learning through the understanding of how they preferred to learn.

Two Chinese and two NZ representatives provided feedback / critique on the three sessions.

The forum closed with short speech from Professor Qin Chuan.

Day 4

Five of us (Jo Thomas, Julia Bruce, Adrian Thomas, Kelly Pender and myself) along with Stewart Brougham (Wintec Offshore project manager) take the fast train (travels at 300km plus an hour) from Qingdao to Tianjin on Day 3. A chance for us to see some of rural Shandong and to debrief the experiences of the previous two days.

On Day 4, we visit the Tianjin Light Industry Vocational  Technical College which is one of 8 educational institutes that make up stage 1 of the Haihe Educational Park. When completed, the park supports educational and residential needs of over 300,000 people!! The physical spaces are impressive and we have another opportunity to observe a few classes in the engineering, art / design, commerce and electronics areas.

Overall, a good experience to observe the challenges China faces and their focus at developing infrastructure and human capital through TVET. There is support from the highest officials for vocational learning to become more learning focused. The sheer numbers of vocational educators to shift from content to learning focus is a particular challenge. However, there are movements from 'sage on the stage' to 'guide on the side' from the presentations and class observations. Small steps in the right direction, although the Chinese will need to contextualise Western models of learning to their culture and social needs.

Link to newspaper article on the conference published late October.

ITF research conference - day one

At the  Industry Training Federation  - ITF NZ vocational education and training research forum on Wednesday 27th and 28th April.

Began with introduction and housekeeping with Jeremy Baker the ITF executive director. Opening address from Dr. Peter Coolbear, Ako Aotearoa director on "Direction for research". Covered the policy context for workplace learning, Ako Aotearoa portfolio and issues to resolve. Policy context include limited funding on tertiary ed., youth unemployment, need to have return on investment, concern about duplication and fragmentation. Also a need to bring employers, Voc. Ed institutions etc. together.

Big change is no longer outputs and systems but about outcomes - value added to NZ economy, to the individual, productivity for today ad tomorrow and work readiness and career building. Ako Aotearoa  invested 0.9 million in 7 national and 19 regional projects on workplace learning. Emergent trends / issues include little cross fertilization between different forms of workplace learning, work integrated /cooperative education. Competency and capability confused. how education/training programmes proactively address life skills and attributes. Linkages between theory and practice and assessment of learning in the workplace. Emergent ones include how strong is the evidence that work integrated learning opportunities equate to career readiness and productivity? How we actually understand learning in the workplace?Identity as a tradesmen/ professional and what is the nature of expertise? Are we fixated on content rather than concepts and attributes?

Keynote from Professor Stephen Billett on "Making space to lift performance:decision making about and engagement in vocational education". Trying to work through the challenges of what skills drive performance? How to lift performance and what investment in skills will make a difference in performance and productivity.
Introduced intended, enacted and experienced curriculum as a starting point to move forward. Intended - national curriculum documents. Enacted - shaped by what resources are available, experience experience of teachers, interpretation of what is intended, values, situational factors etc. Experienced - what student experience and as shaped by their personal processes of contrual and construction.

Reviewed historical origins of vocational education and provided suggestions on how to move forward from long held perspectives of the hieratic organization of occupations. Important to understand, based on current research, what skills drive work performance. These include set of capacities specific to a particular occupation including conceptual, procedural and dispositional, capacities that augment and are embedded in the domain eg. Communications, team work, problem solvig etc and that exist at canonical and situational. How to lift performance ? State needs to engender value of work, build mAture relationships amongst partners and make space for secure engagement from local contributions, those who assist students to learn and those who learn.  

After morning tea, sessions from postgraduates' research.
First up, Jacqui Remnant from the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) on financial literacy as context for strengthening literacy and numeracy for adults.  Defined financial literacy as beings aware of financial opportunities and risks and having literacy and numeracy skills, financial concept knowledge and confidence to make informed choices. Key considerations include need to connect financial literacy explicitly with other study and work with learner. Matching resources to learners reading and numeracy demands. Flexibility important as is not giving learners financial advise but for them to work it out themselves. Introduced a range of resources currently available to assist.

Gemma Piercy from the University of Waikato on 'insider outsider perspectives: the subjectivity of workplace identity. Study on what others and how professionals perceived vocational identity based on the occupation of baristas. Proposes a continuum of baristas identity. Understanding of skill requirements of baristas varies from highly skilled to unskilled work. Perhaps skill levels related to types of work identity?

Last up Dan Hunt and Diana Sharma from Unitec on debating and defining the scope of ITOs in business capacity development. The project came about through assisting small businesses to build capability. Training and development was an important aspect of capability building. However, not all ITOs developed training solutions would fit into every businesses' capability building strategy. How can there be a connection? And how can ITOs contribute flexibly to different needs and objectives of businesses at various stages of capability development.

After lunch, Professor Jane Bryson from Victoria University on "Lifting performance through facilitating capability". Explored the concept that skill is important but cannot alone create the conditions for performance and achievement. Multifaceted tools need to be used to try to understand the diverse nature of individual, team and organizational performance. Is performance a function of ability/capability, motivation/willingness/effort and opportunity? facilitating capability includes a focus on conditions which enhance means (qualification, resources, etc.) and freedom (workplace, personal agency) to achievement.   Conversion factors between means and freedom include personal (age, gender, ability) social and environment and on capabilities (to use and develop skill) and functioning (vocation, lifestyle).


Presentation by Flip Leijten and myself followed on learning welding: process of feedback. Good interest followed by questions. The study we reported on available as appendix 1 in the guidelines for using video to study workshop and workplace based learning.

After afternoon tea, three concurrent sessions.

Firstly, how does learning happen on the job with Dr. Karen Vaughan, Dr. Paul O'Neil and Marie Cameron. Reports on conditions, motivations and strategies that make workplace learning successful. Based on six workplaces with interviews and observations with learners, trainers and employers. Workplaces were identified as successful by the itos involved. Guidelines include support at organizational level, structured orientation, support structured learning activities, learning from experience and use of formative and summative assessments. Implications were well reported and include a critical interplay between workplace structures and workplace learning, teachers and trainers have a key role, learning is for participation at work, success is about participating in society, knowledge and skills are now always what we assume, and workplace learning both reinforces and challenges institutionally based education.

Then secondary workplace learning and post school transition: insights from the longitudinal surveys of Australian youth with Dr. Sinan Gemici from the Ncver. vet in schools is seen as a way to start students on a career pathway in order to lower the number of youth who do not move into work or higher learning post school. So will work experience at year 11, improve outcomes for youth? After doing quantitative data matching of non wpl kids with kids who undertook wpl, there is still a significant positive effect I.e. Wpl assist school leavers to move on to further learning or into work.

Last presentation of an interesting day. Jen McCutcheon and Mike Hollings present on a community partnership in action - authentic learning through Te Kura. Te Kura provides 'personalized learning distance learning courses supported intensively using a toolbox developed for learning advisors. Based on moving learning towards a big learning picture with the student as part of an advisory group assisted by an advisor. Students also encouraged to be supported by parents and family. A student centered approach encompassing a student education plan focused on students interests and goals. Leads to programs of learning to support interest, job shadowing, development of advisories, internships and portfolio assessments.

ITF research forum day 2

Day two began with a presentation by Dr. Karen Vaughan on conditions & strategies for making the most of workplace learning. Understanding challenges presented by workplace learning presents the opportunity to work on strategies to improve learning in the workplace. Workplace learning defined as on the job + off the job + integration with business strategy. 21st century workplace learning needs are impacted on by speed of adoption of technology, globalisation etc. challenges include the tensions between knowledge & skill, hierarchies & roles, and learners & motivation. Others include how workplace interactions are enacted, the complexity of the task, what regulations cover the business, how much technology needs to be introduced or utilised, how market forces impact, the workplace culture, suitable learning strategies, involvement peers, mentors & learners in goal setting, availability of feedback & knowledge sharing (reflection) and opportunities to practice & take some risks.

Concurrent sessions follow the rest of the day. First one I attended is from Helen van der Werff, from the Horticulture ITO on increasing the impact of industry training investments in the horticulture industry. Based on qualitative nation wide survey of 19 businesses & interviews with 4 ITO training advisors. Harvey & Harris (2008) 7 drivers of productivity used to access productivity & learning to performance process (Brinkerhoff, 2002), logic of training, a high impact learning management (Brinkerhoff, 2001) used to inform the study.


Second presentation from the Department of Labour on skills in demand: past, present & likely in the future from Dr. Ram SriRamaratnam, Richard Manning and Xintao Zhao. This covered brief overview of skill concepts (types & measures), employment skills (their mix & content), high level skills categories and skills demand (2003, 2008 & 2013). Demand also include additional / expansion demain, replacement / retirement demand. In summary, still a need for ‘skilled workers’ into the future due to forecasted replacement & retirement demands.

After lunch, first session up was from Paul Mahoney from the Ministry of Education on factors associated with success in industry training and modern apprenticeships – what the data tells us. Over 180,000 industry trainees / apprentices in 2008. Analysis at the moment focuses on credits & national qualifications completed as proxies of success. Two reports, one of industry training & one on Modern apprenticeships just produced. In industry training, 35% of students entering complete their full course within 5 years. Similar levels of completion to polytechs / private providers & rates in UK (27 – 40%) & Australia (45%). Females more likely to complete than males. Some industries in NZ have higher levels of workplace based training completions for both trainees & modern apprentices. Older workers more likely to complete.

Then attended session on a comparative analysis of stakeholders’ evaluation of NZ industry training strategy within the tourism & public sectors from Lois Parkes of Victoria University. Lit review reveals, interest in skill from publick policy & business perspectives, assumptions that skill = qualification, investment = outcome, many economies have fallen short of the high skill = high wage vision. Evaluation was based on a positivist bias therefore stakeholders perspectives & experiences are not taken into account. There is a research gap as not the whole range of stackholders perpectives have been collected, collated & compared.


Last session of the day was on embedded workplace training: benefits for the health & disability sector by Liz Stephenson from Careerforce & Rose Ryan from Athena Research. Embedded model of training is defined. Features of how organisations obtain maximise, support & evaluate cost effectiveness. Learning and assessment were part of workplace practice, support provided by Careerforce workplace advisors to assist trainees in using workbooks, learning resources & trainee verification. Embedding requires a high level of commitment & resourcing but costs are offset by reduced turnover / recruitment & improved quality of service. Embedded model helped to overcome barriers to learning amongst non-tradtional learners.

The conference ended with a plenary session for questions & answers facilitated by Jeremy Baker & with questions from the floor to the three keynote presenters, Professor David Ashton, Dr. Johnny Sung & Dr. Karen Vaughan.

Industry Training Federation (NZ) 2008 research forum

Presented a paper at the ITF research forum yesterday. Conference was held at Te Papa in Wellington and was opened by Hon. Maryan Street, associate minister for tertiary education who would be the first ‘voc ed.’ minister we have and has oversight on Skills strategy. This was followed by keynote from Douglass Watt, associate director of the Conference Board of Canada (sort of a Canadian NCVER) on International approaches to training in small & medium enterprises. He presented case studies based on 65 SMEs around the world which focused on practical training responses to critical business issues and successful learning strategies that lead to meaningful outcomes for employers and employees. Good relevant and useful information for SMEs in NZ in a handout that summarised 15 of the case studies. Second keynote of the day from Paul Satherley & Eliot Lawes from the Ministry of Education summarising findings from the adult literacy and skills survey (ALLs). Very interesting data on where NZ stands with regards to literacy (document literacy) and numeracy.

Then attended following sessions:-

• How students manage the difference between theory and practice in voc. ed. by Dr. Peter Gallagher of UCOL. Interesting concept on how ‘personal value’ in nursing students helps them negotiate through decisions they have to make with regards to the theory they learn and what they see in actual practice.
• Measuring skill utilisation by Heather Lees from the Electrotechnology Industry Training Organisation was based on a research project in a call centre to see if individual skill perceptions, skill measurements (National quals.) and skill utilisation (company objectives) align. She found that they did not and also provided insight into the challenges of doing research in the workplace.
• Web based dramatised scenarios to facilitate reflection, discussion and critical thinking from Keith Tyler-Smith, TANZ covered using photos and audio files to convey ‘case studies’ which engage online learners through their appeal to the affective senses of students.
• Molding the market: skill ecosystems in the NZ context ‘ with Gemma Piercy, Waikato University was based on 2 summer project by university students to find out if skill ecosystems, developed in Australia would be relevant in the NZ context (possibly) or have commonalities / synergies with community of practices (possibly but requires further work).
• Embedding sustainable workplace learning and assessment within workplace infrastructures’ by Dr. Nicky Murray & Gill Genet from Careerforce. Nicky provided a good overview of the challenges placed by the changing nature of our society and the workforce in maintaining training for her industry (providing care within the health and disability sector) & three workplace models that could assist in planning workplace training for her sector. Billett’s workplace pedagogy, Fuller & Unwin’s expansive / restrictive participative continuum & Ellstrom, Ekholm & Ellstrom (2008) on enabling and constraining learning.
• My paper on ‘belonging, becoming and being: Role of apprenticeships went well.

Plenary discussion on ‘research & policy development’ with Dr. Karen Vaughan from the NZCER, Dr. Peter Coolbear, director of Ako Aotearoa & Roger Smyth, manager of tertiary sector performance and reporting. This provided insight into how government policy developers (Roger) view research (draw evidence from wherever created to provide insights towards a more consolidated picture). How researchers (Karen) view policy makers – need to have more conversations between researchers and policy makers & this needs to be ongoing for life of a research project. And how funders (Peter) see research – research needs to be timely (although longitudinal research also important (Roger), and outcomes of research must be applicable by employers, providers, learners etc.

The ITF vocational education forum has played a role in encouraging research in workplace learning and vocational education in New Zealand. This, along with the start of Ako Aotearoa, provides the impetus for the emergence of some useful research into both workplace learning and vocational education in New Zealand. We are still a long way behind the Australians with their National Centre for Vocation Education Research but at least things are now starting to move along.