This year's Australasian Vocational Education and Training Research Association is held in Brisbane.
Workshops begin the yesterday, and I co-facilitate the session on 'dos and don'ts for publishing in the International Journal of Training Research which I co-editor with Associate Professor Teressa Schmidt.
Thursday begins with a welcome from Kira Clarke, AVETRA president and a welcome to country. Always an interesting session on the history of the country with the stories/songlines.
The first keynote is with Dr. Don Zoellner. He provides an overview and perspective to start of the conference with 'Reframing VET's past: what happened when governments declared their policies and then instigated them? Check recent article in JVET.
Focus on the continuum how government policy (from 1980s) have been acted on and the consequences of these. The National Reform Agenda set out in the early 1990s has been resistant to fundamental change. Argued that VET and HEZ were never designed to be joined up, as they have unique and different social, political, economic contributions to national development. Using Fouchault's interest in how problems can be novel responses within specific fields of action.
In the 1980s, the global economic environment challenged Australian economic and social foundations. By 1989, the NTRA set up the 'skills focus'. Presently Jobs and Skills Australia forecast that 9 out of 10 jobs require post-secondary qualifications. Therefore, still a similar approach. wen through the essential items across the decades - equity (access); quality (standards, assurance, accreditation of providers etc.); industry needs (alignment to needs, competency-based); training as an investment; opportunities and outcomes for individuals (flexible delivery, portability, choice etc.); National training system (registration, accreditation etc.); outcomes standards; VET markets as intended; research implications (focus on governmental national strategies/goals). Ended with a summarise of where to next. There is inertia in better understanding what is to be undertaken; OECD reports often not drawn on to inform how Australian VET could move forward; the original intend of VET retained; use data to find out what has worked (rather than what has not); to change something, is not to fix something but to extend the things that work!
The keynote is followed by a ministerial address from Andrew Giles, Minister of Skills and Training. Supportive of the work of VET to be an 'equaliser' for many Australians. Ran through the various initiatives set out by the present government to increase access and opportunities.
Plus an update with Craig Robertson, CEO for the Victorian Skills Authority. Drawing on the opening keynote, there needs to be a bridge between research and implementation to improve VET. VSA has had a MOE with AVETRA to fund researchers to undertake research on key aspects of VET. Used RPL as an example. RPL should be used to recognise skills that can be transferable, not just the ones that are specialist. Encouraged researchers to keep at it :) Work undertaken many years ago, still drawn on to inform new policy formation. Finished with comments on the challenges of the future, the need to prepare the future workforce for rapid change and ongoing geopolitical turbulence. The VET system has remained the same, bur does it need to change? Australia still retains competency-based qualifications in its purest form, yet every other country has moved on, beyond CBT. Encouraged the shift to learner-led and learning-focused learning rather than the need to assess and certify work tasks.
After morning tea, presentations begin across 4 streams. I stick to a stream with a technology/AI focus.
- AI integration in VET: a scoping review - with Caroline Constant and Natasha Arthars. AI now being shaped globally with rapid developments. Research specific in VET remains fledging and fragmented, as most still from HE and formalised school sector. To find out 'how are AI used VET'. PRISMA framework literature review from 2019 to April 2025, including peer-review journal articles, conference papers, and book chapter. From 436 studies, 46 papers included and with 18 emperical studies.
Reported on initial findings - 18% conceptual, 39% empirical, 11% review and 11% other. Balance between qualitative and quantitative and 22% mixed methods. No longitudinal studies. 72% on vocational qualifications. ChatGPT used the most along with no specified tool! Pedagogical applications of AI in VET focused on performance/assessment, training delivery and learning supports, and engagement and satisfaction.
Shift in teaching and learning - teaching becomes generating materials, configuring AI-mediated activities, overseeing supported environments, reducing workload. Learning becomes interacting with AI systems, personalise pathways and feedback. Knowledge changed to AI being a disruptor and contributor.
Next steps - evidence -based AI pedagogical application in VET remains limted and uneven. Shift of focus from traditional forms of performance and assessment to learning embedding higher order skills, Ai literacy and fluency of VET and educators remains a 'black-box' There is a need for empirical studies in Australian VET.
- The digital mirage: unmasking poser, compliance and neoliberal governance in online VET professional development - Christopher Ward & Dr. Piper Rodd (Deakin University). Based on PhD on the value VET practitioners bring into professional development. Began with a context, shared emergent data and the 'AI gap' management 'efficiency' vs practitioner 'exclusion'. Analytical framework revolved around discourse around power and identity using Foucault framework on power, subjectification and the digital panopticon. Comparison between the mirage (rhetoric) and the reality (lived discourse) whereby online PD functions as a 'technology of neoliberal governance'. Detailed methodology with 12 participants (7 practitioners, 5 managers). Findings in the 'generic mirage' (professional diminishment, cycles of trends rather deep pedagogical development, compliance). Interpreted through Foucauldian lens and shared possibilities for moving forward.
- Harnessing the power of problems for innovative VET course design - Steven Hodge, Natasha Arthars and Mike Keppell. Proposed the project as being a tryout for a post-competency Australian VET. The project drew on problem-based learning to develop a programme/micro-credential for a new/emerging technologies. The context of is in advanced manufacturing industry and the project through the TAFE NSW manufacturing centre of excellence. Involves higher apprenticeship, and also community driven strategies and targets key equity groups. 4 year project with TAFE, University and industry partnership. Project includes development of microskills, microcredentials, and higher apprenticeships (details at the centre site).
The research study undertook a literature synthesis, horizon scanning and semi-structured interviews with industry associations, SMEs, and TAFE head teachers. To find a generative advanced manufacturing problem for applied research (level5) for SMEs. Interative hermeneutic circle/spiral approach followed by thematic analysis of the data. Findings included shared contextual conditions that shaped the problem; three overarching problem areas - digital manufacturing, reverse engineering and mass customisation, resulting the problem frame of digital manufacturing as a shared problem domain for students to work through.
Shared David Jonassen's (2011) analysis of problems for problem based learning includes 5 'external' characteristics - structuredness, context, complexity, dynamicity, and domain specificity. This framework is proposed as a way to frame the problem based learning approach. Working through these, provide one way to focus on the range of 'generic' skills attained through completing the problem based inquiry. Argued that applied research as pedagogy is viable. Students complete literature review, interviews, observations, descriptive statistics, and analysis.
Next steps include upskilling TAFE teachers and then the students to carry through the project. Implications are that it is radical departure for VET curriculum and pedagogy (in Australia) PLB rather than competency; future focused rather that rooted in present and past; equips for uncertainty, change and emergent types of work; can intergrate with skill-based microcredentials to serve as capstone course, integrating and extending existing learning; recasts the VET educator ad facilitator of industry-based applied research.
Networking for lunch follows.
Thought provoking keynote, followed by contributions from the following speakers provide food for thought. A diverse range of presentations with a range of perspectives.
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