ITF 2013 vocational education research forum DAY 2

Day two begins with a welcome from Dr. Peter Coolbear from Ako Aotearoa. Peter also thanked sponsors; provided housekeeping type announcements; provided at advertorial for a workshop exploring the integrations between education and workplace learning (August 15^th in Wellington – Whare Whaka) and summarised yesterdays presentations. His take is that there is a pragmatic focus to the application of voc. Ed. Research that will make a difference; still a critical mass of people to be formed; research takes inputs of time and effort but has to lead to outputs which benefits learners.

An ‘expert panel’ of Dr. Karen Vaughan, Dr. Nicky Murray and myself’ review the 10 years the forum has been running. Nicky begins with overview of how the research forum began and the ITO perspective. Karen provides the NZCER (NZ council for ed. Research) viewpoint and I follow up with the ITP perspective on vocational education research, it’s importance and the need to make research accessible to vocational practitioners.

Following the panel, a plenary session on ‘moving on up –what young people earn after their tertiary education with Paul Mahoney, Zaneta Park and Roger Smyth from the Ministry of Education. Presented by Zanetta and Paul. The study undertaken to provide students with more informed choice about what and where to study; help providers understand and improve students’ outcomes; help understand dynamics of the tertiary education and the labour market – for policy making and accountability; and a National govt. priority.

Dataset comes through collation of a range of data from education institutions, inland revenue dept., ministry of social development (for student loans), migration data. Several studies undertaken from this dataset, on post docs destination, comparison between women and men earnings; etc. 

Report presented looks into graduate destinations of young people who had completed tertiary programmes. Results published by qualification level in field of study. Employment outcomes as in median, lower and upper quartile incomes. As expected, higher qualifications gain higher earnings. In level 4 certificates, education, architecture/building, management commerce, natural and physical science slightly higher, evening out as the 5 year mark comes up.  Comparisons of earnings after five years also need to be compared with annual rise in earnings. Summarised in a more accessible form on the Careers NZ website – compare study options.

Future work includes maintaining and keeping updated, thecareers NZ website; exploring destinations earnings by gender and ethinicity; looking at outcomes of those who do not access tertiary ed.; explore feasibility of publishing datasets for individual proviers – to help individuals work out WHERE to study; look into what factors predict income post study; destination of persons with qualifications at level 4; and completion of industry training qualifications.

After morning tea, concurrent sessions begin. First up, I attend the session with Dr. Marion Sanders from Bethlehem Tertiary Institute (BTI) on ‘maximising learning dialogue in professional field-based experiences’ an Ako Aotearo funded project.  Provided an overview of BTI offering degrees in education (school teachers), social work and health. Based on literature – mentors and supervisors need specific training; lack of researched programmes for mentor development; an importance of discussions/dialogue; inability to share professional knowledge; foundational importance of relationship; and avenues to develop mentoring skills.

Explored if careful selection of tasks expected of student over course of field-based learning assisted. Would development of professional learning relationship and learning dialogue assist?  Project with early child hood (16) and counseling students  (11) involving 3 institutes. 4 phases – pre-intervention (questionnaire and repertory grid); intervention; post intervention (questionnaire, focus group, interview) and post intervention resource development and dissemination.

4 intervention strategies used – partnership map, belief inventory, professional article and critical incident discussion.  . Interventions assisted by providing structure, purpose, springboard for to open communication; helped unpack responses and reactions, developed shared understands, built trust and maximise learning dialogues.

Findings – professional learning relationships are the foundation for maximizing professional learning dialogue. We cannot assume mentors and students have the necessary skills to engage and work together. Tasks provided increased learning dialogue. However not the use of specific tasks but the use of A task that made the difference. – Intentionality –

Challenges in field-based mentor sessions was time and physical space restrictions, the degree of agency of students and need for institutions to expect accountability to know exactly what happens during placement. Bonuses for the research team was that the team learnt lots about working across institution; managed the challenge of the Chch. Earthquake’ effects; mentor neophyte researchers; and a contribution made to professional field based studies.

Then Keith Tyler-Smith (Learning at work) and Kris Bennett (Otago Polytechnic) on ‘degree-level work-based learning: a new paradigm invocational education’. WBL well established in UK for over 2 decades. More than 90 UK universities deliver WBL at or above degree level.

WBL is a three way partnership between employee, employer and Provider/ institution. Learning undertaken at work, through work and for work. Curriculum and assessment designed through negotiation with learner, learner’s employer and academic advisor. Best suited to experienced people who hold positions of responsibility; facing a particular challenge at work that involves new learning; are highly motivated, capable of self-management and keen for new learning, skills and knowledge; have employer support and interests; have demonstrated ability to undertake degree level learning.

Presentation of an action research project funded by Ako Aotearoa. Batchelor of Applied Management via APL (assessment of prior learning) through workplace learning. Needed to find out impact of WBL on learners (needs and aspirations); employing organisations; academic staff (practice and challenges); institution (practices and processes).

Participatory action research through phone interviews with learners, facilitators, admin staff, academic mentors, quality assurance, assessors etc. output focused mainly on institutional systems but a follow up grant now to investigate the experiences of the learners.

The WBL process: APL process to determine credit award and balance of learning requirements – measured against graduate profile (GP) criteria. Negotiate learning agreement that determines how balance of learning is met, timeframe and how it will be assessed in terms of GP. Implementation of learning agreement through project work in the workplace, regular contact with academic advisor and completion of negotiated ‘assessments’.

Review of WBL learning include the foundation of WBL as being robust and holistic. Learners are guided through a process of deep critical reflection. Curriculum designed and developed through a negotiated learning agreement, reflecting needs of learner, employer and academic requirements. Learning agreement clarifies learning goals and learning activities. Learner implements learning agreement through project work. Work undertaken according to resources, timelines and learning outcomes stipulated by agreement. Mentoring enables student to recognize strengths; develop existing and new abilities. Assessment points at review of learning assessment; learning agreement approved by sub-committee of academic board and completed through three hour presentation.

Report details the 15 principles / guidelines developed from thematic analysis.

After lunch, another plenary session on ‘the future of business management training in the NZ SME sector’ with Diana Sharma with Dr. Ken Simpton, Ngaire Molyneux from Unitec. Research question was ‘ what model of ITO-ITP cooperation best enhance the generic management capability of NZ SMEs? SMEs employ less than 20 employees make up 40% of NZ economy output and 31% of employment. However, SMEs are declining slightly in numbers with more having closed that starting up and this is across all sectors. Primary causes of SME failure include inadequate capital and lack of appropriate management skills. 75% of failures could be avoided if proper help available and accepted. Productivity in SMEs improve when principal starts works ON the business and not IN the business.

Project seeks to find out what industry need/wants/demands and assess potential for ITO-ITP collaborations (but also needs to include PTEs). 133 surveys – ITOs, Industry, ITPs and PTEs.

SME attitude towards vocational and generic management training finds high focus on voc. Ed. But much lower in generic management training – also reflected in results from ITOs, ITPs and PTEs.

SME needs improvements in forward planning, financial communications, communications and IT, staff management and customer management skills.

Reasons for SME lack of participation in management training – time, cost of releasing staff, value of money, relevance to business, lack of funding or incentives to participate. Qualifications are not a driver. At the moment, ITO, ITP and PTEs do not need the management training needs of SMEs – with relations between SMEs and ITOs/ITPs/ PTEs only 55% effective.

Barriers to ITO/provider collaboration include – lack of role clarity, funding and costing model, patch protection and competition, history of mistrust, lack of capability awareness.

Research progressing and formal report will be produced.

Final keynote with Professor Paul Dalziel from AERU at Lincoln University on ‘skills education in the twenty-first century’ – education and employment linkages (EEL). Provided background of EEL running between 2007 to 2012 – with Karen Vaughan (schools), Jane Higgins (regional), Hazel Philips (Maori) and Paul Dalziel (economics). In each area, explored the international context (lit. review), understand what is (mapping) and why ((interviews, survey, focus groups) it is happening, how can it be different(case studies) and integration of assessment (2 pilots of best practice, assessing pilot site and integrated results of the 4 research streams).

Example of the employer led channels –from school community / family and whanau and employers with PTEs, ITPs, wananga, universities and gap year. How is information on school to work, pathways and options communicated to individual.

From the NZ 2006 census – no. of residents in each occupational category by skill level – indicates level 4 at the ‘heart’ of the NZ economy. Labour market skills created by – individuals discovering their individual abilities + educational investment (human capital) + employment opportunities via trusted qualifications + matching strengths! If things connect, then skills occur. = discover, discipline and display.

Educational system needs to change to cope with learner diversity. Example of 15% being the long tail of struggling students in primary school (presently 60,000 a year!). And Stuart Middleton’s work on NEETs and the need to reengage students.

Recent developments indicate some movement: NZ school curriculum is being broadened; links between schools and work established (Gateway); tertiary / trade academies established; vocational pathways established – a shared project from ITF/ITO and MOE. Careers offices in schools/ITPs needs extra effort in particular to network with their communities – to help young people make linkages to possible vocational pathways ie provide career education – not career advice.

A worthwhile conference with many relevant presentations. 

ITF conference presentations now up

Doing a big catch up over the last two days as CPIT was closed due to snow on Monday and Tuesday of this week.  The two days at home provided good opportunities to catch up on accumulated research journal readings and to make a start on drafting some journal articles. Have drafted abstracts for 10!! covering the learning undertaken across my PhD and the various projects undertaken over the last two years. Should keep me busy working on these for the next five years at the rate of two articles a year J

The snow also provided an opportunity to catch up with the presentations from the ITF conference in July. I did not attend but there is always at least one presentation that is pertinent to my work from this conference. Of interest this year is the presentation from William Symonds, who provided an American perspective and Josh Williams on pathways and partnerships: development of vocational pathways for NZ students.

I also managed to catch up on a book edited by Jane Bryson – Beyond Skill: Institutions, organisations and human capacities as a top- up on her presentation at the ITF research forum in April. The book provides more details on Janes’ presentation centering on the need to look beyond skills and to build capability that is generalizable and that meets the aspirations of both individuals, the organisations they work for and society at large. All very BIG picture stuff but important for informing policy on how to best support individuals’ lifelong learning directions and goals.

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 network meeting 24th november

Yesterday I travelled to Wellington to attend and present to a keen group of ITO managers. The meeting convened by the Industry Training Federation (ITF) around 3 to 4 times a year as a fora  for ITF / ITO members to network and catch up on various issues. 2 ITF staff plus 12 or so ITO staff (some attended for part of the day). Good to touch base with familiar faces and meet new people.

A round of participants for them to introduce themselves and the projects each ITO is involved in or working towards. First session , Eric Krassoi Peach from the ITF opens the meeting with a discussion and direction for next week's meetings. All good background for me and to get into the ITO mindset.

Next up, I provide an overview of the vocational research projects at CPIT, concentrating on the Ako Aotearoa National funded project on 'first year apprentices' but also providing short summaries of the 'new trades tutors' projects from the perspective of identity transformation / boundary crossing and the 'welding project' plus details of projects begun by Barry Dowrick (interactive whiteboards and learning objects), future work with the engineering team (integrated learning and assessments) and with automotive with android OS tablets (interactive textbooks).

Schools update provided by Josh Williams, quantifications and quality manager at the ITF spoke to the group on sector pathways - making sense of secondary / tertiary transitions. Compared to other OECD countries , NZ retention of 15- 20 year olds in training is low. NZ curriculum refers to 'focus on transitions'. One pathway to university but other pathways not as clear as per On the edge of adulthood: young people's and out of school experiences at 16' - NZCER 2008 report. ITF presents sector pathways to service, manufacturing / technology, constructions /infrastructure, primary industries, social / community services and other industries as one possible way forward to provide 'structure' for career teachers. Perhaps to use the term 'majors' for each so that NCEA becomes more aligned towards one of the pathways rather than a 'pick n mix' which does not add up to any 'concrete' way forward. Went through preliminary analysis of NZQA data of u/s completed between 2005 - 2009 by provider by students to show what sector students were completing u/s in. Many students just completing 1 or 2 (credit harvesting??), and 'rural' schools tended to have students who completed more u/s (agriculture? Outdoor rec??) with many students also completing generic safety u/s 497 and food safety u/s 167. Breakdowns may now be needed to be done by ITO, student characteristics, longitudinal etc.

Then Paul Mahoney from Ministry of Education (Tertiary analysis) provides summary of Industry training stocks and flows - effects of the economic downturn pertient to ITOs. Stock is the number of people in industry training in one year and flow is the movement of these people in or out. 9-10% of population in industry training /apprenticeship as compared to 3% in Australia. Data is from 2001 - 20019. Economic downturn = drop in workplace based training participants as the is GDP contraction in 2009 across all industries, 2008 decline in agriculture, 2006 food & beverage with construction in 2007. Employment contraction also occurred especially for young people. Increase in Limited credits programme (LCP) which could be useful as they do not require a long term commitment but often lead to further training to lead to full qualification. Withdrawals increased. Some industries trained existing workers instead of employing new workers to train. Modern apprentice sign up decreased across many industries and terminations / withdrawals increased.


Last presentation from Erica Cumming from the Hairdressing ITO on work completed on Return on Investment (ROI). Using small case studies to understand and measure the ROI from apprenticeship training to selected and their apprentices. Studied 'phases' in apprentices' fit to business strategy - providing support, colouring, starting to cut and running own column - how much apprentice contributes to revenue at each stage. Intangible benefits to salon with apprentices has to be weight up with costs to salon. Key results - payback period is relatively short (y1/y2), how salon manages its revenue makes the biggest difference, what apprentices is compared against is important. Benefits for apprentices include earning while learning, hand-on training and off-job training. Strategies for salons to make the most financially of apprenticeships are to maximise benefits (ensure apprentice is productive quickly, optimal mix of staff), minimise cost (train efficiently, push cost to apprentice - not encouraged by ITO!!, minimise opportunity costs of training) and encourage apprentice to stay (recruit right apprentice & encourage apprentice, align salon objectives of salon and apprentice, undertake dedicated in-salon training, offer a wage structre for stylist which shows it's worthwhile staying, offer financial incentives to stay). Results used to produce a summary - well presented and aligned to industry needs. All useful for the 'first year apprentices' project :)

ITF Secondary – Tertiary transitions forum

The ITF NZ Secondary to Tertiary Forum ran was on 1^st October. Unfortunately, I had already committed to presenting at the National Teaching & Learning Conference at UCOL.  However, the efficient ITF has posted the power points of various presentations and I spend the morning catching up on the various presentations, which inform work I am doing on the ‘first year apprentices’ project.

First presentation was from Jeremy Baker ITF executive director, who called for a more structured form of information to be provided to school leavers, already overwhelmed by a plethora of career options and provided with a whole host of options while still at school to try out occupations/ careers while still at school. The ITF proposes a ‘sectoral pathways’ to try to make the information on transition from school to tertiary options and eventually to work, clearer. Sectors include university and other pathways, service industries, manufacture and technology, building and construction, primary industries and social and community services.

Next up, Stuart Middleton, as per his video advocating for the establishment of ‘tertiary academies’ presents the rationale on powerpoint, for the need for a new interface to with multiple pathways which requires interaction between schools and tertiary institutions, in the form of ‘tertiary high schools’.

The Post-primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) represented by Penney Dunckley, Peter Kemp and Sarah Dalton, present secondary schools / teachers viewpoints on youth guarantees, trade academies and qualifications and the need for better strategies to help young people get the most out of their education.

The a presentation on the proposed structure for the Christchurch based ‘trades academy’ – Canterbury Tertiary College, to be a joint Linwood College and Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT) partnership beginning 2011. A comprehensive series of slides on the consultation process and the types of certificates / programmes to be offered.

The government Career’s services/ Ruapara perspective was then offered by Susan Kosmala on ‘smart decisions, smart transitions’. There is a need to still improve on information to be provided to school leavers as over 40% of tertiary students decide to change courses or drop out due to enrolling in the wrong course! Career’s services is now offering multiple entry points to their web-based resources via various social networking sites.

All in, the above presentations represent the ‘state of play’ with regards to the various initiatives being undertaken to assist students with school to post-school options. As Stuart Middleton explained, NZ will have a growing number of 'non-traditional' students which schools and tertiary institutes will need to put effort into engaging / re-engaging.

ITF NZ vocational research forum - day two afternoon

After lunch attended a comprehensive session by Anna Boyd, Healthrose research & Doug Pouwhare from the electricity supply ITO on how to increase participation rates of Maori, Pacific peoples, migrants and women in their industry. Electricity generation, transmission, distribution and retails industry has very low participation rates amongst women, Maori & Pacifica peoples. Successive strategic plans in 2002 & 2009 did not provide direction towards improving participation rates. Enablers were employer and provider related and also depended on trainee ambitions, experiences and personal qualities. Barriers include disconnect between theory and practice, lack of practical application, poor quality training, lack of employer support and negative spillover of other work and home obligations. Issues for Maori include importance of family/whanau, proximityof workplace/training to family/whanau, Maori in leadership/supervisory roles and the importance of ‘getting a trade’. Issues for Pacific trainees include meeting the aspirations of family for a better life and screening of applicants on personal presentation and communication skills. Issues for women were entrenched view on woman’s capability to work in the industry, women can do anything and attraction of outside work.. Issues for migrants were language barriers, recognition of qualifications and different ways of working and settlement issues for new migrants. Implications include recruitment/selection practices of industry was limiting the pool of potential employees/trainees and industry appears to have a low state of readiness to respond to diversity issues. Key interventions include ones that promote employer support for trainees and a commitment to training and need to address barriers to recruitment into industry.Future work proposed to raise awareness in industry, iwi discussions and supporting a cohort of women into the industry (which will be part of an action research project).

Then session by Dr. Chris Holland from Work & Education Research & Development Services, on building leadership through the development of mentoring. Overview of literature on mentoring reveals two streams – the restricted/functionalist (tends to be hierarchical) & the relational model (holistic approach with mentor / mentee learning together). The ITO good practice guide to workplace mentoring available through ITF. Mentoring workshops supported by ITF and funded by Ako Aotearoa with workshops in Auckland/Wellington and through 3 ITOs. Project completed with the fire service with volunteer firemen to evaluate mentoring improvements. Various examples of mentoring occurred including buddying, mentoring by senior, one-up mentoring, group mentoring, rotational mentoring, volunteer-selected mentor and mentoring based on external expertise. Call for some form of professional development support to be provided to mentors.

After afternoon tea, attended the session by Profession Frank Sligo, Dr, Niki Murray, Elspeth Tilley and Margie Comrie, Massey University and Carol Atkin from Literacy Aotearoa on modern apprentices’ (MA) literacy learning. MA may request for LLN support and by 31/12/08, 191 MAs had been seen for LLN tuition to a maximum of 30 hours a year. This project carried out a formative evaluation of the literacy tuition including review MA’sMAC’s and adult literacy tutors’ and employers’perspectives of literacy programmes, assess impact of tuition on MA’s progress in apprenticeship (theory & practical) and assess the merit of the MA literacy programme and make recommendations for improvement. Types of assistance varied from high needs (more than 30 hours) to moderate (11 + hours) to low needs (under10 hours). Apart from LNN support, supportive employer, genuine mentor, a partnership between MAC,employer and literacy tutor needed plus workplace culture needs to be positive about LLN. Full report expected to be out by May.

Conference closed with a plenary session on linking VET research with government policy and priorities with panel members – Monique Dawson from Dept. of Labour, Roger Smyth from Ministry of Education and Peter Palmer from the Tertiary Education Commission. Roger Smyth reported on late but ongoing progress on industry training including ALLs survey & completion rates of apprentices. Need for research on what contributes to learning and what are the connections between tertiary education and the labour market. Also a need to better understand the sub-degree system plus encouragement to use qualitative approaches to gain better depth of understanding. Projects need to come up with clear messages and usable by the people who are connected to the research. Researchers need to be familiar with what the policy analysts are working towards as well and recommends being savvy about obtaining correct support to champion the findings.

Peter Palmer reported on TEC’s focus on maximising pool of $$ available for tertiary ed. Performance issues now a focus of TEC which are detailed in the Tertiary Strategy released late last year. Gaps in research include trying to understand what drives performance issues in the tertiary sector. Fundamental research needs to be undertaken to understand what works and what does not. Relevance of learning to work needs to be investigated as well.

Monique Dawson provided background on now the Dept. of Labour tries to advise on skills forecasting. Liaises withTEC/MOE and Dept.of Immigration to try to ensure required skill needs are made. Evidence of market led training not meeting need of improving productivity in the NZ workforce, so more research in this area recommended. Jeremy Baker encourages practitioner research as being one important way to address the issues proposed by the three speakers. All good direction for planning of future research projects :)

ITF NZ vocational education research forum - day one afternoon

My session came up first thing after lunch. I presented on the concept of assisting the boundary crossing of new trades tutors into acceptance of an identity as a teacher. Basically a report on a subset of the Ako Aotearoa southern hub funded project’perspectives of new trades tutors’. I introduced concepts of cultural-historical activity theory (CHATs) and metaphors of boundary crossing, boundary objects and boundary crossers using examples from the study but encouraging audience to think about examples within their own contexts.


Next session was with Dr. Heather Lees with Peter Engelbrecht and Peter Whittaker from the ETITO, on capturing skill utilisation: workplace evidence in national qualifications and literacy profiles. Overview of current ETITO qualification development/review process. Preparatory research followed by consulting industry (mainly SMEs) and develop qualification. New approach included workplace visits to the process instead of just a consultation group. A qualification role profile report was constructed to inform the development of a role competency map. This include non-technical (personal attributes, attitudes, industry knowledge, firm) and technical skills (general, trade/professiona and firm specific technical skills). Norhdaug’s classification of skills (1993) used to help prioritise the types of non-technical, technical or firm specific skills into the qualification. Literacy and numeracy skill profiles/demands of various tasks were also considered.Links were made between literacy and qualifications profiles in tandem so that both are integrated/embedded.

After afternoon tea, attended sessions by Katherine Percy, Workbase and Ravi Kulatunga from etc. Consulting. On cost effective method for measuring business benefits of workplace literacy learning. Example based on work with five companies. Began with measuring productivity in the form of KPIs (production, warehousing, health & safety, HR, customer service etc.) Did one base line measure than another one after the programme & a period of time has passed to allow return of investment of staff attending/completing programme to bed down. Quantitative approach used supplemented with qualitative data from focus groups. Quantitative data show positive returns with increases in labour productivity, employee skills, service delivery etc & reduction in absenteeism, error rate, overtime etc. The evaluation exercise led to better understanding by each company on how to leverage the workplace literacy programmes to help improve workplace productivity.


A full day closed with plenary session from Anne Alkema, Dr. Cathy Wright and Dr. John Benseman– Department of Labour on Workplace LLN (learning literacy and numeracy). Anne went through literature which tells us it is difficult to quantify the benefits of embedding LLN in workplace learning, however, intangible benefits (improved confidence, self efficacy etc.) other than actual literacy/numeracy skills appear to be there but difficult to pin down. 3 completed studies used to provide summaries. Key messages for employer-led LNN indicate lack of awareness about link between LNN & workplace issues, there is need to promote LNN training as a part of a whole business approach and access to funding is an issue. From the Modern apprentices perspectives, there is a divide between the ‘literate’ world and the trade world, apprentices employ coping strategies to mask L & N issues, workplace productivity takes priority. Impact of LLN support for apprentices include improved confidence etc. Common themes include need to do considerable work to raise awareness of LLN, workplaces still unable to integrate and there is still a ‘deficit’ approach to LLN. Cathy presented on literature review undertaken with LLN – need to gain & sustain company commitment including supervisors being part of learning project team, identity literacy needs by conducting company & individual needs assessment, full & consultative planning before programme begins, create a positive learning environment. Need to include context into curriculum design, make programme design a collaborative effort, select skilful instructors, use a flexible delivery mix, tailored /flexible support required. Lead into the upskill study which is about to be completed by this group. Went through findings from a study to evaluate role of LLN in upskilling by Wolf and Evans (2009). John provided guidelines on how to use research literature to inform current LLN programmes. Good resources produced by NRDC & need to think of how this information can be passes on to practitioners.

ITF NZ vocational education research forum

At the annual NZ vocational education and training research forum held at Victoria University’s Rutherford House. Over 200 participants and a host of interesting presentations to look forward to. Flip Leijten, who is working with me on the multimodal projects is also attending, It will be good to find out his perspectives on the various concepts he will encounter over the two days. It is a good way to introduce Flip to conference presentations as next year we plan to present our findings from the multimodal projects at this conference & other similar ones in Oz.


Jeremy Baker CEO of ITF opens with a warm welcome. Seems many abstracts submitted but presentations selected for quality and relevance. Representatives from all sectors of voc. ed. in NZ represented and this is the one conference in NZ which is focused on voc. ed. research. Good to see the growth of interest in the area considering that there was very little research in NZ in voc. ed. a decade ago.

Conference opens with a welcome address from Dr. Peter Coolbear, director of Ako Aotearoa who spoke on excellence in vocational education in NZ. Focus on defining excellence as being the learner perspective & how learners and employers view their educational experience and assess the value of their learning. Drivers of excellence include personal motivation of learner, personal motivation of educator, the organisation, the system, policy settings and the funding incentives. Also provided an overview of the four Ako Aotearoa National funded projects plus some of the hub projects and good practise projects how these fit into the Ako Aotearoa objectives of ensuring key findings reach decision makers to provide for prompt action.

First keynote by Professor Richard Lakes from Georgia State University on VET sectors: Alignments in workforce and economic development. Began with a summary of USA voc. ed. direction. Then discussed the national crisis of youth transitions as less than 25% of high school seniors qualify for college, poor results on PISA study with USA on the bottom quadrant of science and math, highest incarceration rate etc. Presented Georgia work ready project as one way to work through challenges presented. Workkeys is used as a diagnostic test (applied maths, reading for info & locating info. & work habits) to establish work readiness. Various public sector funded initiatives detailed to assist various groups to access voc. ed. to prepare school leavers for available work.. Detailed various methods used to link to state policy to match workforce skills requirements in various specialised sectors & especially in emergent industries like the life sciences / biotech sector, aviation maintenance etc.

After morning tea, attended a series of presentations from Phd students doing research in the voc ed area. Short 15 minute presentations so only an overview of each study. I was interested in finding out more about research approaches and methodology.

Begins with Lois Parks from Victoria University on a ‘theory of national Human resource development policy evaluation and engagement’. Her study based on the tourism industry. Introduced usual strategic HRD/VET logic whereby govt. organises qualifications etc which eventually leads to skills development in the industry targets. Proposes an alternative approach which is a critical HRD/stakeholder evaluation logic. This proposal uses iterative cycles of stakeholder engagement to fine tune skills development so that skills meet relevant/current industry needs. Data analysis leads to the building of a series of models.

Then ‘human capital deficiency in the NZ dairy industry – a case study’ presented by Rachel Lowry (with Professor Graham Elkin) from the University of Otago.Based on a study written up 2 years ago and involves specifically looking at the knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSA) of dairy farm assistants. Dairy industry an important contributor to the NZ economy & has been impacted on my various macro (technological, economic, legal-political, socio-cultural and international) and micro (customers/clients, competitors, suppliers, labour supply and government policies) influences. Skill shortage still impacting on industry despite higher unemployment rate in NZ. Interviews with dairy farm employers to find out what KSA they require when they appoint dairy farm assistants. Performance gaps were then identified and current training needs not 100% met. More authentic learning systems recommended to bridge the gap.

Last presentation before lunch was an interesting one from Kim Hastwell from Auckland University on ‘potential language, literacy and numeracy challenges of supermarket work.’. Research based on workplace experience for training opportunities programme students. Highest two levels of students in the TOPs courses are afforded opportunities for work experience, mostly in supermarkets. Students were mainly refugee/migrants unfamiliar/ new to NZ culture. Interviews of supermarket markets to find out pre-requisites for employment. None mentioned literacy or numeracy but all mentioned communication skills (mainly oral communication) along with usual work readiness skills. Assumption seemed to have been made by managers that if someone could speak and understand English, they would also have the relevant literacy/numeracy skills. Job demands for ‘customer service’ covered a whole host of actual KSA. Although literacy events did not required extended reading/writing, the supermarket environment is extremely literacy-rich. Numeracy was often ‘embedded’ or ‘invisible’ and required the ability to estimate (sometimes more a spatial perspective), conduct accuracy with mental arithmetic, understand different date formats along with understand graphs and tables. Implications for training needs to include employment pre-requisites couched under specific social and cultural mores, foundation for on the job communication, literacy & numeracy learning needs to be workplace relevant (including voluntary work experience).

Learning a trade - role of apprenticeships

Updating my literature on apprenticeships and apprenticeship systems as a prelude / preparation /getting into the right mindset towards my work on the Ako Aotearoa National fund project – Belonging, becoming and being: First year apprentices experiences in the workplace. Also a bit of an update towards the literature review chapter of my dissertation.

 

The 6 volume ‘International handbook of education for the changing world of work’ just arrived at our library and this will form the basis of several weeks of reading. Volume 1 lays out pedagogical foundations, volume 3 on TVET professionalism and Volume 4 on curriculum development and delivery are the most relevant for the moment. An associated book focusing on TVET research, handbook of technical and vocational education and training research’ requested for purchase but meanwhile, some tantalising snippets available on google books.

 

I also will need to catch up with material archived by several organisations. These include the:

Unesco-Unevoc site with links to various communities working on apprenticeship research.

There is the International network on innovative apprenticeship which has had 3 conferences so far and will be meeting again in 2011 in Beijing. Proceedings from the last conference in 2009 will be most relevant as it is on transition from school to work and building vocational identity.

The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) is a more generalised site but has much of relevance.

Also with a European flavour is the European Educational Research Association which has a VET network called VETNET which has a more policy / strategic planning direction.

For vocational educators there is the International Vocational Education and training association (IVETA) which encourages links between vocational educators. The latest newsletter has an article on CPIT Trade Innovation Institute (TII)’s Tradefit project written by TII dean Fiona Haynes.

The United States had the National Center for Research in Vocational Education (NCRVE) which ceased to operate at the end of 1999. There is a National research centre for Career and technical Education (NCCTE). Currently featured a review of research in post –secondary transitions. Comprehensive links to US of A organisations relevant to voc ed also provided.

In the UK, the Teaching and Learning Research Initiative has a whole host of programmes including workplace learning strands on early career learning, learning as work and lifelong learning including Learning lives, identity and learning.

The Australian National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) maintains the extensive database (VOCED). I have used this resource for many years and it provides especially good coverage of commonwealth country based research into VET.

In NZ, the Industry Training Federation has hosted the NZ vocational education and research forum for several years & presentation are archived on their site. Also NZ relevant publications pertinent to my project. In addition, Ako Aotearoa had compiled a list of pertinent projects on workplace learning with some articles on apprenticeship and will continually update this resource with new and pertinent NZ & overseas research.

Overall, good to see progress being made in a variety of countries on TVET. NZ now has a small but active number of researchers in the VET area. Although much of this research is on strategic issues, there is still an interest in workplace learning in particular with learning in apprenticeship an important by-product.

Plans for 2010

2010 will be busy with two externally funded research projects to work on and a busy teaching timetable. I am really looking forward to getting back into the swing of things.


With the multimodal research project, the first project should set us up by helping us to work through all the logistical issues involved with doing research in an engineering workshop. Using videos to capture student learning and classroom interactions where the welding torches may be a challenge to video cameras. I have had some industry contacts keen to provide actual workplaces for the next round of this project, so we can then work out the guidelines by the end of 2010 on how to best plan towards how much & what kinds of data need to be collected and the best way to approach the data analysis.

For the ‘perspectives of first year apprentices’ programmes, the crux will be in organising the logistical issues related to getting focus groups together and organising interview times and venues with individual apprentices. Once the data is collected, the data analysis will be relatively straight-forward (compared to the multimodal project!) and I am looking forward to being able to work through the findings.

Most of my teaching will be in the level 6 and 7 parts of the Diploma in Tertiary Learning and Teaching (DTLT). I am keen to align the present material to the overarching philosophies now integrated into the six level five and six ‘foundational’ courses of the DTLT. It will be a process of fine tuning as well as ensuring that the recommendations / suggestions I put forward from the ‘perspectives of new trades tutors’ project are put into place.

I have a few conferences on my list. Already, two papers accepted, one for the Teaching & Learning Conference at Singapore in June which features keynotes from Profesors Stephen Brookfield, David Boud, Diana Laurillard and Associate Professor Gary Poole. The other for the annual Industry Training Federation Research forum in Wellington in April. 

So off to another exciting year  : )

ITF presentations now online

All presentations described in previous two blogs now available online. I browsed through a few of the ones I did not attend as I was attending the other session running concurrently.
The most useful ones were:

Literacy & numeracy or qualifications – which matter more in employment, and does participation in upskilling differ by industry group by David Earle, Elliot Lawes & Paul Satherley of the Ministry of Education which came out of the ALLs surveys now summarised.

The ETITO development of industry relevant strategic training plans by Dr. Dominic Madell & Dr. Heather Lees.

ITO literacy & numeracy good practice from Dr. Nicky Murray of the ITF, Helena Parsons from Quartz Clarity & Dr. Gene Kumekawa from the TEC.

ITF vocational education research forum Day 1

The annual NZ vocational education & research forum was convened by the ITF (Industry Training Federation) over two days this week. It is heartening to see vocational education research flourishing in NZ, in part via the provision of contested funding from Ako Aotearoa to conduct research in the tertiary sector. This year almost 200 people attend the 2 day conference compared to about 40 at the first conference 6 years ago.

This year, the conference was held at Victoria University’s Rutherford House. Conference opened with a warm & pertinent welcome from Hon. Anne Tolley, Minister of Tertiary Education.

First keynote was from Professor David Ashton, from SKOPE at the University of Cardiff & the University of Leicester. He spoke on the topic of the global auction of skills: implications for sector approaches to workforce development. Two main arguments were put forward. One that there should be (but is not) a relationship between how much money is put into training & the returns on investment. Secondly, the influence of multinational organisations on training direction which is not in synchrony with national interest. The study was based on surveys / interviews etc in seven countries & four core sectors. Presentation started with a good overview on labour markets etc over the last couple of decades related to changes in the organisation of production due to globalisation. He presented the idea of ‘skill webs’ & how they have evolved from low skill (high skilled work remained in home country, dependent on quality of national ed. system & rewards determined by national internal revenue) to strategic skill webs (global supply of skills, internationalised skill strategies). This presentation provided much food for thought as to how a small country like NZ is going to be able to contribute, utilise & ameliorate the effects of globalisation. With the advent of ‘virtual R & D teams’ working via ‘digital taylorism’ the world is ‘flat’ & participation by NZers becomes easier but also more challenging with competition from countries like China, India & Russia.

Concurrent sessions then ran. First up motivating learners to complete qualification through workplace leanring by Karen Moses, R & D senior advisor for LearningState (the ITO for state sector organisations). Concern on low completion rates of tertiary learners (including apprentices & trainees). 70% of learning happens through work & life experiences, 10% through training & 20% through coaching and mentoring. A workplace assessment model based on Cheetham & Chivers (2005) model of professional competence. Examples of how this model works was then provided. Key motivator was relevance of learning, learning that may lead to future careers, learning which was challenging & provided social opportunities for interaction, qualification a form of legal tender, RPL & RCC available. Self direction was a sign of motivation in learners & readiness to learn emerges from the need to learn.

After lunch, I attended the session with Dr. Peter Coolbear , Dr. Kirsty Weir & Dr. Warren Sellers from Ako Aotearoa on enhancing the value & impact of research into voc. ed. & training. Ako Aoteoroa is funding 18 million a year on various projects to tertiary education. The presentation was on how to ensure the research leads on to best possible educational outcomes for all learners. An inventory of voc. ed reseach in NZ from 2003 – 2008 reveal 118 pieces of work but much of this is not widely disseminated or known by practitioners. Pasteur’s quadrant was used by Tooley & Darby (1998) to identify type of research needed to improve practice. Integrity of method suggested as most effective way to ensure research outcomes are effective and have impact on practice. Ako selected 40 projects & mapped these against the quadrant for methodological integrity & potential impact. 21 of the projects were ‘health sector’ based with the other 10 spread across other types of workplaces. 70% were in the quadrant indicating low methodological & potential impact. Limitations included unclear results, work not build on previous literature, little triangulation, quantitative research measured perceptions & lack of generalisable findings. Ako will work together to help foster user generated research and to support & encourage practitioners to take advantage of use-inspired research,

Then a session from Dr. Johnny Sung, University of Leicester on the varying nature of industry-led VET training. Instigating ‘sector skills councils’ may not lead to actual industry –led training. Four broad types of industry led VET systems were examined. Analysed via nature of employer / industry led varies hugely between systems, way funding channelled through sectoral system, way employers may influence qualifications & training content, employers role in creating training places. Into the models of employer involved, employer modelled, employer owned & employer driven. An associated paper on the role of employers in sector skills development provides background & good information.

My session came after afternoon tea. I presented on a small part of my thesis, the concept of ‘proximal participation’ in helping young people ‘belong to a workplace’. The apprentices in my study ‘fell into the trade’ after working in the bakery as cleaners, dishwashers, retail assistants and catering assistants. These support / peripheral jobs provided the opportunity to ‘belong to the workplace’ by building relationships with the other workers in the bakery, trying out the baking lifestyle and viewing the practice bakery work. As proximal participants, they could adopt an identity as an observer. In order for proximal participation to be effective, time span of the engagement with the work had to be long enough to allow relationships to build.

Last session from Elizabeth Valentine, CEO of ATTTO & Steve Hanrahan, CEO of HSI. They spoke on career maps & pathways into the tourism and hospitality industries. Project revolved around providing career maps, articulating career paths, national map of provision and defining a process for “lifting the bar” funded by the TEC. Project was to assist with preparing the two industries for the Rugby World cup in 2011 & then the Cricket World cup in 2015. Example of the career mapper database for baristas was presented as how the career maps were constructed.

ITF research forum now online

The efficient staff at the ITF have now put all the presentations made at the ITF 2008 research forum available online.

Of interest to me were the concurrent sessions that I did not attend as I was presenting in the other room. The three most relevant would be:-

• Initial Results from the Upskilling Research Programme by Dr John Benseman and Anne Alkema, Department of Labour which was on projects completed in the workplace to improve literacy in the workforce. I have witnessed many young apprentices making great improvements in their literacy and numeracy over the course of their apprenticeship. In year one, some struggle to string sentences together but by year three, many have used the opportunities afforded by situated learning in their workplace context, to write more confidently and fluently.
• The Ministry of Education Research and Monitoring Programme from David Earle and Paul Mahoney from the Ministry of Education who provided statistical information about the Industry Training Administrative Dataset Analysis and Advanced Trade, Technical, and Professional Qualifications. All pertinent to planning for ITOs and providers. This initiative provides data very much like the work of the Australian NCVER on apprentice completions etc. good to see NZ pertinent data is now also available.
• Employment Profile, Skill Needs and Training Priorities in the New Zealand Hospitality Industry by Anne Benson, from the Hospitality Standards Institute which was a quantitative look into training needs for the NZ hospitality industry into the next five years. Another good resource, useful in forecasting needs and work we are doing on re-structuring programmes in hospitality and cooking this year.

All of this work provides for a good foundation as vocational education research gains some impetus in NZ.

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.

Keynote presentation at Industry Training Federation forum

Yesterday, I presented a keynote on the Impact of technology on future skill needs: Mobile phones and workplace assessment by the Industry Training Federation (ITF).
I have presented at most of the ITF’s vocational education research forums and it is a good yearly catch up with the NZ industry training area.

The ITF is a collaborative organisation that all the Industry Training Organisations (ITOs) in NZ belong to and support. It is staffed by a small number of staff who have the brief to bring the ITOs together in a synergistic way. The ITF has completed several research projects on industry training in NZ and represents the ITOs as a collective body to lobby the NZ government for ongoing support of industry based training.

This year, there was a range of interesting papers on encouraging young people into trades based careers, workplace literacy & numeracy issues, building capacity in industry training research, forecasting skill demand and labour market information and skills development. On the research front, the ITF have connections to the National Centre of Vocational Research (NCVER) in Australia.

My keynote was the first presentation & because my project was a mashup of mLearning, ePortfolios and Web 2.0, I spent some time introducing the audience to these concepts before presenting the findings of the various trials undertaken thus far with my mLearning project. The audience was very receptive to the use of mlearning in workplace learning. There were many questions from the floor at the end of my presentation & many people caught up with me between sessions to ask more questions & to learn more about the CPIT project.

The knowledge level in the audience on technology was mixed, with some having a good handle but the majority only using technology via email and PC based applications. There was a smattering of knowledge about web 2.0 but many were not users of or contributors to Web 2.0 applications. For instance, many people recognised the name wikipedia, but did not know how it was put in place & that they could also contribute to wikipedia or set up their own wikis.

There really seems to be a niche for good ‘technology stewards’ to help bring relevant technology into areas like industry training. Many industries are users of technology in a workplace setting but not for staff training. There are also many industries where mlearning and even just msupport would be a good way to connect with and engage workplace learners. It’s an area I will bring up with the ITF in the near future.