Blog on capabilities approach by Professors Leesa Wheelahan and Gavin Moody

The Society for Research in Higher Education (SRHE) in the UK are hosting a blog by Emerita Professor Leesa Wheelahan and Gavin Moodie on the capabilities approach.

The first blog introduces the approach. Following on is the blog on capability for higher education and then one on special, adult and future education. 

An important aspect of the capabilities approach is the broader range of skills. knowledge and attributes attained as outcomes of learning - whether through formalised training/education or at work and through life activities. it is especially important at this point in time to move away from tightly defined and narrow prescriptions (i.e. through competency or skills-first approaches) given the challenges brought in by AI. as educators, we need to consider the wider issues and aspects that will provide continual development to everyone. In doing, we help individuals maintain currency and develop skills to cope with the onslaught of occupational shifts. 

AVETRA 2026 - DAY ONE -morning

 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. 

Skill Standards - ConCOVE webinar introducing the Good Practice Guides for Skill Standards

 Skills Standards are an evolutionary next step in describing and assessing skills. The New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) has mandated that skills standards are to be used in all qualifications, replacing unit standards. Their guidelines for listing skills standards provide a definition of a skill standard and the criteria required to list them on to the directory of assessment and skill standards (DASS).

Last week, I participated in a webinar organised by ConCOve Tūhura to introduce the good practice guides for skill standards.  The webinar was hosted by Eve Price from ConCOVE and included Dr. Karen Vaughan (Hummingbird Effect) who developed the guides with Andrew Kear, Michelle Tiatia from Waihanga Ara Rau and myself, representing 'providers'. 

The recording of the webinar can be viewed here.

The good practice guides themselves is made up of six guides. The first, provides a background. The second, an overview of the system for skill standards - these two also detail the evidence-base for the move towards skills standards. The next three guides are for practitioners. One on assessment and consistency issues, one for industry stakeholders and one for programme development and delivery. The last guide goes through the project itself, the method for developing the guides. 

It is important to understand skills standards as they will be the way in which all qualifications will be enacted. It will be important to workshop and have conversations with our teachers, as each qualification moves from unit to skill standards. Assessments (especially in the AI world) will need to be thought through and the introduction of skills standards represent a good opportunity to open and continue the important  ongoing work on understanding the role of assessment of akills (along with the knowledge, attributes and contributions to occupational identity formation). 

Work-based learning as a pathway to competence-based education - overview of 'report'

Read this over the weekend. A 'report' / book compiled by UNEVOC on Workbased learning and competency based education.

The report is edited by A. Bahl and A. Dietzen and published earlier this year.

There are 18 chapters collated into 5 parts. Also included are a foreword, introduction and a closing chapter on 'prospects'. Chapters are written by international VET scholars, each of whom brings their national context into the milieu.

Brief summaries of chapters follow:

Part 1 – Setting the frame for a global perspective on learning

Begins with S. Billett’s overview of his work – ‘securing occupational capacities through workplace experiences: premises, conceptions and practices’. The chapter is a good summary of Billett’s work. The central concepts underpinning his work are summarised. In particular, his work on workplace constituted curriculum, the pedagogy of workbased learning and the types of knowledge learnt at work are presented.

Continues with M. Mulder on ‘the global need for competence: competence-based VET and implication for policy and practice’. This chapter summarises the precepts of competency-based VET. The historical origins, CBT structures and characteristics and the theoretical approaches underpinning CBT are also provided.

Part 2 - conducive factors for learning on the level of the individual subject and work environment.

Chapter with A. Fuller and L. Unwin provide an application of their expansive framework with ‘improving workplace capacity as the prerequisite for effective work-based learning: a co-production approach’. Champions the need for both workplaces and workplace learning providers, to work together to create more meaningfully useful programmes. The expansive – restrictive framework is used to assist in shifting workplaces with limited workplace opportunities towards ones with more affordances for workplace learning.

Then C. Harteis on ‘supporting learning at work in an era of digitalisation of work’. Emphasises the importance of cognition, motivation to learn and emotion in ensuring workers are assisted to become prepared for the future of work. There is a need to explore the impacts on work transformation and to better prepare workplaces and workers.

Followed by S. Velten and A. Schnitzler on ‘assessing work-based learning in German dual VET from the apprentices’ perspective – the development of an inventory’. A questionnaire, developed to assess the quality of work-based training is presented in this chapter.

Part 2 – Curriculum development for work-based learning schemes

A Chinese contribution from Z. Zhao and Y. Shen on ‘striving for competence: China’s way of work-based learning curriculum development for VET institutions’. Describes the Chinese experience of adapting VET systems from other countries e.g. DACUM, dual apprenticeships and a way forward to find a distinct ways which fits in with the socio, cultural, political and historical contexts presented by the challenges distinct to China.

Then G. Spottl and G. Loose on ‘conducting work-process analysis for the development of advanced detailed curricula’. Details the work-process analysis methodology whereby instructors and workplace experts, collaborate to design flexible programmes and learning approaches.

Followed by B. A. Ogwo on ‘global perspectives and trends in work-based learning of TVET programmes in sub-Sahara Africa’. The informal economy is a challenge not just particular to Africa. The chapter discusses how to best support this informal, community-based learning approach without destroying it’s efficacy. The support of a range of work-based learning approaches is presented in this chapter.

B. N. Ezekoye on ‘integrating gender issues into work-based learning programmes of higher education and Nigeria’. Guidelines are presented towards assisting women to enrol in male-dominated programmes.

This section closes with chapter by A. Akoojee on ‘work-based learning in, and for, the informal economy: an African perspective’. Argues for the need of the formal learning sector to better understand the contributions made by the informal sector. In particular, how learning occurs in the informal sector and how this may inform better pedagogical approaches in the formal sector.

Section 4 – the role of tutors, fellow workers, and instructors in work-based learning

C. Jacinto and J. Pozzer on ‘work-based learning as a concept “under-construction”: evidence from two internships schemes in Argentina’. Compares two types of work-based learning programmes, each overseen by a different government body. Argues for the need for both these to be more collaborative and to undertake dialogue as the challenges are similar.

Then A. Bahl with ‘workplace training as social practice: How trainers experience the structural dynamics of German apprenticeship’. Collates the perspectives of trainers, their beliefs and narratives to better understand the dynamics of workplace based learning and training.

P. Rushbrook contributes ‘embedded research and learning at, for, and through work in Singapore’. Uses two studies to illustrate the situatedness of work-based and workplace based learning. Learning opportunities are influenced by occupations, work conditions and the personal motivations of the learner.

R. Harris with the last chapter in this section on ‘enhancing work-based learning: different ‘trainer’ roles, different types of guidance?’ Draws on three studies to present details on the support availed to workplace learners and these are influenced by personal, organisational and sector characteristics.

Part 5 – Boundary crossing: transfer and recognition of knowledge, skills and competence.

Begins with N. Kersh on ‘learning from knowledge transfer and recontextualisation of experiences in the context of workplace learning: insights from the UK’. The experiences of Further Education (FE) teachers are studied to provide better understanding of how people who have occupational expertise, ‘transfer’ these skills and continually ‘boundary cross’ between the occupational and the pedagogical.

Then, L. Nieuwenhuis, A. Hoeve, W. Kuijer and A. Peeters with ‘ bridging demands on education, innovation and practice-based research: the case of Dutch vocational and professional education’. Presents a model to assist students to move between the boundaries of work and higher education.

Last chapter in the section with C. Bose, A. Dietzen and C. Eberhardt on ‘challenges of formalising the informal in German VET – validation, certification and recognitions of competences’. Details approaches for people, without vocational qualifications, to enter into Germany’s tightly bound occupational systems. Offers three approaches, two of which are to support better recognition of prior and current skills and the third is to provide accelerated training to meet occupational certification requirements.

The final chapter is by B. Chakouri on ‘work-based learning: a research agenda for new policy challenges’. Proposes the need to support on-going research to ensure the sustainable development of workplace learning contexts.

Educational and work settings forum -

Presentations are now on-line on the Ako Aotearoa website. The forum took place in mid-August in Wellington and focused on workplace-based education with a range of NZ based speakers and a keynote from Australia. Over the long weekend (show day was on Friday last week), I had time on the Saturday afternoon when it got too hot to get any gardening done, to look through the powerpoint presentations.

Of most interest are the two keynotes – one from Professor John Buchanan of University of Sydney and Professor Richard Coll from University of Waikato. Both covered the principles of education undertaken in work settings and the nexus between work and under/post-graduate degree curriculums.

Pertinent to present work is the work of Dr. Marion Sanders from Bethlehem Tertiary Institute and Liz Bowen-Clewey of Competency International.

Dr. Sanders presented on findings from the Ako Aotearoa National Project 'maximising dialogue in field based experiences' from work with social work and teacher trainee programmes.

Liz Bowen-Clewey  presented on a way forward with work-placed based competency assessments. Taking into account a more holistic structure to recognising professional competency through the use of 'professional conversations' and other whole-occupation evidence gathering approaches.