VDC News
November Edition
Edition 23 - 2024 | November 2024
So long and farewell: a reflection by…
On behalf of the Board and Team at VDC, I’d like to extend our thanks to the VDC News ghostwriter Hugh Guthrie for his invaluable contribution to this newsletter. It has been a privilege to have someone with Hugh’s reputation, experience and standing deliver ever consistent observations, opinions and insights into the VET research and policy settings around Australia and internationally over the past 7 years. I’d also like to thank Hugh for his passion and support for the endeavours of the VET Development Centre in providing quality and accessible professional learning for VET educators and practitioners.
Martin Powell, CEO VDC.
After having written articles for VDC News since early 2018, I’ve decided it’s time to put down the pen, or at least stop searching the internet and other information sources and let another take up the mantle of trying to tell you what’s going on in VET in Australia and internationally. I think seven years is enough for anyone, and I always believed that I should give up before I thought I had got too stale. After all, the number of articles I have written over the period totals about 550! The upside, though, is that doing this work has kept me in touch with the VET sector and what those within it, managing it and regulating or using it, are thinking.
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VDC Professional Learning Program for…
The 2025 VDC Professional Learning Program for Semester 1 is now live! Click here to explore the program and discover all the sessions available to you.
As a leader in professional development for the VET sector workforce, VDC is committed to providing high-quality, relevant programs that benefit not just VET educators and practitioners, but professionals across various fields. Best of all, there are no upfront membership fees to access VDC programs and services.
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Emerging occupational roles in the…
This article highlights another new paper from the Jobs and Skill Australia (JSA), just published this month. Entitled ‘Emerging roles’ it seeks to “identify and showcase trends in the evolving Australian labour market. The paper also provides intelligence on market demand, skills composition required by employers, and other demographic characteristics to create a holistic picture of emerging roles.”
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JSA releases paper reporting on strong…
JSA has just released its report: Strong and Responsive VET Pathways. As it notes, “this publication is the latest release from the VET National Data Asset (VNDA), established by Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA) in partnership with the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).”
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Reflecting on VET quality: One last…
One of the last pieces of VET work I am undertaking before I really retire is co-authored with my long-term colleague and ‘partner in crime’ Melinda Waters. It focuses on VET and conceptions of its quality. Watch out for when it is hopefully published sometime next year thorough NCVER’s VOCEDplus Research database because it will try to take a hard look on the identified landmark VET papers and reports, and the wide range of other work, which have addressed VET quality issues. Thus, as part of my ‘swansong’ for VDC News, I thought it was worth taking a quick look at issues related to the sector’s quality we will address in this paper.
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November Edition
Edition 22 - 2024 | 14 November 2024
Deep diving into the concept of competence – a think piece by Hugh Guthrie
Recent publications and work have made me think about the nature of competency in Australian VET, and perhaps why it needs rethinking. The concept of competency goes back a fair way of course, and there is literature going back to the late 1980s and early 1990s and even well before.
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More about Micro credentials…
A couple of papers have emerged in Europe in the last little while. Both are from Cedefop – the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training. The first is a research paper published in December 2023. Another, released early this year, is a briefing note.
Regular readers will know that Micro credentials has been a recurrent topic in our articles for VDC News as a Google search would show.
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Setting up an effective mentoring…
Mentoring is a very important process for initial support and ongoing development of the VET workforce and particularly its teachers and trainers. Qooper has developed a blog, entitled:
The Ultimate Guide to Structuring An Effective Mentorship Program: 6-Steps to Success
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2025 Victorian Workforce Development…
Applications are now open for the 2025 Victorian Workforce Development Grants
As part of the Victorian Workforce Development initiative targeting organisational capability, VDC has developed the Workforce Development Grant opportunity for operational innovation and workforce capability projects to selected providers that have a Victorian VET Skills First contract.
The 2025 VDC Workforce Development Grants aims to provide financial support to Victorian Skills First Providers to build workforce capability and development within the VET Sectors to support training providers in maintaining quality practices.
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Centres of Excellence: What does the…
This new research insight paper published under the auspices of AVETRA and the Victorian Skills Authority (VSA) focuses on TAFE’s Centres of Excellence. It was authored by a team drawn from Monash University and Chisholm Institute’s Higher Education College.
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