|
Building AVETRA continues….
Recently you will have received your ‘A News’, ‘Research Today’, and the winter edition of the International Journal of Training Research. I am greatly in-debited to a wonderful executive who each month give their personal time to undertake tasks for our association and therefore for all of us. I would like to record my thanks for their continued commitment and enthusiasm.
The past months have been very active with 12 of our new VET researchers presenting at the NCVER NO Frills conference in Perth, and with some changes at our Secretariat where we have been inducting Doug Wiles, the new voice on the phone, into AVETRA operations and history.
A high priority has been a submission to the ‘Productivity Commission’ for their report to government on the VET Workforce. I think we should all note that for once VET has been placed first in the investigation, before schools and early childhood workforces. It is a difficult task to speak for an entire association as I am aware that while we have a common interest in researching VET, we also have very different agendas and diverse organisational interests. However, it is very evident to me that our greatest strength is that we as a body combine both researchers and reflective
|
practitioners. This ensures that our VET research is grounded and our findings influence practitioners.
The full AVETRA submission is now up on the website and my intention was to indicate how important the structured research approach, that we are both part of, and have helped develop, has been for the development of the VET workforce.
I have tried to stress the significant contribution of our members and the need to ensure continued research infrastructure, so that we can maintain our contribution and help shape the field. Many of us are actively involved in the development and training of the VET workforce. I felt that it was important to emphasise both our role in developing reflective practitioners and the need to raise the knowledge and qualification level of the VET workforce.
For the future much is happening. Check out if an OctoberVET is scheduled near you, and if not think about running a small local seminar – help and advice is at hand – we all need to build local networks.
We are making plans to add research resources to the website, invest in more research seminars for members, make online membership available, upgrade our membership brochure, and complete the AVETRA conference manual for the conveners of future years of AVETRA conferences across Australia.
|