Avetra: Awards & Scholarships

Awards & Scholarships

Phil Loveder presents the NCVER sponsored best paper by a new researcher award

1. Berwyn Clayton Award for Distinguished Service to AVETRA

2. Ray Barker Award for Distinguished Service to VET Research

3. AVETRA Journal Article of the Year

4. AVETRA Paper of the Year / New Researcher Paper of the Year

Berwyn Clayton Award for Distinguished Service to AVETRA

The Berwyn Clayton Award for Distinguished Service to AVETRA has been instituted as a way of recognising the exemplary and distinguished service of nominated AVETRA members who have through their endeavours worked towards improving AVETRA’s status as Australia’s peak association for VET researchers.

This on-going award is funded by AVETRA and is offered on a bi-annual basis. Applications are sought in February for award in even years. The award will be presented at the AVETRA Conference. Eligibility: All nominees must be current AVETRA members.

Previous Awardees

2006 Karen Whittingham (TAFE NSW)

2008 Peter Kell (University of Wollongong)

2010 Kevin Heys (TAFE NSW)

Criteria for award for the Berwyn Clayton Award for Distinguished Service to AVETRA can be found in the Nomination Form. AVETRA reserves the right not to make an award if none of the applications received meets the criteria for award. Download the Nomination Form here

AVETRA journal article of the year

A ‘VET Journal Article of the Year ‘award has been instituted, which is awarded each year at the AVETRA conference for papers published the previous year. The aim of the award is to recognise excellent scholarship on the part of an AVETRA member, and to help to raise the profile of the scholarly work being done by AVETRA members. The winner is awarded a certificate and a plaque.

Click here for the details on how to apply, the rules associated with the process and the criteria for assessment.

Journal Article of the Year 2010

Steven Hodge
Lecturer in Adult,Vocational and Applied Learning, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia

Trainers and transformation: Facilitating the ‘dark side’ of vocational learning
International Journal of Training Research Volume 8 Issue 1 – 2010, PP: 53 – 62

Abstract:

‘Transformative learning’ is a term used by Mezirow (1991) and his followers to designate a specifically ‘adult’ kind of learning that involves shifts in how learners view the world and themselves. New research into learning in VET suggests that in some subject areas transformative learning may play more than an incidental role. Among the implications of this finding is that the trainer’s practice may be more important in VET than it has been the custom to acknowledge. When transformative learning systematically contributes to VET, the trainer becomes a co-constructor of competence rather than a transmitter of skills and knowledge.

This paper reports on this new research and reflects on the role of the trainer in the process of VET-oriented transformative learning. Results indicate that some trainers of youth workers develop a practice that responds to the contours and dangers of transformative learning without necessarily being aware of the body of knowledge that has built up around this type of learning. The paper suggests that in some VET sectors, trainers and RTOs could enhance their work by taking stock of transformative learning research and theory.

Ray Barker Award for Distinguished Service to VET Research

The Ray Barker Award for Distinguished Service to VET Research has been instituted as a way of recognising the distinguished long-term and exemplary contributions to VET research of a nominated member of AVETRA. The Award recognises significant contributions to VET research and scholarship and the promotion of VET research.

Dr Ray Barker was a foundation member of AVETRA with a long background in training and development. He worked in the film industry in the 1930s in Sydney and joined the Royal Australian Navy at the outbreak of the second world war. Ray Barker served on the HMAS Perth and was aboard when it was sunk in the Sunda Straits in 1942 and he became a prisoner of war. After the war Ray studied psychology at Sydney University and overseas and was involved in pioneering workplace and workforce research. Ray returned temporarily to work in the film industry but left to work in oil and gas industry. Working for BP he was involved in the commissioning and management of petrochemical works in Australia in the 1960s, specialising in training and workforce programs. Barker left the corporate sector to work in consulting and worked with a range of public and private clients on training and workforce issues in the Asia Pacific region. Dr Ray Barker completed his PhD at Newcastle University and researched apprenticeships and private training using a historical context.

Previous Awardees

2006 Roger Harris (University of South Australia)

2008 No awardee

2010 No awardee

Criteria for award for the Ray Barker Award for Distinguished Service to VET Research can be found in the Nomination Form. AVETRA reserves the right not to make an award if none of the applications received meets the criteria for award. Download the Nomination Form here

AVETRA journal article of the year

Click here for the details on how to apply, the rules associated with the process and the criteria for assessment.

Journal Article of the Year 2010

Steven Hodge
Lecturer in Adult,Vocational and Applied Learning, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia

Trainers and transformation: Facilitating the ‘dark side’ of vocational learning
International Journal of Training Research Volume 8 Issue 1 – 2010, PP: 53 – 62

AVETRA Conference Paper of the Year and New Researcher Paper of the Year

Refereed conference papers will automatically be entered into the shortlisting for the AVETRA Paper of the Year. This on-going award is funded by AVETRA and is offered annually. The award will be presented at the AVETRA Conference. Eligibility: All nominees must be current AVETRA members. AVETRA reserves the right not to make an award if none of the applications received meets the criteria for award. Download the criteria for award for the AVETRA Conference Paper of the Year here.

Previous Awardees AVETRA Conference Paper of the Year

2004
Karen Plane, CREEW, University of South Australia
“Wine and cheese or chalk and cheese?” Discovering the ‘attitudinal ecology’ between VET and small business for capacity building in regional South Australia.

Abstract
Bagshaw (2000) writes that emotional intelligence is embedded in life and work, an asset with strong commercial advantage for the organisation’s stock of emotional capital. ‘Emotional capital” is not well defined in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) discourse despite debate about capabilities based platforms to meet the social, environmental, economic and cultural needs of changing regional Australia. This qualitative research is exploring a social partnerships construct of learning ecologies in VET for connecting learning regions and the enablers and barriers to learning partnerships with small business. Small business, it has been argued, is opting out of responsibility for formal training and the last bastion of market failure for VET. This paper discusses what constructs this ‘attitudinal ecology’ between VET and small businesses. It questions how similar visions and common values about lifelong learning can be promulgated between small business and community stakeholders in a market economy of VET. It finds there are more similarities than differences though in the effect of regional economic policy on practitioners and small business, and suggests enculturing resilience and healthy resources of emotional capital in learning partnerships is not only a concern for small business, but warrants further investigation within VET too.

2005
Laurie Grace, Deakin University
Training Packages and the AQTF: freedom to move or components of a compliance-driven straitjacket?

Abstract
This paper reports on a PhD research project being undertaken through the Faculty of Education, Deakin University. Training Packages and the Australian Quality Training Framework (AQTF) form part of the ruling relations of VET, but how do they operate in practice? Do they provide frameworks within which training professionals are free to use judgement and respond in innovative ways to local learning and assessment contexts? Do they impose rigid ‘guidelines’ within which the decision-making authority of practitioners over appropriate practices is displaced by that of auditors, constraining creativity and creating pressures towards conformity? Or does their impact vary, depending on how they are interpreted and who is doing the interpreting?

2006
Roger Harris and Linda Rainey, CREEW, University of South Australia
‘Crazy Paving?’ Learning Pathways between and within VET and higher education

Abstract
Promotion by governments and institutions of pathways and seamlessness over the past decade may be perceived as both positive and problematic. Seamlessness can provide considerable choice for young people and yet at the same time can readily lead to uncertainty and indecision. A number of studies have drawn attention to the phenomenon of indirect transfer where movement of tertiary students is not linear but instead involves several moves within and between institutions and sectors. This paper examines what some of these pathways look like, explores patterns in such movement and proposes a typology of learning pathways. The research involved indepth interviews held with 49 students in South Australia who had experienced both VET and higher education. Such research can help us to understand more fully the experiences in, reasons for and consequences of moving within and between various pathways. It might also help policymakers and institutional planners with insights into how best to position relationships between sectors and to implement policies and services that help learners navigate through education systems.

2007
Ian Falk and John Guenther, Charles Darwin University
Generalising from Qualitative Research: Case studies from VET in Contexts

Abstract
One of the reasons that research is conducted is to build the evidence base to inform strategic or policy directions. In this context, the value of qualitative research is often questioned because ‘you cannot make generalisations from results when the sample is not statistically representative of the whole population in question’. However, a scan of the research literature in the field of Vocational Education and Training (VET) reveals a considerable amount of qualitative research which is used for this very purpose even though much of the headline data is in the form of numerical statistics based on sampling regimes. Can findings from qualitative research legitimately be generalised and applied beyond the frame of a particular case or even a set of 100 semi-structured interviews on a particular topic? Are there features within qualitative methods that justify generalisable inferences? The paper stems from the research experience of the authors over the last two decades, during which time we have, as it turns out, been living with a dichotomy. On the one hand, we were taught in our research training that you can’t generalise much from qualitative research, if at all. On the other hand, what has emerged for us is that, first of all, people do generalise from qualitative research; and second, we suggest that we may well have good reason to be able to do so. By ‘good reason’, we mean that the generalised decisions that are made on the basis of the findings of qualitative research are sound, that the findings have indeed been generalised successfully. That is, when the findings have been applied more generally, it has been found that the generalising has proved valid and reliable.

2008 Doug Fraser, Australian Innovation Research Centre, University of Tasmania
Are Australian jobs becoming more skill-intensive? Evidence from the HILDA dataset

Abstract
Labour market policy rhetoric since the 1980s has promoted the view that jobs in industrialised counties, if they are to survive the pressures of global competition, will need to place ever-increasing demands on the skills of the workforce. This paper describes a study designed to test this proposition on a representative sample of the Australian working population over the period from 2001 to 2005. The data come from HILDA (Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia), a panel survey of some 6,000 households and 18,000 individuals conducted annually since 2001. The dataset includes three indicators representing a common metric across industries, occupations and levels in the workforce hierarchy of the degree to which jobs “stretch” the skill base of those who work in them, together with three variables covering task discretion and worker autonomy, which past research has shown to be highly correlated with skill-intensity. These data make it possible for the first time to duplicate in Australia, albeit in lesser detail, the landmark research on the skills trajectory of the UK economy carried out over the last twenty years for the Economic and Social Research Council. Initial analyses suggest that in the aggregate, Australian jobs were less skill-intensive in 2005 than in 2001, a counter-intuitive trend for which an explanation has still to be found.

2009
Gerri Pancini and Rob McCormack, Victoria University
Learningful work: how can the workplace foster affordances for learning?

Abstract
Victoria University has recently nominated workplace learning as a universal feature of all its courses. It has also established the Work-based Education Research Centre (WERC) to provide the research and development underpinnings needed to build world class innovation in vocational and work-based education at Victoria University and to contribute more generally to knowledge and policy development in these areas. As a contribution to the work of grounding these developments in current experience, theories and research, this paper will probe current literature around work-based education through the question: How can workplaces be places of learning? That is, how can they be sites that help produce graduates with learning attributes that are attuned and responsive to a flexible world of change, complexity and contingency?

2010
Jo Balatti, James Cook University, Martha Goldman Tropical North Queensland Institute of TAFE, Phil Harrison Tropical North Queensland Institute of TAFE, Bob Elliott Southern Queensland Institute of TAFE, Meredith Jackson Wide Bay Institute of TAFE and Gillian Smith, Southern Queensland Institute of TAFE

A model of professional development delivery for VET teachers by VET teachers: An evaluation

Abstract
Professional development (PD) can be costly with the outcomes often difficult to measure and sometimes, even intangible. Training and education organisations are seeking new ways of responding to the challenge of developing the expertise of their teachers to teach effectively in times characterised by changing student profiles and changing government and community expectations and demands. This paper reports on an 18 month long action research project involving three Queensland TAFE institutes that trialled a grassroots PD model. Three features characterised the model; the PD was planned, prepared and delivered by teachers for teachers. The project included a formal evaluation of the trials. This paper explains the rationale for this model to PD delivery and reports on the results of its implementation. It discusses how and why the model evolved in different ways in the three sites and it analyses the strengths and weaknesses of such an approach to delivering professional development in TAFE institutes. The paper concludes with some insights that the trial offered on how PD fits or can fit in the organisational life of 21st century TAFE institutes.

2011
Stephen Black, Keiko Yasukawa
University of Technology, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Beyond deficit approaches to teaching and learning: Literacy and numeracy in VET courses

Abstract
Literacy and numeracy skills (L&N), now framed nationally as ‘foundation skills’, are high on government and industry agendas, and a new National Foundation Skills Strategy is currently in the making. L&N support provided to students in vocational education and training (VET) courses is anticipated to feature strongly in this new strategy, especially in light of the national focus on increasing post school qualifications. Predominantly, current models of L&N support in VET courses can be seen largely as a ‘deficit’ approach in which individual students are identified, usually through a test or screen at the beginning of their course, as being in deficit of the L&N skills needed to complete their course. Students are often given the opportunity of obtaining assistance through attending additional ‘stand-alone’ L&N classes, a study centre, or a L&N teacher providing assistance in the vocational classroom. This paper considers other models of support, both in the research literature and in Australian case studies, which ‘integrate’ L&N with VET courses. This involves a variety of team teaching arrangements between vocational and L&N teachers in which the aim is to assist the whole student group and not just those identified with L&N ‘problems’. This approach may improve vocational learning by more directly linking L&N practices with vocational practices. It also avoids the negative labeling of students associated with the deficit approach, and may be seen as a more active pedagogy, encouraging change in VET practices. The paper is based largely on semi-structured, taped interviews with a total of fiftythree L&N teachers, vocational teachers and VET managers across most Australian states and territories. These interviews were undertaken by the authors as part of a Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) funded research project on integrated L&N support in VET which is due for completion in mid 2011.

AVETRA Early Career Researcher Award

Refereed conference papers will automatically be entered into the shortlisting for the NCVER Early Career Researcher Award Paper of the Year award as part of the refereeing process. National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) sponsors this award to encourage new researchers, that is, within the first five years of their research career, to present at the annual conference and become actively involved in the Association. Funding for this award should not be assumed to be on-going.

Previous Awardees AVETRA Early Career Researcher Award Paper of the Year

2004
Susan Monti and Graeme Stone, Northern Beaches College, TAFE NSW

Abstract
Students in the Diploma of Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) Studies at the Northern Beaches College of TAFE, NSW, have been participating in an innovative learning strategy throughout 2002 and 2003, referred to as ‘peer health promotion’, which is a peer driven initiative that extends the traditional ‘peer education’ approach. This paper reports the initiatives that have been undertaken, the experiences gained and the likely outcomes of this study as the project continues into 2004.

2005
Ruth Wallace and Kathie Mair, Charles Darwin University
Turning Points: Exploring the development of learning communities through participatory action research

Abstract
‘Turning Points’ is a pilot project developed by a Charles Darwin University team and funded by the NT Department of Health and Community Services to respond to a community need for effective and sustainable professional development in the children’s services sector. This paper describes the project, highlights some of the emerging results and discusses insights into its effectiveness and potential as a model for training and professional development in the workplace. The innovative approach to professional development and training of local children’s services staff and organisations, supports participating services to develop ‘communities of practice’ as they engage in participatory action learning cycles that act as a framework for developing positive and self sustaining learning experiences, networks and environments. This paper will discuss issues related to implementing and using this approach.

Download the full paper here

2008
Ruth Wallace, Social Partnerships in Learning Research Consortium, Charles Darwin University, Cathy Curry, CHARTTES Training Advisory Council, Richard Agar, Kimberley College of TAFE
Working from Our Strengths: Indigenous Enterprise and Training in Action and Research

Abstract
Developing innovative and successful approaches to training in remote and regional contexts with Indigenous people necessitates effective partnership and the recognition of diverse knowledge systems as they relate to the worlds of work, community engagement and learning. Social partnerships catalyse and enable change in human or social policy (EU Guideline Principles 2004) Social partnerships in learning, then, are the interagency and interdisciplinary relationships that enable effective learning in different disciplines, workplaces and training sites. Social partnerships in learning frameworks are used to; examine diverse knowledge systems, develop capacity building processes and understand the underlying relationships that facilitate connections, engagement and decision making between government, non-government, enterprise, community, stakeholders and individuals (Wallace forthcoming:7). These frameworks operate at and across all levels i.e. involving individuals, organizations
and learning systems. Over the past four years a team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous partners in learning research across Northern Australia have identified many of the issues that must be addressed to improve economic and community outcomes of training and investment through enterprise development. As the issues have been widely reported, the project team are now looking to the future directions for enterprise development and training research indicated by the findings of these projects. This paper provides an overview of a series of recent projects developed around enterprise development and training. The issues project teams have explored include the recognition of diverse knowledge systems within the Recognition of Prior Learning process, the role of digital literacies in sharing knowledge and work-based learning. The paper then foreshadows the future directions of this work; addressing a range of issues such as infrastructure, funding, technology and identifying relevant skills sets. Approaches to sustainable enterprise learning and production, professional development and support of successful Indigenous and non-Indigenous teachers are also discussed. Essentially the paper focuses on the ways partnerships and relationships, rather than systems, can effect change in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) system.

2009
Regan Harding, North Coast TAFE NSW
Early days: A personal review of a research into practice initiative

Abstract
This paper provides participant reflections from one of ten researchers involved in an NCVER sponsored ‘Building Researcher Capacity in the VET Sector’ scheme in 2008. In this scheme, early career VET researchers are supported to undertake work-based research projects in a community of practice to develop their research capacity.
‘Early Days’ intends to do two things: firstly, to provide an interim account of the data collected through surveys and focus group interviews for the research project: ‘The experiences of early vocational education and training programs for young Aboriginal learners: perceptions of practitioners and young people’. Key findings and discussions emerging from the program and the research are presented to inform practitioners in designing, delivering and supporting early VET programs for such learners.
Secondly, it aims to be of general practical assistance to early VET researchers and the experienced VET researchers and mentors supporting them. Including personal reflections on the researcher community of practice, the paper discusses the mentoring received through the AVETRA network and the support received by the participants and organizations included in the research. Each section of this paper will address the research project -‘Experiences of early vocational education and training programs for young Aboriginal learners: perceptions of practitioners and young people’. It will also explore the research process – the research methodologies selected and support received through the ‘NCVER Building Researcher Capacity Community of Practice’.

2010
Tom Short, University of South Australia
Leadership development in a moving context

Abstract
The success of workplace training initiatives is increasingly connected with how programs of learning are aligned with, and take account of, the organisational context. This is especially true in the area of leadership and management development where Currie (1999) concluded that unless there was congruence between the context of the organisation as perceived by the participants and the development initiative being introduced, the initiative was likely to be unsuccessful. Using selected findings obtained from a two-year research project within the Australian Rail Industry, as part of the CRC for Rail Innovation, this paper draws insight on how leadership and management capability are being developed in an era of changing contexts. In this setting, context is defined by external characteristics of the rapidly changing environment in which rail organisations operate. Drawing information from the literature on leadership, a selection of rail reports, interview data and a content analysis of learning materials taken from rail organisations, this paper evaluates if current management training programs are developing rail leaders with the knowledge and skills to cope with a selection of ever-changing contexts.
AVETRA reserves the right not to make an award if none of the applications received meets the criteria for award. Download the criteria for award for the NCVER Early Career Research Award Paper of the Year here.

2011
David McLean, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
A Victorian tale of two texts: Skills Reform and, the Multi Business Agreement.

Abstract
During 2008 in Victoria two influential texts were released within weeks of each other; texts that would have a significant impact on how Victorian TAFE institutes would organise both operational and human resources over the next four years. The texts were the new Victorian State Government Vocational Education and Training Policy, known as Skills Reform and the amended Victorian TAFE teacher employment conditions, the Multi Business Agreement (MBA). Skills Reform had many new policy initiatives stated to introduce a greater degree of market choice for the clients of VET providers. The MBA had pay rises with very minor changes to the core employment conditions of TAFE teachers and Senior Educators. While these two texts were created independently of each other, Skills Reform’s impact would need to be closely considered in relation to how a TAFE teacher’s work is organised from the MBA.

This paper argues that the core change agenda of Skills Reform is not to create improved access to training by broadening consumer choice but to directly reduce the cost of training in the public sector through productivity gains. This will be forced by the new activity based funding criteria and a falling financial return to institutes per training hour. This strategy will force TAFE institutes to significantly change the way a teacher’s work is organised, not driven by competition

AVETRA Ray Barker Ambassadors Awards

Previous Awardees

2009 Stuart Anderson

2010 Hilary Timma and Kate Dempsey