"VET partnerships powering a dynamic workforce" is the theme for the 33rd National Vocational Education and Training (VET) Research Conference 'No Frills.' In keeping with the conference's theme, this discussion paper focuses on Australia's workforce demands and the importance of equipping the workforce with necessary skills through…

Microcredentials are not new. They have been in use in various countries and education and training sectors; they have played a role, among others, in the certification of IT courses or health workers' professional development. However, only recently have microcredentials gained EU-wide attention in policy debates. Most countries, as yet, have no…

Lifelong Learning (LLL) has become a pliable term in educational discourse running the risk of meaning both everything and nothing, making it necessary to look at how the notion of LLL has been taken up in different contexts, especially within the context of policy development. Because of the inconsistent ways LLL has been peppered throughout…

COVID-19, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Climate Change, have disrupted work education, rendering sustainability of careers and livelihoods a concern. This paper outlines a collaborative response to that challenge, offering opportunities for sustainable livelihoods in a work education cloud collaboration, Project SLiC (Sustainable Livelihoods…

Skilling Australia's current and future workforce is the theme for the 32nd National Vocational Education and Training (VET) Research Conference 'No Frills.' In keeping with the conference's theme, this discussion paper explores the resilience of the Australian VET sector and how it can continue to foster adaptability in the face of ongoing change.

This paper represents the latest in a line of papers and think pieces that the author has prepared on this topic -- for the UK government, the UK Skills and Productivity Board, and the Scottish Government and Scottish Funding Council -- since 2014. It seeks to explain why trying to bring skills supply into closer alignment with demand for skills…

This article aims to portray industrial workers' vocational training during Primo de Rivera's dictatorship in Spain (1923-1930), based on the Industrial Training Act of 1924 and the Vocational Training Act of 1928. The programme was devised to meet the modernising expectations of a conventional society. The grounds for government interventionism…

Vocational education has a crucial role in regional labour markets, providing skills to meet local employment demand. In many regional areas of Australia, there has been a transition in employment from manufacturing and agriculture to service industries. The increase in employment has been most evident in the health and community services sector…

Empirical and conceptual literature on career and workforce development increasingly cites the importance of connections between policy, research and practice domains. Yet, few if any models inform such collaborations. In the proposed Tripartite Model of Program Evaluation, the inter-play between these three key stakeholder groups is…

Conservatoires train musicians to high levels of proficiency in performance and other 'principal study' disciplines, but often, teaching is perceived as a second-class profession, and little is known about how music students learn to facilitate music making in others. Yet, conservatoires have a responsibility to contribute to the development of…

This paper uses a Cultural Political Economy (CPE) framework to apply CPE's concept of the "economic imaginary" to the educational policy landscape. We consider the Caribbean Community's (CARICOM) regional education policy space and the focus on Human Resource Development to examine how what we call "educational imaginaries"…

There is strong evidence that learning gained in, through and for work, whether it is through employment, voluntary, community, domestic or any other kind of work, helps to equip people with the capabilities that can improve their working lives, their employability and their life skills (Lester and Costley, 2010, Beehives, 2018, WEXHE, 2019).…

HM Inspectors of Education have published a new report highlighting features of effective community development practice in response to COVID-19. As part of Scottish Government's "Education Recovery: Key Actions and Next Steps," HM Inspectors of Education committed to undertaking national thematic reviews. These thematic inspections…

The Finnish educational system is well known for its excellent learning results, highly trained teachers and egalitarian values. However, when the political leanings of the government change, its policies are usually altered as well. In this policy report we give an account of the recent changes and current trends in Finnish education policy. We…

Children's learning, development and well-being are directly influenced by their daily interactions with other children, adults, their families and the environment. This interactive process is known as "process quality", and leads to a key question -- which policies set the best conditions for children to experience high-quality…