Identifying the barriers to implementing the Victorian Department of Education and Training guidelines regarding the provisions of nutrient dense food options in school canteens

Aims & rationale/Objectives : To identify barriers to the full implementation of new guidelines regarding school canteen menus launched by The Victorian Education Department in May 2004.
Methods : A self-administered questionnaire was sent to principals, business mangers and canteen managers of 13 secondary schools in South West Victoria covered by The Greater Green Triangle area (response rate 59%). The questions explored the canteen's role, operation, staffing and profits; existence and content of canteen policy; enablers and barriers to the sale of healthier foods; introduction and promotion of healthier foods; and perceived implications of banning less healthy foods.
Principal findings : The study identified several barriers to implementing healthy menus in school canteens, these being largely consistent with those found in other studies. The majority of schools reported they were making attempts to follow the guidelines for school food services, but were experiencing difficulty in proceeding to full implementation. The barriers identified through the study were student preference for less healthy options, concerns about profitability, lack of policy or its active communication and promotion at the school level and competition from other food outlets.
Discussion : There was evidence that healthy foods had not been actively promoted, suggesting that identification of student preferences as a barrier was based on perception rather than observation. The Victorian guidelines are effectively voluntary, with no accountability measures in place.
Implications : Research needs to be conducted to provide reliable and tested information about factors which impact on student choice. Schools would benefit from specialised assistance to formulate business plans for contemporary canteens selling healthy food and a clarification of government policy.
Presentation type : Poster

Vocational education and training at a distance : transformation to flexible delivery

This chapter will explore the position that distance education has held in the past in Australian vocational education and training (VET) and how that position has developed and transformed over the past couple of decades. It is argued here that after a period of VET provision through distance education that was largely based around an earlier centralised model, VET was early to recognise the potential that new technologies in distance education had for VET learners and learning. Concurrently there was recognition of the substantial limitations a centralised model of distance education posed for new demands on VET. Economic imperatives also contributed to what became a revolution in VET and its delivery to learners.
The chapter identifies these developments and the factors that have contributed to them, and tracks the transition of Australian VET distance education as it transformed away from centralised distance education provision towards its more recent forms of locally provided flexible delivery and blended learning.

Education and training institutions : building social capital for regional development

Education and training institutions from schools through to universities have a vital role in supporting development in regional Australia. The interaction between these institutions and their rural communities influences the social capital of the community and the extent to which the community is a learning community, willing and able to manage change to the community’s advantage.

There are benefits to be had from a collaborative approach to planning and delivering training. This approach is consistent with theories of social capital that emphasise the crucial part played by networks, values and trust in generating superior outcomes for individuals, communities and regions. Research has found that education and training is most effective in building social capital and learning communities were there is attention to customising or targeting education and training provision to local needs. The key to matching provision with local needs, particularly in the more rural and remote areas, is collaboration and partnerships. Partners can be regional organisations, other educational institutions, businesses and government. The factors that enhance the effectiveness of the collaborations and partnerships are the elements of social capital: networks, shared values and trust, and enabling leadership.

Networks are most effective where there were opportunities and structures for interaction, which can be termed interactional infrastructure, that foster networks within the region, and networks that extended outside the region. Interactional infrastructure includes regional forums, committee structures, consultative processes and opportunities for informal discussion addressing the issues of education, training and employment in a community or region. Better outcomes are evident when there is an interactional infrastructure that is resourced with financial, physical and human resources of sufficient quantity and quality. Collaborations provide access to a greater range of external resources through extended external networks. Effective networks and shared visions, values and trust among the partners in a collaboration, are fostered by enabling leaders. Educational institutions are well placed to supply the ‘human infrastructure’ that makes collaborations and partnerships work, including enabling leadership.

Attention to factors associated with the quality of social capital, especially interactional infrastructure including leadership, shared vision and values and networks within and external to the community, can be expected to improve the effectiveness of education and training outcomes. More importantly, a collaborative approach to planning for education and training in rural regions will build the capacity of regions and their constituent communities to develop and change by building social capital resources. Leadership is an important driver of processes that build community and regional capacity and ultimately produce social and economic benefits through regional development. Educational providers in rural regions are well placed to act as enabling leaders.

Responding to rural skills shortages : innovations using vocational education and training

Aims & Rationale/Objectives
To locate, analyse and make accessible innovative models of health training and service delivery that have been developed in response to a shortage of skills.

Methods
Drawing on a synthesis of Australian and international literature on innovative and effective models for addressing health skill shortages, 50 models were selected for further study. Models were also identified from nominations by key health sector stakeholders. Selected models represent diversity in terms of the nature of skill shortage addressed, barriers overcome in developing the model, health care specialisations, and customer groups.

Principal Findings
Rural and remote areas have become home to a set of innovative service delivery models. Models identified encompass local, regional and state/national responses. Local responses are usually single health service-training provider partnerships. Regional responses, the most numerous, tend to have a specific focus, such as training young people. A small number of holistic state or national responses, eg the skills ecosystem approach, address multiple barriers to health service provision. Typical barriers include unwillingness to risk-take, stakeholder differences, and entrenched workplace cultures. Enhancers include stakeholder commitment, community acceptance, and cultural fit.

Discussion
Of particular interest is increasing numbers of therapy assistants to help address shortages of allied health professionals, and work to formalise their training, and develop standards of practice and policy. Other models likely to help address skill shortage amongst VET health workers focus on recruiting, supporting and training employees from a range of disadvantaged target groups, and on providing career paths with opportunities for staff to expand their skills. Such models are underpinned by nationally recognised qualifications, but each solution is targeted to a particular context in terms of the potential workforce and local need.

Skill shortages in health : innovative solutions using vocational education and training

Introduction: This article reports findings of a project funded by the Australian National Council for Vocational Education Research. The project explores solutions to current and projected skills shortages within the health and community services sector, from a vocational education and training perspective. Its purpose is to locate, analyse and disseminate information about innovative models of health training and service delivery that have been developed in response to skill shortages.

Methods: The article begins with a brief overview of Australian statistics and literature on the structure of the national health workforce and perceived skill shortages. The impact of location (state and rurality), demographics of the workforce, and other relevant factors, on health skill shortages is examined. Drawing on a synthesis of the Australian and international literature on innovative and effective models for addressing health skill shortages and nominations by key stakeholders within the health sector, over 70 models were identified. The models represent a mixture of innovative service delivery models and training solutions from Australia, as well as international examples that could be transposed to the Australian context. They include the skill ecosystem approach facilitated by the Australian National Training Authority Skill Ecosystem Project. Models were selected to represent diversity in terms of the nature of skill shortage addressed, barriers overcome in development of the model, healthcare specialisations, and different customer groups.

Results: Key barriers to the development of innovative solutions to skills shortages identified were: policy that is not sufficiently flexible to accommodate changing workplace needs; unwillingness to risk take in order to develop new models; delays in gaining endorsement/accreditation; current vocational education and training (VET) monitoring and reporting systems; issues related to working in partnership, including different cultures, ways of operating, priorities and timelines; workplace culture that is resistant to change; and organisational boundaries. For training-only models, additional barriers were: technology; low educational levels of trainees; lack of health professionals to provide training and/or supervision; and cost of training. Key enhancers for the development of models were identified as: commitment by all partners and co-location of partners; or effective communication channels. Key enhancers for model effectiveness were: first considering work tasks, competencies and job (re)design; high profile of the model within the community; community-based models; cultural fit; and evidence of direct link between skills development and employment, for example VET trained aged care workers upskilling for other health jobs. For training only models, additional enhancers were flexibility of partners in accommodating needs of trainees; low training costs; experienced clinical supervisors; and the provision of professional development to trainers.

Conclusions: There needs to be a balance between short-term solutions to current skill shortages (training only), and medium to longer term solutions (job redesign, holistic approaches) that also address projected skills shortages. Models that focus on addressing skills shortages in aged care can provide a broad pathway to careers in health. Characteristics of models likely to be effective in addressing skill shortages are: responsibility for addressing skills shortage is shared between the health sector, education and training organisations and government, with employers taking a proactive role; the training component is complemented by a focus on retention of workers; models are either targeted at existing employees or identify a target group(s) who may not otherwise have considered a career in health.

Restructuring of education and training in Vietnam : a development and application of arts management training in Australia to Vietnam

The adoption of a more market-oriented economy under doi moi has paved the way for Vietnam to record remarkable human development achievements in the past decades. The Vietnamese education system has been undergoing continuous changes for almost twenty years. Key reforms have been implemented in the education and training sector such as privatising the sector; expanding the schooling system, the vocational education and training (VET) system, and higher education. This paper examines: (1) key reforms implemented in the education and training sector, placed in a broader context of economic reforms in Vietnam; (2) a development of arts management training courses in Vietnam to assist cultural organisations to adjust to social changes, as Vietnamese education institutions have not had much experience in designing training courses in arts and culture management; (3) several arts management training courses in Australian institutions to see the possibility to apply training in arts management in Australia to Vietnam. The findings indicate that a variety of management training modes in Australia can be adapted and applied to the Vietnamese training context. Some factors such as differences in culture, education and training systems, shortages in training staff and resources are also considered in this paper.

A Foucauldian strategy for vocational education and training research

Vocational education and training (VET) is an area of research dominated by positivist approaches. Such approaches complement the behaviourist educational philosophy known as 'competency-based training' (CBT) that underpins Australia’s VET system. This paper reflects on a quandary encountered by researchers examining the history of competency based education at a TAFE institution in South Australia. The issue was how to account for a series of mutations in the way CBT was understood and practised that subverted the largely unquestioned expectation of progress. The researchers found that Foucault’s 'genealogical' approach allowed for the construction of a mode of intelligibility that lends the history a disturbing cogency. At the centre of this construction is an understanding of CBT as a highly permeable system whose configurability supports the reticulation of multiple forms of power.

Education and training as a social science : some empirical evidence in the Rosebank Business Precinct of Auckland New Zealand

Tertiary institutions should seek continuous feedback from industries to keep track of the needs of businesses to provide education and training. Academics should stay in touch with businesses by networking and consulting. Holland and De Cieri (2006) refer to theories of child learning (pedagogy) to inform their understanding of andragogy, the study of adult learning. Adult learners would be continuous learners and would move in and out of formal education according to individual needs or life circumstances, job requirements or career development. In designing programmes and up-grading curricula, these are important factors to bear in mind so that programmes “cater” for these learners as well.

This study was financed by Auckland City Council focussing on Auckland’s Rosebank Business Precinct (ARBP). The surrounding communities, particularly Mäori, Pacific peoples and recent migrants, experience disparities in employment. Our research questions were:
• Is there a skills match between the present-day workforce and actual business needs over the medium term?
• What can these data tell us about Rosebank’s trajectory as a skilled business cluster and about its future workforce requirements?
• What education and training will be necessary for these organisations to maintain their competitive advantage and profit margins?

The target population were the 500-600 businesses operating on Rosebank Road. A total of 529 businesses were identified. Interviews with 102 companies with a 36-question questionnaire were conducted. The sampling frame was owner-managers (senior, non-shareholding managers). Of the respondent firms, 68.75% had vacancies for up to 3 months and 31.24% vacancies for 6 months.

This paper highlights areas identified in the ARBP for developing programmes and curricula for tertiary institutions to provide employable students with the right knowledge, skills and attributes (KSAs) to grow existing ventures. A fine balance must be struck between human and organisational needs. In the analysis and discussion we point out what education or training is necessary for the ARBP to provide greater efficiencies and subsequent improvement to their profit levels by current and future employees entering the workforce; well “equipped” employees with knowledge and skills to add value in their organisations. Recommendations, future perspectives and conclusions form the last part of this paper

Language, power and ruling relations in vocational education and training

This thesis uses institutional ethnography to explore the text-based regulatory framework of the Australian Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector. Training Packages are national competency standards used to assess local workplace practice. The Australian Quality Training Framework (AQTF) is a national compliance framework used to audit local learning and assessment practice. These texts operate in a ‘symbiotic relationship’ to achieve a policy goal of national consistency. The researcher explicates the social relations of VET starting from her disquiet as a practitioner. The thesis argues that Training Packages and the AQTF socially organise the content and delivery of local learning and assessment activities. VET practitioners struggle to use these texts to support good practice, and their hidden work maintains an unstable VET system. Yet the extralocal mode of ruling offers no room to challenge VET policy. The thesis explicates three themes. Interview data is used to explore the contrast between the institutional language of Training Packages and the vernacular of workplaces in which these texts are activated. Many practitioners and participants simply do not understand Training Package competency standards. Using these texts to judge employee performance shifts the policing of workplace practice from local sites to external VET authorities. A second theme emerges as the analysis explores why VET practitioners use this excluding language in their work with participants. Interview data reveals that local training organisations achieve different readings as they engage with ruling VET texts. Some organisations use the national texts as broad frameworks, allowing practitioners to create spaces for meaningful learning. Other organisations adopt a narrow and rule-bound reading of national texts, displacing practitioners’ authority over their own practice. A third theme is explored through examination of a sequence of VET texts. The review and redevelopment of the mandatory qualifications for VET practitioners identified the language of the competency standards as a significant accessibility issue. These concerns were reshaped and subsumed in an official response that established the use of this language as a compulsory assessable requirement and a language and literacy benchmark. The thesis presents a new understanding of VET as a regulatory framework established through multiple levels of ruling texts that connect local sites to national government agendas. While some individual practitioners are able to navigate through this system, there is an urgent need for practitioners as a profession to challenge national hegemony.

Management of flexible learning in vocational education and training

This research shows that, to function effectively in a changing environment that includes the convergence of online learning and e-business, managers in the vocational education and training sector need an increasingly sophisticated conceptual framework and set of business skills that appropriately draw on contemporary business management theory and practice.

Workplace education and training : are TAFE teachers prepared for their evolving roles?

The implications of the research are that many TAFE teachers are ill-equipped to perform the roles, that, in the future, may well be expected of them. The reasons for teachers not being competent in a number of areas appear to include a lack of investment in human capital, a lack of adequate teacher training and a lack of relevant staff development contributing to many having neither the knowledge nor the skills to fulfil their evolving roles.