Internationalisation in vocational education and training : moving from the periphery to the centre of VET?

Internationalisation has been one of the most notable phenomena facing tertiary education around the globe over the past three decades. Internationalisation is a crucial response to the demands to develop graduates who possess adequate skills, knowledge and attributes to engage and perform in a globalised and intercultural world.

What contributes to vocational excellence? Characteristics and experiences of competitors and experts in WorldSkills London

Modelling Vocational Excellence (MoVE) International is a WorldSkills Member research initiativesupporting:• skills improvement and Competition best practice• international skills benchmarking, and• promotion of vocational excellence to young people, employers and policy makers.MoVE International is the inaugural research project for the WorldSkills Foundation and is alsosupported by Skills Finland, WorldSkills UK, WorldSkills Australia and the Dusseldorp Skills Forum.The research team is a partnership between: University of Tampere, Finland; University of Oxford,UK; and RMIT University, Australia, with support from Deakin University, Australia.The research initiative sets out to produce outcomes relevant to the interests of its majorstakeholder groups. The data produced by the study offers WorldSkills International and individualWorldSkills Members a framework for international benchmarking on skills quality, and a windowinto the WorldSkills experience for Competitors and Experts. Through the research reports,WorldSkills Member organizations will also gain access to global data on WorldSkills Competitorsand Experts which may be applied to improve training and professional development. Importantly,young people are afforded a global voice. In telling their own stories they can share theirexperiences with peers, and provide future Competitors with insights into the experience of beinginvolved in international skill competitions. For WorldSkills International, the data is a source ofpromotional material, and may contribute to event and organizational evaluation.The MoVE research project launches the WorldSkills Foundation’s program of research,engagement and advocacy. MoVE offers the Foundation an opportunity to influence the globaldebate on vocational education and training, and to shift the orientation of VET research away froma ‘deficit’ framework to one which highlights benefits and opportunities (see section 2.2 for a fullerexplanation of these research orientations).The outputs of the 2011 MoVE international research project include this global report and casestudies of the Australian, Finnish and British teams that competed at WorldSkills London 2011.

"Knowing the rules of the game": rural sporting biographies and their influence on physical education pedagogy

The influence of place-based biographies in shaping professional identities and practices can be powerful. This is particularly prevalent in fields like Physical Education (PE) where personal physical and sporting prowess can readily become embodied signifiers of one’s credibility and expertise. In rural and regional communities, identities attached to, and social capital accrued from sports participation are often very strong. In this chapter we reflexively draw on aspects of our own personal biographies as active (and privileged) participants in rural community sport to explore the ways in which they have shaped our professional identities and practices as physical education teacher educators. We juxtapose our biographies alongside the experiences of ‘Rachel,’ a female physical education teacher who, at the time of data collection, had recently commenced teaching in a regionally based Catholic all-boys’ school after two previous posts in rural co-educational schools. Presented as heuristic devices, we look for points of intersection and divergence between Rachel’s experiences and our own biographies to consider the ways in which place shapes professional identities and pedagogical practices in PE. The practical translation of this self-study process is to be ultimately located in our undergraduate teacher education programs and in our identities as teacher educators.

Student opportunities in materials design and manufacture: Introducing a new manufacturing with composites course

The shift towards strong and lightweight fibre reinforced polymer-matrix composites for many high performance applications has resulted in an increasing need to expose students to composite design and manufacture courses in the undergraduate curriculum. In contrast, student exposure to composite materials is often still limited to a topic within a materials or manufacturing related course (unit). This paper presents the initial offering of a composite materials elective at Griffith University in Australia. The course also addresses environmental concerns through the inclusion of natural fibre composites. An evaluation of student perceptions is considered from Griffith’s Student Experience of Course (SEC) and separate Student Experience of Teaching (SET) surveys. These evaluations demonstrate the high level of student engagement with the course, but also highlighted areas for improvement, including the need to incorporate even more hands-on practical work. Interestingly, the inclusion of natural fibre composites and the related discussion surrounding environmental and societal issues are not focused on in student feedback.

Combining vocational and higher education studies to provide dual parallel qualifications – an Australian case study

Developing academic relationships between vocational colleges and universities in Australia has been problematic, with exchanges between the two sectors limited to linear articulation and prescribed credit transfer. Whilst some very good examples of collaboration exist, the two sectors generally operate independently of each other. The isolation of the sectors has meant frustration for students and employers who want a flexible, collaborative model to meet changing industry needs. This paper reports upon a pilot project in construction management at a Melbourne university that attempted to address these needs. It demonstrates how over a five year period, HE students completed electives in practical units within the VET sector. The overwhelming success of the project meant that practical electives were embedded in the construction management programme in 2007 and this paper reports on the third, final phase of the project in 2009/10 which saw construction management students graduate with a dual qualification – both a vocational qualification and a university degree. Interviews conducted in this final phase reveal that students and industry want the benefits of a practical and theoretical qualification. The paper raises critical questions about educational pathways and suggests long-term implications for construction and tertiary education in Australia and internationally.

Effects of blended online learning on students performance in vocational mathematics

This presentation reports on a study conducted at the Victoria University TAFE where a mathematics module was offered to students in an on campus delivery setting.

‘I’m not like that, why treat me the same way?’ The impact of stereotyping international students on their learning, employability and connectedness with the workplace

A significant body of literature on international education examines the experiences of international students in the host country. There is however a critical lack of empirical work that investigates the dynamic and complex positioning of international students within the current education-migration nexus that prevails international education in countries such as Australia, Canada and the UK. This paper addresses an important but under-researched area of the education-migration landscape by examining how the stereotyping of students as mere ‘migration hunters’ may impact their study and work experiences. It draws on a four-year research project funded by the Australian Research Council that includes more than 150 interviews and fieldwork in the Australian vocational education context. Positioning theory is used as a conceptual framework to analyse how generalising international students as ‘mere migration hunters’ has led to the disconnectedness, vulnerability and marginalization of the group of international students participating in this research.