Drug program report : the National Training System, a year of transition, 1981-1982.

"Written for the Training Division, National Institute on Drug Abuse by the Career Development Center, HCS, Inc., ... under contract number 271-80-4807"--T.p. verso.

The potential for communities of practice to underpin the National Training Framework

This report is an evaluation of the sixteen pilot projects that were funded to form Communities of Practice in the VET sector in 2001, as part of the Reframing the Future program. The major theme emerging from this evaluation study is that Communities of Practice in the vocational education and training (VET) sector in Australia have the potential to accelerate, intensify, enrich and enhance the implementation of the national training system.

National training course, emergency medical technician - paramedic. Instructor's lesson plans. Module V: respiratory system.

Mode of access: Internet.

National training course, emergency medical technician - paramedic. Instructor's lesson plans. Module VI: cardiovascular system.

Mode of access: Internet.

National training course, emergency medical technician - paramedic. Instructor's lesson plans. Module VII: central nervous system.

Mode of access: Internet.

National training course, emergency medical technician - paramedic. Instructor's lesson plans. Module IX: musculoskeletal.

Mode of access: Internet.

A comparison of the vocational training system of Britain and West Germany as experienced by minimum-age school leavers.

The sectoral and occupational structure of Britain and West Germany has increasingly changed over the last fifty years from a manual manufacturing based to a non-manual service sector based one. There has been a trend towards more managerial and less menial type occupations. Britain employs a higher proportion of its population in the service sector than in manufacturing compared to West Germany, except in retailing, where West Germany employs twice as many people as Britain. This is a stable sector of the economy in terms of employment, but the requirements of the workforce have changed in line with changes in the industry in both countries. School leavers in the two countries, faced with the same options (FE, training schemes or employment) have opted for the various options in different proportions: young Germans are staying longer in education before embarking on training and young Britons are now less likely to go straight into employment than ten years ago. Training is becoming more accepted as the normal route into employment with government policy leading the way, but public opinion still slow to respond. This study investigates how vocational training has adapted to the changing requirements of industry, often determined by technological advancements. In some areas e.g. manufacturing industry the changes have been radical, in others such as retailing they have not, but skill requirements, not necessarily influenced by technology have changed. Social-communicative skills, frequently not even considered skills and therefore not included in training are coming to the forefront. Vocational training has adapted differently in the two countries: in West Germany on the basis of an established over-defined system and in Britain on the basis of an out-dated ill-defined and almost non-existent system. In retailing German school leavers opt for two or three year apprenticeships whereas British school leavers are offered employment with or without formalised training. The publicly held view of the occupation of sales assistant is one of low-level skill, low intellectual demands and a job anyone can do. The traditional skills - product knowledge, selling and social-communicative skills have steadily been eroded. In the last five years retailers have recognised that a return to customer service, utilising the traditional skills was going to be needed of their staff to remain competitive. This requires training. The German retail training system responded by adapting its training regulations in a long consultative process, whereas the British experimented with YTS, a formalised training scheme nationwide being a new departure. The thesis evaluates the changes in these regulations. The case studies in four retail outlets demonstrate that it is indeed product knowledge and selling and social-communicative skills which are fundamental to being a successful and content sales assistant in either country. When the skills are recognised and taught well and systematically the foundations for career development in retailing are laid in a labour market which is continually looking for better qualified workers. Training, when planned and conducted professionally is appreciated by staff and customers and of benefit to the company. In retailing not enough systematic training, to recognisable standards is carried out in Britain, whereas in West Germany the training system is nevertheless better prepared to show innovative potential as a structure and is in place on which to build. In Britain the reputation of the individual company has a greater role to play, not ensuring a national provision of good training in retailing.

Fusion of in-vehicle sensor data to develop Intelligent Driver Training System (IDTS)

The over represented number of novice drivers involved in crashes is alarming. Driver training is one of the interventions aimed at mitigating the number of crashes that involve young drivers. To our knowledge, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) have never been comprehensively used in designing an intelligent driver training system. Currently, there is a need to develop and evaluate ADAS that could assess driving competencies. The aim is to develop an unsupervised system called Intelligent Driver Training System (IDTS) that analyzes crash risks in a given driving situation. In order to design a comprehensive IDTS, data is collected from the Driver, Vehicle and Environment (DVE), synchronized and analyzed. The first implementation phase of this intelligent driver training system deals with synchronizing multiple variables acquired from DVE. RTMaps is used to collect and synchronize data like GPS, vehicle dynamics and driver head movement. After the data synchronization, maneuvers are segmented out as right turn, left turn and overtake. Each maneuver is composed of several individual tasks that are necessary to be performed in a sequential manner. This paper focuses on turn maneuvers. Some of the tasks required in the analysis of ‘turn’ maneuver are: detect the start and end of the turn, detect the indicator status change, check if the indicator was turned on within a safe distance and check the lane keeping during the turn maneuver. This paper proposes a fusion and analysis of heterogeneous data, mainly involved in driving, to determine the risk factor of particular maneuvers within the drive. It also explains the segmentation and risk analysis of the turn maneuver in a drive.

State of the arts and innovation : before and after the review of the national innovation system

This article examines the relationship between the arts and national innovation policy in Australia, pivoting around the Venturous Australia report released in September 2008 as part of the Review of the National Innovation System (RNIS). This came at a time of optimism that the arts sector would be included in Australia’s federal innovation policy. However, despite the report’s broad vision for innovation and specific commentary on the arts, the more ambitious hopes of arts sector advocates remained unfulfilled. This article examines the entwining discourses of creativity and innovation which emerged globally and in Australia prior to the RNIS, before analysing Venturous Australia in terms of the arts and the ongoing science-and-technology bias to innovation policy. It ends by considering why sector-led policy research and lobbying has to date proved unsuccessful and then suggests what public policy development is now needed.

An assessment of Georgia's National Integrity System : the GNISA project

Georgia’s ‘National Integrity Systems’ are the institutions, laws, procedures, practices and attitudes that encourage and support integrity in the exercise of power in modern Georgian society. Integrity systems function to ensure that power is exercised in a manner that is true to the values, purposes and duties for which that power is entrusted to, or held by, institutions and individual office-holders. This report presents the results of the Open Society Institute / Open Society – Georgia Foundation funded project Georgian National Integrity Systems Assessment (GNISA), conducted in 2005–2006 by Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development, Transparency International Georgia, Georgian Young Lawyers Association, in close cooperation with Griffith University Institute for Ethics, Governance and Law (Australia), and Tiri Group (UK), into how different elements of integrity systems interact, which combinations of institutions and reforms make for a strong integrity system, and how Georgia’s integrity systems should evolve to ensure coherence, not chaos in the way public integrity is maintained. Nevertheless all participants of the research may not share some conclusions given in the GNISA report.

Multiuser virtual safety training system for tower crane dismantlement

Tower crane dismantling is one of the most dangerous activities in the construction industry. Tower crane erection and dismantlement causes 10–12% of the fatalities of all crane accidents. The nature of the task is such that off-the-job training is not practicable, and the knowledge and expertise needed has to be gained on the job. However, virtual trainers such as Microsoft Flight Simulator for airplane pilots and mission rehearsal exercise (MRE) for army personnel have been developed and are known to provide a highly successful means of overcoming the risks involved in such on-the-job learning and clearly have potential in construction situations. This paper describes the newly developed multiuser virtual safety training system (MVSTS) aimed at providing a similar learning environment for those involved in tower crane dismantlement. The proposed training system is developed by modifying an existing game engine. Within the close-to-reality virtual environment, trainees can participate in a virtual dismantling process. During the process, they learn the correct dismantling procedure and working location and to cooperate with other trainees by virtually dismantling the crane. The system allows the trainees to experience the complete procedure in a risk-free environment. A case study is provided to demonstrate how the system works and its practical application. The proposed system was evaluated by interviews with 30 construction experts with different backgrounds, divided into three groups according to their experience and trained by the traditional and virtual methods, respectively. The results indicate that the trainees of the proposed system generally learned better than those using the traditional method. The ratings also indicate that the system generally has great potential as a training platform.

A simulation-based training system for surgical wound debridement

A simulation-based training system for surgical wound debridement was developed and comprises a multimedia introduction, a surgical simulator (tutorial component), and an assessment component. The simulator includes two PCs, a haptic device, and mirrored display. Debridement is performed on a virtual leg model with a shallow laceration wound superimposed. Trainees are instructed to remove debris with forceps, scrub with a brush, and rinse with saline solution to maintain sterility. Research and development issues currently under investigation include tissue deformation models using mass-spring system and finite element methods; tissue cutting using a high-resolution volumetric mesh and dynamic topology; and accurate collision detection, cutting, and soft-body haptic rendering for two devices within the same haptic space.

The arts and Australia's national innovation system 1994 - 2008 arguments, recommendations, challenges

Based on 15 years of arts and innovation literature, this paper explores the central proposition that the arts sector - particularly the performing arts, visual arts and crafts, new media arts and creative writing - should be included in Australian Government innovation policy development and play a significant role in national innovation. After a brief overview of innovation policy and the national innovation systems approach in Australia, we examine the marginal place of the arts in Australia's innovation agenda and various attempts to include them. We identify the principal voices that have argued for arts and innovation development: the humanities, arts and social sciences (HASS) sector, digital content industries, arts education and university research, and new media arts. After three main periods of arts and innovation policy activity from the mid.1990s (when the importance of innovation as a key driver of Australia's prosperity was recognised) to early 2008, a fourth period has opened up as part of the Australian Government's Review of the National Innovation System in 2008.