Patterns of pathways between and within vocational education and training (VET) and higher education are examined in this study. It compares the notion of straightforward pathways with what is actually happening. The researchers interviewed 49 students in South Australia who had participated in VET and/or higher education and who had been through more than one...

This study by Roger Harris, Michele Simons, Carmel McCarthy examines the nature of the training activity of private registered training organisations (RTOs) offered to Australian students in 2003, based on data from a national sample of 330 RTOs. The study also provides estimates of the private sector's overall contribution to the total vocational education and...

Roger Harris, Michele Simons and John Bone show that the preferred workplace features of trainers and New Apprentices in manufacturing were quite different from those in retail and community services. The nature of work and industry shapes what is expected to support learning in any particular workplace. The practicalities of industry workplaces mean that preferences...

Increasingly, vocational education and training practitioners work with industry and within private enterprises in arrangements that provide training for workers. Drawing on interviews with TAFE practitioners and managers, enterprise managers and on-the-job learners, Roger Harris, Michele Simons and Julian Moore highlight the expanding roles of TAFE practitioners in these training arrangements. They find that in...

Movement in Australia's tertiary sector - between and within higher education and vocational education and training - is a key feature of Australia's post-compulsory education system. Roger Harris, Robert Sumner and Linda Rainey investigate the extent and nature of student traffic between the two sectors, nationally and in South Australia from 1997 to 2002. Movement...