Understanding student decision-making about VET as a pathway: an Australian study

ABSTRACT

Although vocational education and training (VET) can lead to lucrative and fulfilling careers and plays a vital role in skilling workers for contemporary workplaces, it continues to have a low status in schools, among parents and in the wider community. Many countries are now seeking to enhance the status of VET to increase its uptake by school-leavers. The study reported here investigated factors that shape students’ decisions about post-school options and their views about promoting VET as a viable post-school option. Interview and survey data from 176 students from 11 schools and three VET institutions located in metropolitan and regional communities are analysed and discussed. Their decision-making is influenced mainly by the information they received from familiars (parents, teachers and friends). They suggest more detailed information about the utility and status of VET and the occupations it serves may assist young people to consider it as a viable option.

KEYWORDS:

• Vocational education and training
• post-school decision-making
• enhancing VET
• student perspectives

Acknowledgments

This work has been produced under the Education Horizon grant from the Department of Education, Queensland. The authors acknowledge the contributions of other project team members: Dr Steven Hodge, Dr Jill Ryan and Deniese Cox from the School of Education and Professional Studies, Griffith University. Special thanks to all the participants and to teachers who contributed and assisted with the data collection processes.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sarojni Choy

Sarojni Choy is a Professor of adult and vocational education at the Griffith University, where her responsibilities include teaching graduate and post graduate courses and supervising research candidates. Her research and writing activities focus on the foundations of adult learning, workplace learning, integration of learning in different sites, employment based training, continuing education and training, and workforce capacity building.

Darryl Dymock

Darryl Dymock is an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow in the School of Education and Professional Studies at Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland. He has had long experience as a practitioner, teacher and researcher in adult and vocational education. Dr Dymock is the author and co-editor of several books in this field, as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters, and is a former editor of the Journal of Workplace Learning. In addition to his academic work, he is a published author of non-fiction books and short fiction. He blogs at drdymockwriter.com.

Anh Hai Le

Anh Hai (Leah) Le is a lecturer and senior research assistant at Griffith University. Her research interest focuses on curriculum development in tertiary education, with a specific emphasis on the process of building knowledge through scholarly engagement with industry and higher education institutions. She has diverse experience in teaching research methodologies and curriculum development, across various disciplines in the higher education sector. She has postgraduate qualifications in Education, Linguistics, Tourism and Hospitality, and Health and Community.

Stephen Billett

Stephen Billett is Professor of Adult and Vocational Education at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia and Australian Research Council Future Fellow. He has worked as a vocational educator, educational administrator, teacher educator, professional development practitioner and policy developer in the Australian vocational education system and teacher and researcher at Griffith University. He is a Fulbright scholar, national teaching fellow, recipient of honorary doctorates from Jyvaskala University (Finland) and University of Geneva (Switzerland), and is elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences of Australia.