Strong on retention, weak on outcomes: the impact of vocational education and training in schools

Abstract

The re-shaping of the Australian senior secondary landscape in recent years and the emergence of a new space for vocational knowledge within Australian senior secondary certificates of education have been underpinned by a national focus on raising retention rates and achieving Year 12 or equivalent attainment rates in the context of a diversifying senior secondary cohort, and on delivering effective training to meet the skills needs of the growing economy. Absent from this policy agenda is a focus on the efficacy of the expanding vocational education and training (VET) in Schools. At the core of this discussion are the impacts of ongoing tensions between the instrumentalist labour market role of VET in Schools programmes and the expectation that an equitable senior secondary landscape should respond to the education and training needs of all students. Despite rapid growth, low achievers and socioeconomically disadvantaged learners remain the dominant participants in VET in Schools programmes, and pathways for these students into post-school education and training or full-time employment remain weak. This paper draws on the views of students, teachers, and policy-makers to examine the ways in which vocational programmes are delivered within the different curricular contexts of VET in Schools across Australian senior secondary education systems.

Keywords:

• vocational education and training
• equity
• disadvantage

Notes

1.Each Australian state and territory has its own Senior Secondary Certificate of Education (SSCE). Students are required to satisfactorily meet the criteria for completion of these certificates to be deemed a high school graduate. In most Australian states and territories the earning of credits towards these certificates takes place during the final two years of secondary schooling.

2.The exception is Victoria, which has both a predominantly academic Victoria Certificate of Education and a vocational alternative, the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning.

3.The AQF includes all Australian post-school qualifications from entry-level or foundational vocational qualifications (Certificates I & II), trade qualifications undertaken by apprentices (Certificate III), higher-level vocational qualifications (Certificate IV), and tertiary qualifications within both VET providers and higher education (Diplomas, Advanced Diplomas, Bachelor degrees, postgraduate qualifications, and research higher degrees).

4.Options for vocational education subjects/units contributing to completion of the senior secondary certificate are expanding. Many Australian state- and territory-based Boards of Study are approving subjects/units in a broader range of industry and occupational areas and including a wider range of vocational learning within calculations of school completion.