Regardless of your ATAR, it’s important to keep vocational pathways in mind, not as a lesser option, but as a way of getting experience in an industry you’re interested in.
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Students should consider all their options and remember the ATAR is just one measure that doesn’t necessarily dictate how well they will do in future.
South Africa has the ability to meet national food requirements but for this to happen serious reforms in its agriculture sector are needed.
Paulo Whitaker/Reuters
To stimulate innovation in the agriculture sector education and training is in dire need of substantial reform for greater integration, cooperation and accountability.
Australia’s VET system has been in an uphill battle with reforms that have led to lower-quality training and misappropriation of resources.
Joe Castro/AAP
VET certification standards differ greatly from university. Students qualify for diplomas with no set course length, assignments, or campus contact.
Labor will be looking to Bill Shorten’s speech to the National Press Club to reinforce the momentum that has seen the ALP ahead in the polls.
Glenn Hunt/AAP
Bill Shorten will put creating new jobs, sustaining existing ones, and training and retraining Australian jobseekers at the heart of his economic agenda in a major speech on Tuesday.
Some 478 courses, including one in hairdressing creative leadership, will not be subsidised from 2017.
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England’s apprenticeship levy will require employers with a payroll of over £3 million (A$5.2 million) to spend 0.5% of that on approved apprenticeships.
Labor’s policy essentially creates a new layer of tertiary education that would involve universities and TAFE Institutes working together to deliver associate degrees and advanced diplomas.
Cooking up a good future.
Kjetil Kolbjornsrud/www.shutterstock.com
Suggestions that the government could introduce a two-tier system for post-16 education could still leave some young people behind.
Graduates of a 2015 Tertiary Entry Program, which paves the way into university courses, with lead author and CQUniversity’s Pro Vice-Chancellor of Indigenous Engagement, Bronwyn Fredericks (fourth from left) and Provost Hilary Winchester (far right).
Peter Lawrence/CQUniNewsPICs
If we’re serious about closing the gap in Indigenous education, our new research shows the value of building better bridges into universities and vocational education.
Deregulating TAFE would have serious impacts for the labour market.
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Michelle Grattan speaks with Simon Birmingham about his negotiations for a new higher education package, efforts to crack down on rorting in the vocational educational sector and the government's overhaul of the childcare system.
University isn’t the best option for everyone.
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In recent times, the front pages of our newspapers have provided an almost daily reminder that some Vocational Education and Training (VET) providers are to be avoided.
Maintaining community confidence in the value of VET qualifications is essential for a functioning labour market.
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Damian Oliver, University of Technology Sydney and Serena Yu, University of Technology Sydney
Lured by government subsidies, registered training organisations are enrolling people into VET courses that do not match their needs and for which there is a dubious case at best for taxpayer support.
A bust of Hendrik Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid. Verwoerd believed that black people should know their place – and that included staying away from ‘white’ jobs.
Juda Ngwenya/Reuters
Vocational training is regarded as “low status” in South Africa. Much of the negativity around technical and vocational work seems to lie in the country’s history.
Should the Federal government take over from the states in funding vocational education and training?
AAP/Lukas Coch
The Federal Minister for Education and Training Christopher Pyne has recently added his support to the proposal for the federal government to take over full responsibility for funding Vocational Education and Training.
Vocational training shouldn’t be dismissed as an easy, lazy alternative to completing formal schooling.
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Modern vocational programmes must prepare students for complex work which demands a skills and knowledge mix that is different but not necessarily easier than school subjects.
Senior Research Fellow in Youth, Research & Policy Centre, Brotherhood of St Laurence, Honorary Fellow in Education Policy, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne