The site-based learning of vocational education and training teachers

Abstract

This Special Issue addresses the site-based learning of vocational education and training (VET) teachers. Site-based learning is an important component of teacher learning across their teaching career: from pre-service practicums to experienced teachers learning to address changing conditions and changing student needs. The articles are written by researchers from Australia, Sweden and England and are based on research undertaken in those countries. The work of VET teachers requires a broad range and depth of skills and capabilities. Wheelahan notes that ‘The contexts VET teachers work in, the students they teach, and the qualifications they deliver are more diverse than those in higher education or schools’ (Wheelahan, 2010, p. 9) and ‘the demands on VET teachers are more complex than either schools or higher education’ (Wheelahan, 2010, p. 11). VET students are an increasingly diverse group with a broad range of needs (Wheelahan, 2010). Increasing longevity, later retirement ages in many countries, and the need to support refugees and migrants to settle in new countries all impact on VET provision. Further, government policies related to lifelong learning and to increasing the educational level of the population support people to extend their education longer than ever before, and impact on the changing picture of VET learners. VET students include school-age learners, young adults, refugees aiming to create a new life in a new country, and mature-aged adults retraining. VET students could be undertaking VET courses for a broad range of reasons and purposes: for instance, as a part of their initial education; as a result of government-funded unemployment arrangements; to gain practical skills after completing a university degree; to train for a trade; or to retrain for a new occupation in middle age. Additionally, VET students have a variety of prior learning experiences, and skill levels, with some having little or no literacy skills, and others having very strong literacy skills in at least one language. Sometimes students with many of these varying experiences and needs are in the same class being supported by the one teacher. It is unsurprising then that the learning of VET teachers has been identified as important for the ongoing development of quality teaching (Harris, 2015). The requirement for VET teachers to have completed educational qualifications prior to beginning as a teacher varies between countries. The level of qualification required for being a VET teacher also differs. For instance, in Australia the highest qualification required by VET teachers is a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment to be completed within the first two years of teaching (a Certificate IV is three levels below a Bachelor degree in the Australian Qualifications Framework). While more recent data are not available, in 2011 it was estimated that more than 40% of VET teachers did not hold this qualification (Productivity Commission, 2011, p. xlii). Regulatory changes since that time would suggest that the take-up of the qualification is likely now to be greater. Registered Training INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TRAINING RESEARCH 2020, VOL. 18, NO. 1, 1–7 https://doi.org/10.1080/14480220.2020.1750110