Over 60 practitioners and researchers attended the AVETRA inaugural VET Practitioner Research conference on 26/27 April in Melbourne.  Pictured is the new AVETRA President 2018-2020 Mr Robin Shreeve.

The conference provided practitioners with the opportunity to present their research in 30 minute slots, to discuss their research intentions and seek advice in 10 minute slots, and workshops on a range of topics that would add to their research expertise, including working with NCVER, developing collaborative proposals with industry for applied research, researching and understanding industry knowledge, developing e-assessments, entrepreneurship and research capability development, developing a small scale research proposal, and doing research in and on your own organisation.  The guest keynote speaker, José Luis Fernandez Maure, Head of International at TKNIKA in the Basque Country, provided some wonderful insights as to how they are developing their VET workforce and taking innovation and applied research into all areas of vocational education.

The Conference Archives on the AVETRA website contains copies of most presentations, as well as a link to a great summary of the event via Kira Clarke’s great twitter feeds.  Feedback from the conference has been most positive with support for further practitioner research conferences.  As one participant said:  For me the benefits of the conference was the opportunity to mingle and learn from others already involved in research and how you go about it, and the potential fields/topics covered… having seen the enthusiasm of those attending and the support and guidance provided by those already qualified and supervising higher degrees, it gave me a good example of how well I would be supported if I was to undertake such an endeavour.

Don’t forget, to learn more about AVETRA and how you can be supported in your research go to the website, or leave a Reply to this post and we will be in touch with you for sure.