AVETRA A-News is a highly informative publication released by AVETRA twice a year.  To see previous editions visit the AVETRA website.  One of the impressive things about the publication is that the contributions come directly from our industry.  AVETRA is now calling for articles for the next edition of ‘A-News’.

A-News welcomes any news of interest and relevance to the AVETRA community (including photographs, recent appointments, promotions, awards, upcoming and relevant conferences, or any other event or story you feel would be appropriate). If you or your colleagues would like to make a contribution to the magazine, then please send this to Josie Misko via emailjosie.misko@ncver.edu.au. Josie can also be contacted on 08 8230 8647. The due date for content will be June 15, 2018.

It has been my pleasure to engage in a number of international activities during the last few weeks.  I would like to share with you three of these activities.

1.  The EUROPEN-PEN International group, coordinated by Svenja Zenz has shown considerable interest in how Australian VET engages in ‘learning by doing’.  Through their practice enterprises network they engage VET learners from more than 7,500 institutions with simulated real-world problems and activities.  Svenja is very keen to hear from anyone who might want to learn more about this method of learning, where learners are immersed in simulated businesses which are aligned with real-world businesses.   Svenja can be contacted at zenz@penworldwide.org.
   

   Svenja’s organisation reminds me of previous activity in Australian VET involving the Network of Practice Firms.  From my research it seems that the coordinating body of that group is no long operational.  If anyone has any information on similar learning by doing operations in Australia I would love to receive your response in the comments area below.

2.  The e-Discussion on Quality, Innovative Apprenticeships for the Future of Work includes contributions from countries throughout the world on how VET can input to the important area of apprenticeship.  Internationally this term has interesting definitions and understandings.  Some of the possible interpretations is one of the things I have learned by engaging in the online debate.  I recommend the e-discussion to you if you are interested in how others are trying to innovate and create greater value from apprenticeships for the future.

3.  And finally, an excellent webinar which was hosted by UNESCO’s Secretariat in Bangkok on Friday 25 May.  The question under discussion was:  “What are the solutions when schools are succeeding superficially, but the overwhelming majority of students are failing to learn?”

The webinar shared a great deal of data on enrolments and achievements.  The measures of achievement were largely against high-stakes international assessment schemes such as PISA.   As always, there was a good debate on the need to measure a variety of outcomes of education, including STEAM and workforce participation rates, rather than narrow high-stake assessments.

Of particular interest to me was the significant shift in the numbers of students enrolling in schooling; the share of funding in a variety of countries between different educational sectors; and the outcomes of countries with higher levels of student-directed learning and elaboration techniques compared with teacher-directed and memorization techniques.

I recommend the report by the World Bank “Growing Smarter: Learning and Equitable Development in East Asia and Pacific” which focuses on the experiences of countries in the region that have been able to expand schooling and successfully pursue system-wide education reforms. If you are running a little short of time, a read through the list of figures will give you a very good idea of the areas covered.

I hope you have enjoyed this brief catch-up on VET in Australia and abroad.   Please share any thoughts in the Reply field below, as this forum will always work best when there is engagement from all of you – its members.