Industry-school partnerships: a strategy to enhance education and training opportunities. Australian and state governments have adopted public-private partnerships as a means of providing education systems that meet the long-term knowledge and skill requirements for key industries of the Australian economy. Identifying the elements of industry-school partnerships that enhance educational and economic outcomes will connect students in urban and regional communities to knowledge networks, access t ....Industry-school partnerships: a strategy to enhance education and training opportunities. Australian and state governments have adopted public-private partnerships as a means of providing education systems that meet the long-term knowledge and skill requirements for key industries of the Australian economy. Identifying the elements of industry-school partnerships that enhance educational and economic outcomes will connect students in urban and regional communities to knowledge networks, access to which is essential for a competitive Australian economy. To support this large investment and innovation, policy recommendations and theoretically informed partnership models resulting from the project will contribute to national economic productivity by enhancing the growth and sustainability of communities hosting partnerships.Read moreRead less
Early childhood educators as agents of intergenerational educational change. The project aims to shed light on how early childhood (EC) educators can address intergenerational educational disadvantage by raising aspirations for their own learning and for the children with whom they work. The project arises from a tension in the current reform agenda for the Australian EC sector. The goal is for all EC educators to be skilled, reflective professionals able to support children's learning, but many ....Early childhood educators as agents of intergenerational educational change. The project aims to shed light on how early childhood (EC) educators can address intergenerational educational disadvantage by raising aspirations for their own learning and for the children with whom they work. The project arises from a tension in the current reform agenda for the Australian EC sector. The goal is for all EC educators to be skilled, reflective professionals able to support children's learning, but many educators are from backgrounds of low educational aspirations and attainment. The project will use a mixed methods approach to investigate this tension. Australian and international career and workforce data will be used to examine characteristics of educators, supplemented by 40 case studies of educators at low qualification levels.Read moreRead less
Recognising the skill in jobs traditionally considered unskilled. Some jobs are regarded as skilled and others as unskilled, yet all jobs contain skill. This project will examine under-recognised and undervalued skills in the service and manufacturing sectors, and explores the implications of these findings for government policy, the training system, companies and workers.