On-line training for small business: Creating a best practice model. By evaluating the current training delivery methods used to inform small business managers this project will provide a best practice model to meet the specific training needs of those working in this sector. This model will encourage increased training participation by small business managers and provide the impetus for development of new on-line learning options. The project outcomes offer the opportunity for growth and deve ....On-line training for small business: Creating a best practice model. By evaluating the current training delivery methods used to inform small business managers this project will provide a best practice model to meet the specific training needs of those working in this sector. This model will encourage increased training participation by small business managers and provide the impetus for development of new on-line learning options. The project outcomes offer the opportunity for growth and development in small businesses. In turn, small business expansion offers Australia greater economic growth and at the local level also increases employment opportunities.Read moreRead less
How do qualifications delivered by enterprises contribute to improved skill levels and other benefits for companies, workers and the nation? This project investigates the role of employer-based qualifications training in developing the skills and prospects of the Australian workforce and the competitive capabilities of companies. It focuses on enterprises that are accredited to deliver qualifications to their own workers, providing data to improve and expand this form of training.
Reconnecting Disaffected Youth through Successful Transition to Work. According to the ABS (2006) more than 15% of Australia's youth receives employment benefits at a cost that the Department of Family and Community Services (2000) estimated between $44 000 and $46 000/person/year. High rates of offending and repeat arrests are prevalent within the group at a cost to the youth concerned and to the nation. The Productivity Commission estimated in 2004 that outlay to keep someone in prison was bet ....Reconnecting Disaffected Youth through Successful Transition to Work. According to the ABS (2006) more than 15% of Australia's youth receives employment benefits at a cost that the Department of Family and Community Services (2000) estimated between $44 000 and $46 000/person/year. High rates of offending and repeat arrests are prevalent within the group at a cost to the youth concerned and to the nation. The Productivity Commission estimated in 2004 that outlay to keep someone in prison was between $67,000 and $85,0004 per year. We seek to short-circuit the human and economic costs of the failure cycle by improving individuals' capacities to gain and retain work, and to have healthy lifestyles and positive self-concept, and thereby to contribute to their positive participation in society. Read moreRead less
Numeracy for access to traineeships and apprenticeships, vocational studies, empowerment and low-achieving post Year 10 students. On completion of Year 10,a significant proportion of students have insufficient numeracy to find gainful employment or to undertake a VET course. New government policy requires schools and TAFEs to provide numeracy learning opportunities to facilitate employment or formal qualification. This project studies vocational situations in which these students can acquire the ....Numeracy for access to traineeships and apprenticeships, vocational studies, empowerment and low-achieving post Year 10 students. On completion of Year 10,a significant proportion of students have insufficient numeracy to find gainful employment or to undertake a VET course. New government policy requires schools and TAFEs to provide numeracy learning opportunities to facilitate employment or formal qualification. This project studies vocational situations in which these students can acquire the functional and abstract numeracy essential for access to formal VET qualifications and constructs theories to explain what makes learning direct and distance learning materials effective. The Industry Partners will develop direct and distance instructional materials, and will disseminate these resources throughout Queensland, Australia, and Asia.Read moreRead less
Identifying effective strategies to grow and sustain a professional early years workforce. The National Early Years Workforce Strategy (2012) identifies the imperative for a larger, more qualified, professional, responsive and collaborative childcare workforce. This need is urgent. By 2014, Commonwealth legislation specifies that all long day-care centres must have a qualified teacher and minimum staff qualification of Certificate III. Yet high turnover, skill loss and failure to meet existing q ....Identifying effective strategies to grow and sustain a professional early years workforce. The National Early Years Workforce Strategy (2012) identifies the imperative for a larger, more qualified, professional, responsive and collaborative childcare workforce. This need is urgent. By 2014, Commonwealth legislation specifies that all long day-care centres must have a qualified teacher and minimum staff qualification of Certificate III. Yet high turnover, skill loss and failure to meet existing qualification standards persist. Nationally, multiple strategies are being implemented to achieve the new qualification standards but there is scant evidence about their effectiveness. This project aims to identify the most effective strategies to reduce loss and increase professional engagement in the early years workforce.Read moreRead less
Embodied Virtues and Expertise. The Project will provide a theoretical framework for understanding expertise. Crucially, the framework will provide an account that explains the motivation of experts, and allows for the virtues of experts to be analysed and promoted. The framework will thus fill a perceived gap in professional pedagogical disciplines such as Education, Nursing Education, and Medicine, in which the concept of expertise is central, but for which an adequate theoretical framework of ....Embodied Virtues and Expertise. The Project will provide a theoretical framework for understanding expertise. Crucially, the framework will provide an account that explains the motivation of experts, and allows for the virtues of experts to be analysed and promoted. The framework will thus fill a perceived gap in professional pedagogical disciplines such as Education, Nursing Education, and Medicine, in which the concept of expertise is central, but for which an adequate theoretical framework of expertise is lacking. Academics and practitioners from these disciplines will participate in conferences and workshops run under the Project.Read moreRead less
Virtual Reality Training Kit for Arc Welders. The aim of this research is to develop a virtual reality training package that enables welders to obtain basic manipulative skills in a safe environment before they are exposed to additional welding hazards. The research addresses the problem of welder training in a novel manner by utilizing a virtual reality simulator to allow the welding trainee to develop his manipulative and functional skills prior to attempting real welding tasks. An additional ....Virtual Reality Training Kit for Arc Welders. The aim of this research is to develop a virtual reality training package that enables welders to obtain basic manipulative skills in a safe environment before they are exposed to additional welding hazards. The research addresses the problem of welder training in a novel manner by utilizing a virtual reality simulator to allow the welding trainee to develop his manipulative and functional skills prior to attempting real welding tasks. An additional feature of the package is the internetworking facility that will allow monitoring and feedback of results to trainers. This is an advantage especially for remote communitiesRead moreRead less
Context, Judgement and Informal Learning at Work: An Investigation of Factors Crucial for Enhancing Performance. This project investigates learning that enables people to perform well the demanding aspects of their occupations. Detailed case studies of critical incidents in a range of workplaces will be constructed and the learning or otherwise by key players involved in these incidents will be elucidated and analysed. These findings will test and refine a theory of learning at work that concept ....Context, Judgement and Informal Learning at Work: An Investigation of Factors Crucial for Enhancing Performance. This project investigates learning that enables people to perform well the demanding aspects of their occupations. Detailed case studies of critical incidents in a range of workplaces will be constructed and the learning or otherwise by key players involved in these incidents will be elucidated and analysed. These findings will test and refine a theory of learning at work that conceptualises it, at its best, as a growing capacity to make appropriate context-sensitive judgements. Developing a sound theory of workplace learning is very important because, though it is currently a major policy focus, received theories are of limited explanatory value.Read moreRead less
Workplace participatory practices: Learning through and for work. The project aims to examine the relationship between individuals? participation in and their learning through paid work. This is warranted because current conceptions of learning throughout working lives fail to fully account for the reciprocal processes of workplace affordances and individual engagement that together shape participation in and learning from work. The study seeks to illuminate participatory practices across differ ....Workplace participatory practices: Learning through and for work. The project aims to examine the relationship between individuals? participation in and their learning through paid work. This is warranted because current conceptions of learning throughout working lives fail to fully account for the reciprocal processes of workplace affordances and individual engagement that together shape participation in and learning from work. The study seeks to illuminate participatory practices across different kinds of workplaces and also those within workplaces for different categories of workers. The procedures comprise an investigation of the participation in and learning of 6 groups of workers employed in distinct kinds of work over an eighteen month period.Read moreRead less
Teacher identity and the challenge of the socially critical curriculum: The case of Health & Physical Education. The focus of this research project is upon how the teacher identity might influence the possibilities for curriculum reform in Health and Physical Education. In particular we are interested in the interplay between the embodied identity of HPE teachers and the socially critical agenda of the new HPE curriculum. The project aims to gain an understanding of how prospective and practisin ....Teacher identity and the challenge of the socially critical curriculum: The case of Health & Physical Education. The focus of this research project is upon how the teacher identity might influence the possibilities for curriculum reform in Health and Physical Education. In particular we are interested in the interplay between the embodied identity of HPE teachers and the socially critical agenda of the new HPE curriculum. The project aims to gain an understanding of how prospective and practising HPE teachers construct their teacher identities, and of the extent of their commitment to the emancipatory and life politics (Giddens, 1991) discourses that underpin the new HPE curriculum. Findings will be of direct significance for policy-makers and curriculum reformers in the field of Health and Physical Education.Read moreRead less