Editorial

Abstract

This issue of the International Journal of Training Research presents an eclectic collection of highly topical and interesting papers from Australia, New Zealand and Norway in areas such as trades training, green issues in training, innovations in literacy and language programs, the impact of further education on performance of students in higher education and the mentoring of VET researchers.This issue is the first of the eleventh year of the International Journal of Training Research, which has played an important role in the development of a regional research community in vocational education and training. A significant part of the success of Australian VET research has been a critical mass of researchers and the steady stream of novice researchers who have been inducted into that community. However, much like many other professions in Australia, such VET research has been typified by a shortage of qualified professionals to take up the challenge of a research career.The first contribution by AVETRA President Llandis Barratt-Pugh entitled Mentoring the next researcher generation: Reflections on three years of building VET research capacity and infrastructure, describes the progress of a project funded by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research - conducted jointly in a consortium with Victoria University, the University of South Australia and AVETRA - designed bring on a new generation of VET researchers. Barratt-Pugh (2012) describes a 'greying' of the research community as a consequence of the absence of a systematic induction and career transition into VET research. The diverse pathways and journeys into research careers, and the specific nature of VET careers focussed around teaching and training, means that the transitions into research careers are often very different from traditional academic pathways into research careers evident in other disciplines. Indeed, traditional research pathways - focussing on individual achievement competition and notions of excellence - act to exclude many capable people from careers in research. The need for the mentoring was identified as a way of responding to these diverse pathways; this contribution describes the nature of mentoring and the experience of three intakes of novice researchers and their mentors through the period 2008-2011. The programs according the author developed an important role in providing a pathway that 'legitimises their presence (novice researchers) in the VET research community, indicating and placing a value on their role. This supportive environment enables participants to resist being overwhelmed as they take their projects into unknown research territory' (Barratt-Pugh 2012). The project is perhaps seen as most valuable in providing what the author describes as a'cultural footprint of a new researcher pathway and mentoring has been established within the community, together with the concept of gathering our learning and facilitating the transfer of knowledge from experienced to novice researcher' (Barratt-Pugh 2012).This contribution highlights the need for career paths for researchers with situated and contextual knowledge of the VET sector who have both an intimate knowledge of issues but also an established network within the VET community. This has historically been strong feature of the Australian VET sector and should be an important aspect into the next decade.The common impression is that technical education is nothing but trades training, often referred to as the 'hard trades'. But this is a myth; the 'hard trades' - such as fitting and machining, welding, motor mechanics and sheet metal work - have diminished from being the centre piece of technical training in the 1970s, to become an important but in some ways diminishing part of a broader vocational education and training system spanning the full spectrum of occupations. The growing areas are not the hard trades, but human services, business and administration, health and recreation and general education. …