Flexible delivery in the Australian vocational education and training sector: Barriers to success identified in case studies of four adult learners

Abstract

Government policy in Australia is increasingly encouraging training organisations in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector to adopt flexible delivery approaches, but some researchers are sounding a note of caution. Evidence is emerging that Australian VET learners are not universally ready for flexible delivery, and this is reflected in high attrition rates and low pass rates. The literature on flexible delivery identifies a number of specific factors that can impact on the success of adult learners. However, there seems to be agreement that failure or dropout is not determined by a single factor, but by the interaction of a number of factors that build up over time. To understand these factors, we need to understand the learners – what their participation in education means to them, the context in which they are studying, and the numerous inter‐connected factors that contribute to their failure to achieve a successful outcome. This paper discusses four case studies from a research project that followed up a small number of adult learners who enrolled in flexible delivery VET courses but did not achieve a successful outcome.