Strong on retention, weak on outcomes: the impact of vocational education and training in schools

Abstract

The re-shaping of the Australian senior secondary landscape in recent years and the emergence of a new space for vocational knowledge within Australian senior secondary certificates of education have been underpinned by a national focus on raising retention rates and achieving Year 12 or equivalent attainment rates in the context of a diversifying senior secondary cohort, and on delivering effective training to meet the skills needs of the growing economy. Absent from this policy agenda is a focus on the efficacy of the expanding vocational education and training (VET) in Schools. At the core of this discussion are the impacts of ongoing tensions between the instrumentalist labour market role of VET in Schools programmes and the expectation that an equitable senior secondary landscape should respond to the education and training needs of all students. Despite rapid growth, low achievers and socioeconomically disadvantaged learners remain the dominant participants in VET in Schools programmes, and pathways for these students into post-school education and training or full-time employment remain weak. This paper draws on the views of students, teachers, and policy-makers to examine the ways in which vocational programmes are delivered within the different curricular contexts of VET in Schools across Australian senior secondary education systems.