Transcript Slide 1

The VET-Re-engagement
program nexus:
views from the inside
Centre for the Economics of Education and Training
17th Annual National Conference
1 November 2013
Dr George Myconos
Brotherhood of St. Laurence, Research and Policy Centre
[email protected]
Re-engagement: a shared
response
VET
(TAFE and private RTOs)
Youth Connections
Centrelink
Mainstream
secondary
schooling
ACE/LLs
Job Services Australia
Group Training Organizations
Re-engagement
programs
Drug and alcohol support
headspace and Orygen
Juvenile justice system
Housing/accommodation
Institution-sector overlap
VET
(TAFE and private RTOs)
Re-engagement
programs
Case study: BSL CVCAL
Case study: BSL CVCAL
Youth disengagement:
the nature of the problem
BSL CVCAL: challenges
•Reconciling education, wellbeing and
pathways support
•Precarious funding
•Staff turn-over
•Coordination with schools
•Recognition and legitimacy
• Concurrent modes of education
• Gauging success and progress
Concurrent modes of education
Re-engagement program
Vocational training providers

re-engagement and wellbeing the
provider’s raison d'être.

increasingly, profitability and growth is
the provider’s raison d'être.

a secure, welcoming environment, a
sense of belonging to peer group.

often alien and confusing institutional
environments and processes.

low student teacher ratios, with team
teaching/aides etc.

higher student trainer ratio.

trainer, often unaccustomed to dealing
with ‘at risk’/high needs youth.

mainly trained secondary teachers.

flexible hands-on curriculum and
assessment.

adult orientated, with a range of ages
among the learners.

wrap around wellbeing and pathways
support.

limited or no wellbeing support.

limited specialist assistance/remedial
skills etc.

book heavy competency based learning
and assessment.


teaching tailored specifically to
accommodate students’ needs.
student led and collaborative learning.
The culture clash
“…the kind of knowledge that you learn in VET assumes
that you’ve been through school; that you’re an adult;
that you have a specific skill set already; and that you’re
there to further that skill set or develop something new
that’s kind of related to what you want to do…So if you
put a young person whose 16; severely disengaged…into a
classroom with another cohort of people who are
completely different to him or her, with a curriculum that
doesn’t fit their place at that time, I think that we’ve got a
real [problem] on our hands” (teacher)
Challenges for the student
Anxiety
“I haven’t been to that [RTO] yet
because I was scared…I was just
scared to go…I was that scared, I made
myself sick and I just didn’t go.”
(y11 female)
Literacy and numeracy
“I could do a book in my two days…[but] I’m not because it’s worded differently, they’re using bigger
words, and it’s like I don’t know what that word is,
and I have to keep going back to the dictionary...like
it’s taking me extra time to do it, because I’m so
confused…like it’s the same as what I’ve done, but
it’s just so different. So I’ll read a sentence and I’ll
understand two words in the whole sentence” (y11
female)
Competency based learning
“[the trainer] doesn’t answer the questions that you
ask. Like you’ll ask a question, and the answer will
have nothing to do with what you asked with...She
just – she doesn’t help you with your work, like –
and just – like the questions in the unit, like I know
it’s not her fault, because she didn’t make the
book...all these units are repetitive, like they ask
the same questions in every unit, and – yeah. Just
a waste of time” (y11 male)
Assistance
“Even other students didn’t understand
it. One of the other ladies, she was 24
or something. She didn’t understand
the work…And then I go up, “Can I have
help...I don’t really understand any of
the work.” [trainer...]‘No, you have to do
it yourself ” (y12 female)
Access
“I was doing bricklaying. I didn't really
get my Certificate because I'd wake
up…4.30 of a morning just to get there
[by 8 AM] because it takes like I don't
know, two hours from Frankston train
station to Holmesglen. I was supposed
to do that for four months or something
and I couldn't cope” (y12 male)
Gauging success and progress
•What matters most and to whom?
•How to gauge success?
•How to convey what success means?
Outcome types
Extrinsic
Measured
& valued
by others
Intrinsic
Valued &
related to
indivs
•Reflect on their own health and wellbeing
in relation to social norms
•Identify their need for individual
language, literacy and numeracy support
•Educational success
•Career success
•Being healthy
•Involvement in positive relationships
•Identify their own strengths from their life •Participate in decision making processes
story
•Connect in a variety of social setting
•Articulate the next step on their learning
•Establish and maintain new relationships.
pathway
•Describe longer term goals and
aspirations. Seek support when feeling
threatened, frustrated or anxious
•Identify risk taking behavior
Individual
Social
Formal (evident) outcomes
•Attendance (inc exits & length of engagement)
•Class-based work: literacy/numeracy
•VET progression via units of competency,
hours and/or course completion
•VCAL progression and/or graduation
•SBATs, employment
Informal (obscured) outcomes
•Progress in social and emotional skill
development
•The absence of what might have been
•Lack of anxiety, the ability to trust and
build relationships
•Persistence
Confidence
“Yeah...I can sit down and have a conversation
with an adult, and like not feel like they’re going to
just be like, no you’re wrong, because you’re a
child and stuff like that”. (former student/female)
“I was probably a back of the room person, now I
am at the front of the room and I don’t care if I get
in front of the class and talk to the whole class. At
the start of last year I wouldn’t have done it but
now it is like, yeah.” (y12 female)
Self awareness
“I’m more considerate...I used to be kind of a bully...got
here and saw that everyone’s different [but] like a small
little family...Without this program I wouldn’t be where I am;
without this program I would probably be on the street and
probably being bad...not listening to anyone. Just so glad I
came here.” (former student/female)
“I think I’ve become a different person since coming
here...I think I’ve become more ‘in the know’ of what I want
to do... I have a straight mindset of what I want to do and
how I want to do it and when and where.” (y12 female)
Collaboration
“Here, they praise you for helping each
other, like [for] taking initiative to work with
one another...they praise us because we
actually learn to work along and work as a
team” (y12 male)
Trust
“I’d come back if I could. I would. I’d redo my
whole schooling here. I’d do it all again. I
loved it … because we could trust our
teachers as much as we could our friends.
We could trust each other with everything
…you could trust everybody—we’re all like
family here.” (former student/female)
Personal growth
“like I’ve got a different personality. I am not
what I used to be at high school getting in to
trouble and mucking around. I actually do
my work…I get it finished.
…I just feel like I’ve got a whole new
personality inside me which is good. I feel
like a whole new person” (former
student/female)
Maturity
“Well it’s very hard to describe, but it made
me more mature and more aware of how I
approach things, so I don’t just say things
out loud or say something stupid. I think
about what I say before I say it so I don’t
offend anyone or make anyone feel bad.”
(y12 female)
Respite and safety
“I just like coming in here...I feel safer here than I
do at my own house. It’s just that I feel more
support around me” (y11 male)
“I think the kids that got bullied at high school,
they’re relaxed [here]. They’re in this sweet
environment where they’re sweet...when I got
here I looked at everyone and I thought – you can
tell half of youse are here because youse are
being bullied” (y12 male)
Calm
“I get anxiety and I can hear…it gets really
tense and everything gets louder and louder.
Here they sort of understand it more. At that
other school if I like cracked it and went mental
or something, then I would get in trouble but
here they understand that it’s not that I’m
doing…what I’m doing, I’m not doing it on
purpose or anything, it’s because I can’t really
cope with what’s happening.” (y12 male)
Focus
“Well, I haven’t been playing up like I was when I left high
school. I have an education that I actually have now that I
didn’t before, which feels good, because I don’t feel like an
idiot. And just things I know that I’ve learnt, and I think like
I’m more ready to leave school now and that like I’ve got a
pathway that I didn’t have and that I wouldn’t have got if I
was going to [ex school] still” (y12 male)
“I concentrate more. I don’t sit there – concentrate for five
minutes and then change and do something else. I sit and
concentrate until they finish talking” (y11 male)
Ultimately…
“What’s
most
important
[about
the
program]? I could say the VCAL certificate,
but
it’s
not.
personality...[it]
It’s
my
made
confidence,
me
grow
as
my
a
person...to get where I am now, successful
and with a job, wanting to go further,
knowing where I want to go, and planning
my steps’” (female graduate)
And from the staff
On the importance of anticipating
false starts, u-turns, failures, and
just hanging in there.
Symbiosis
Formal / evident
Informal / obscured
All pre-conditions for learning
System immaturity?
•Contending professional cultures
•Workforce readiness
•Flexible pedagogies
•System complementarity
•Nuanced understanding of success
•Acknowledgement and legitimacy
•Adequate funding and accountability
Bringing into view
At enrolment
‘At exit’ outcomes
Post exit, medium
term outcomes
Post exit, long term
outcomes for
individuals and
society
Young persons’
experiences
Formal / Informal
Formal / Informal
Formal / Informal
…at exit
‘At exit’ outcomes
Formal
Informal
Young persons’ experiences
• Poor literacy/numeracy
•Completions of units within each •Changing and learning
• School disengagement
VCAL strand.
•Critical curiosity
•Truancy and suspension
•VET course completions
•Meaning making
•Disability
•Completions of intermediate year •Creativity
•Family issues
and progression to senior level.
•Mental/physical health issues
•Senior graduation and certificate •Resilience
•Bullying and alienation
completions
•Relationship building
•Low self esteem
•Attendance
•Disposition
•Financial problems
• No anti-social behavior
•Physical and mental wellbeing
•Substance abuse
•Literacy and numeracy
•Homelessness
•Carer responsibilities
•Criminal behaviour
•Strategic awareness
…and over time
Post exit, medium term outcomes
Formal
Informal
•Further
education
or •Stability
Post exit, long term outcomes for
individuals and society
Formal
Informal
•Further
education
or •Stability
training
•Resilience
training
•Resilience
•Employment/income
•Participation
•Employment/income
•Participation
• Literacy/numeracy
•Disposition
•Housing
•Disposition
•Financial stability
•Quality of civic life
•Access to services
•Quality of civic life
• Secure housing
•Social skills
• Free of substance abuse
•Physical
• No criminal behaviour
wellbeing
wellbeing
•Family issues
•Family issues
•Social/parenting skills
and
mental
•Physical
and
mental