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The VET-Re-engagement program nexus: views from the inside

The VET-Re-engagement program nexus: views from the inside Centre for the Economics of Education and Training 17 th Annual National Conference 1 November 2013 Dr George Myconos Brotherhood of St. Laurence, Research and Policy Centre gmyconos@bsl.org.au. VET (TAFE and private RTOs).

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The VET-Re-engagement program nexus: views from the inside

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  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 gmyconos@bsl.org.au

  2. VET (TAFE and private RTOs) Youth Connections ACE/LLs Mainstream secondary schooling Centrelink Job Services Australia Re-engagement programs Group Training Organizations Drug and alcohol support headspace and Orygen Juvenile justice system Housing/accommodation Re-engagement: a shared response

  3. VET (TAFE and private RTOs) Re-engagement programs Institution-sector overlap

  4. Case study: BSL CVCAL

  5. Case study: BSL CVCAL

  6. Youth disengagement:the nature of the problem

  7. 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

  8. Concurrent modes of education

  9. “…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) The culture clash

  10. 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)

  11. 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)

  12. 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)

  13. 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)

  14. 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)

  15. Gauging success and progress • What matters most and to whom? • How to gauge success? • How to convey what success means?

  16. Outcome types

  17. 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

  18. 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

  19. 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)

  20. 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)

  21. 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)

  22. 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)

  23. 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)

  24. 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)

  25. 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)

  26. 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)

  27. 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)

  28. Ultimately… “What’s most important [about the program]? I could say the VCAL certificate, but it’s not. It’s my confidence, my personality...[it] made me grow as 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)

  29. And from the staff On the importance of anticipating false starts, u-turns, failures, and just hanging in there.

  30. Symbiosis Formal / evident Informal / obscured All pre-conditionsfor learning

  31. System immaturity? • Contending professional cultures • Workforce readiness • Flexible pedagogies • System complementarity • Nuanced understanding of success • Acknowledgement and legitimacy • Adequate funding and accountability

  32. Bringing into view

  33. …at exit

  34. …and over time

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