The VET sector
Vocational Education and Training (VET) is a term used internationally to describe education and training arrangements designed to prepare people for work or to improve the knowledge and skills of people already working.
- Preparation for work can range from gaining basic literacy skills to training for particular tasks such as operating a lathe or achieving an entry level qualification such as a Certificate in Hospitality.
- VET covers education and training both before and during employment. People may undertake VET throughout their working lives.
- VET can include craft based training such as that associated with traditional apprenticeships (Cabinet Making or Boilermaking), and industry wide training such as those associated with Office Skills. It also includes general employment skills such as Communication and Occupational Health and Safety.
- VET is provided in colleges or other training institutions, skill centres found in larger companies and in the workplace. Workplace training can be on-the-job, off-the-job or a combination of these.
- VET is supported by the Commonwealth (including ANTA), State and Territory Governments. Governments have directly funded the development of standards, teaching and learning resources for VET. Government also funds the Technical and Further Education Institutes (TAFEs).
- The authority for VET lies with industry, which sets its own competency standards.
- VET has distinctive features such as discrete segments of learning, or modules and assessment based on the demonstration of specified competencies (competency based assessment). VET is directed towards the needs of industry and the workplace. The upper secondary curriculum in schools in Australia has moved to make VET available in the school curriculum.
Government policies have encouraged competition in the training market. With more private training providers entering the VET market, there is increasing competition for clients in Australia and overseas. The recent development of training packages which include endorsed and non-endorsed components will increase the variety of materials available.
As the quantity and range of VET materials produced and circulating through the training market increases, and the pool of producers of VET materials diversifies, there is a growing recognition of the need to resolve a range of copyright issues arising in the VET sector.
This need has also grown in response to developments in digital technologies and the global information infrastructure, especially the Internet.
Acknowledgement
Part of this overview document was sourced from TRAIN via the EdNA Service Directory and comes from an overview document prepared by ANTA. Much of the information in this overview comes from Australian Training Reform: Implications for Schools, Jack Keating, Curriculum Corporation, 1995.