Vocations and learning

The concepts of Beruf, Bildung and Occupational pedagogies are central elements to how occupational skilfulness, working life work and occupational preparation through both how vocational and higher education are understood in the German societal context. The valuing of skilled work (i.e. Beruf), how it is integrated into the conduct of work, the quality of working life and the viability of enterprises (i.e. Bildung). Moreover, the development of occupational capacities and highly skilful work is also emphasised within the German the cash in education and higher education systems with the development of pedagogies associated with specific occupations (i.e. occupational pedagogies). In this dialogue forum, Professor Michael Gessler will explain what these concepts mean within the German context of occupational knowledge and its learning through a dialogue with Prof Stephen Billett who will then extend the dialogue to participants. A consideration of these concepts and the educational practices that accompany them seems important in the contemporary Australian context of efforts to increase the skilfulness of the workforce, enhancing its adaptability and a greater valuing of vocational education and the occupation serves. Added here is a growing concern about a national workforce able to make the nation more self-sufficient and self-reliant. Watch the dialogue forum here.

Contemporary working life requirements are increasingly aligned with competence in electronically mediated tasks and work roles: i.e., the digitalisation of work. This alignment necessitates workers learning and utilizing the conceptual knowledge and ways of working needed for these kinds of occupational tasks. Yet, this knowledge is often distinct from and displaces workers’ existing ways of knowing thereby threatening their competence and sense of self as a working age adult. However, these kinds of knowledge can be difficult to access, learn and practice, requiring them to be mediated (i.e., made accessible and learnt) through educational-like interventions. For working age adults, this often needs to occur through work activities for efficacy and practical reasons. But, these kinds of experiences can also be most the most efficacious ways of learning some of this knowledge. These worklife learning issues are discussed here from a cultural psychological perspective, drawing on studies of contemporary work and human cognition, considerations for how these forms of knowledge can be made accessible and their processes of knowledge construction be supported. Four key propositions are advanced: i) this knowledge needs to be made accessible to be engaged with and learnt; ii) that can often best occur in work settings iii) workers’ occupational subjectivities need accommodating and iv) electronically-mediated forms and artefacts offer means to make that knowledge accessible and support its learning. Hence, learning, work and digitalisation are reciprocally aligned in promoting both the initial and ongoing development of workers’ capacities. 

Interview: https://faculti.net/mediating-worklife-learning-and-the-digitalisation-of-work/

The interview shared on X (https://twitter.com/FacultiNet) FB: (https://www.facebook.com/Faculti/) and Linkedin (linkedin.com/company/faculti)

My recent visit to the University of Stavanger reinforces the importance of collaborations, not only because of its international dimension, but engaging with colleagues who are entrenched in the field of healthcare, but also from different perspectives and orientations. The projects here focus on building both workforce capacity through individual development and system strength in promoting resilience through individual, collaborative and systemwide responses. For me this collaboration has been helpful in capturing a broader range of perspectives, views and approaches to conducting research at the intersection between work and learning.

The visit, the first in over two years because of the Covid restrictions allowed the collaboration to recommence and progress. The University of Stavanger published a brief article on the visit: https://www.uis.no/en/patient-safety/calls-for-more-international-research-collaboration

A short 16 minute presentation of a research project that sought to identify what would attract and engage young people in healthcare occupations, what would comprise effective models of preparation and what is required to retain those individuals in that work.

Stephen Billett interviewed by Peter Sawchuck

The first keynote presentation by Professor Stephen Billett at the 12th Researching Work & Learning (RWL12) Conference organized by the University of Toronto (July 13-15, 2022). The Researching Work & Learning (RWL) International Conference Series is the world’s longest, continuously running international research conference series serving the field of workplace learning. It was initiated in 1999 by researchers at the University of Leeds (UK).

This is a presentation of a conference paper, in absence, about the importance of enhancing the status of vocational education and training and the occupation it serves. Centrally, it draws upon a study in Australia which sought to identify how that standing might be enhanced through engagement with young people, their teachers, parents and others. It provides an overview of the reasons why addressing this problem is worthwhile, the means by which the research was undertaken and some strategies and approaches to begin to address this issue. Attached to the conference presentation is reference to additional resources and references.

This video provides considerations of and suggestions for how Clinical Teaching might be conceptualised and enacted. In particular, it proposes that it is important to go beyond telling and view this teaching more broadly. It also emphasizes how this teaching can occur, largely, through everyday activities and interaction in clinical practice. Ultimately, the focus needs to be on trainees’ learning and assisting them become active and agentic learners.

The Parliamentary Committee today for Education, Employment and Training Committee.  The topic being “The Delivery of vocational education and training in rural, remote and regional Queensland”. 

The link to parliament TV channel is here.  Stephen mentions HEEP and another project about social partnerships.

The webinar draws on the findings from an Education Horizons project engaging Queensland school-age children, parents and their teachers to propose how vocational education might be considered a more attractive and viable post-education pathway. Beyond that specific focus, the findings informed about the influences on and the processes through which young people make these decisions and how that might be better informed and enacted. These findings have been used here to address how student-centred processes of decision-making best inform and empower young Queenslanders’ choices about post-school pathways. The webinar was conducted through the Senior Schooling unit within the Queensland Department of Education. Click here to access the webinar.