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.

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

Centre for the Economics of Education and Training17th Annual National Conference

1 November 2013

Dr George MyconosBrotherhood of St. Laurence, Research and Policy Centre

[email protected]

ACE/LLs

Re-engagement programs

Mainstream secondary schooling

VET (TAFE and private RTOs)

Re-engagement: a shared response

headspace and Orygen

Job Services Australia

Juvenile justice system

Drug and alcohol support

Centrelink

Group Training Organizations

Housing/accommodation

Youth Connections

VET (TAFE and private RTOs)

Re-engagementprograms

Institution-sector overlap

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.

a secure, welcoming environment, a sense of belonging to peer group.

low student teacher ratios, with team teaching/aides etc.

mainly trained secondary teachers.

flexible hands-on curriculum and assessment.

wrap around wellbeing and pathways support.

teaching tailored specifically to accommodate students’ needs.

student led and collaborative learning.

increasingly, profitability and growth is the provider’s raison d'être.

often alien and confusing institutional environments and processes.

higher student trainer ratio.

trainer, often unaccustomed to dealing with ‘at risk’/high needs youth.

adult orientated, with a range of ages among the learners.

limited or no wellbeing support.

limited specialist assistance/remedial skills etc.

book heavy competency based learning and assessment.

“…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

“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)

Challenges for the studentAnxiety

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)

“[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)

Competency based learning

“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)

Assistance

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 typesExtrinsic

Measured & valued by others

•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

IntrinsicValued &

related to indivs

•Identify their own strengths from their life story•Articulate the next step on their learning pathway•Describe longer term goals and aspirations. Seek support when feeling threatened, frustrated or anxious•Identify risk taking behavior

•Participate in decision making processes •Connect in a variety of social setting •Establish and maintain new relationships.

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

• 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

Informal (obscured) outcomes

“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)

Confidence

“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)

Self awareness

“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)

Collaboration

“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)

Trust

“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)

Personal growth

“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)

Maturity

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)

“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)

Ultimately…

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

And from the staff

Formal / evident

Informal / obscured

All pre-conditions for learning

Symbiosis

System immaturity?

• Contending professional cultures

• Workforce readiness

• Flexible pedagogies

• System complementarity

• Nuanced understanding of success

• Acknowledgement and legitimacy

• Adequate funding and accountability

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

Bringing into view

Young persons’ experiences‘At exit’ outcomes

Formal Informal• Poor literacy/numeracy

• School disengagement

•Truancy and suspension

•Disability

•Family issues

•Mental/physical health issues

•Bullying and alienation

•Low self esteem

•Financial problems

•Substance abuse

•Homelessness

•Carer responsibilities

•Criminal behaviour

•Completions of units within each VCAL strand.

•VET course completions

•Completions of intermediate year and progression to senior level.

•Senior graduation and certificate completions

•Attendance

• No anti-social behavior

•Literacy and numeracy

•Changing and learning

•Critical curiosity

•Meaning making

•Creativity

•Strategic awareness

•Resilience

•Relationship building

•Disposition

•Physical and mental wellbeing

…at exit

Post exit, medium term outcomesFormal Informal

Post exit, long term outcomes for individuals and society

Formal Informal

•Further education or training

•Employment/income

• Literacy/numeracy

•Financial stability

• Secure housing

• Free of substance abuse

• No criminal behaviour

•Stability

•Resilience

•Participation

•Disposition

•Quality of civic life

•Social skills

•Physical and mental wellbeing

•Family issues

•Further education or training

•Employment/income

•Housing

•Access to services

•Stability

•Resilience

•Participation

•Disposition

•Quality of civic life

•Social/parenting skills

•Physical and mental wellbeing

•Family issues

…and over time