Publications
Integrated local employment and learning support service: Creating effective pathways to employment and training for the employment disadvantaged in the Northern Territory
A project of the Northern Territory Council of Social Service and conducted by a team of researchers from the Charles Darwin University Learning Research Group.
October 2004
The purpose of the research reported here is to investigate how pathways to employment and training opportunities in the Northern Territory can be created and improved for employment disadvantaged groups. This report contains the outcomes of the research project that spanned five months in 2004. During this time, a team of researchers from Charles Darwin University (CDU), working in close conjunction with the Northern Territory Council of Social Service (NTCOSS), Northern Territory Department of Employment, Education and Training (DEET) and the representative Steering Committee, conducted intensive literature reviews paralleled by interviews with representative clients, service providers, government agencies, advocacy and industry groups across the Northern Territory. Regional and rural areas were targeted, as well as the areas of higher population around Alice Springs and Darwin/Palmerston. Advice on all issues related to remote locations was sought from the relevant providers and agencies in those areas.
The project is seen as a pilot that covers in detail only five of the nine identified areas of employment disadvantage. The five employment disadvantaged groups taking part in this study are:
- Youth;
- People with disabilities, including mental health;
- Long term unemployed;
- Mature aged people; and
- People from a non-English speaking background (NESB).
Indigenous issues have not been included as one of the groups for detailed study in this project as barriers to employment for Indigenous people would be a large project in itself. However, Indigenous participants are explicitly included in four of the five groups identified above (NESB excludes Indigenous here). Indigenous issues are also the subject of one of the four additional sections where the literature and statistics are provided: (a) Indigenous people, (b) women, (c) those with a criminal record and (d) the hidden unemployed/underemployed.
Report structure
The report begins with an introduction to employment disadvantage in the Northern Territory. The first chapter provides some background to the project in terms of the socio-economic context of employment disadvantage in the Northern Territory. The chapter includes a section titled ‘nine profiles of employment and training disadvantage’, which can be treated as a stand-alone document. These profiles summarise available statistics at a national, Territory and regional level drawn from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and other reliable sources. The chapter concludes with a section on scope and definitions.
The next chapter reviews relevant Australian and international literature relating to each of the nine employment disadvantaged groups. The last section of the chapter reviews literature relating to the evidence base for effective policy and program implementation and describes principles that underpin effective policy implementation.
The third major chapter reports and discusses the findings of the research. The chapter also includes a section titled ‘What works’, which reviews examples of effective programs in the Northern Territory and refereed programs from most states. The final chapter of the report provides conclusions and recommendations that come out of the project. Throughout the report sidebar comments are included, which are intended to bring out the key points made in each section.
Methodology
The project team consulted with clients, service providers, government agencies and advocacy and industry groups across the Northern Territory about the detailed characteristics of people in the following five employment disadvantaged groups: youth, people with a disability (including mental health), long term unemployed, mature aged people and people from a non-English speaking background.
The discussions ranged across the barriers and issues for the various groups related to employment and training issues. Successful strategies, programs, policies and characteristics of personnel were identified. The data collected from the interviews was processed in a variety of ways and then analysed according to established research procedures.
The volume of data from the interviews is large. The aim of a report such as this is to make sense of this volume of information by clustering it into meaningful categories, ensuring that the integrity of the information is maintained through checking back with representatives of sectors and stakeholders.
Overview of findings
The most consistent finding gained from all groups of participants in the study was the need for clearer information, pathways and access points for employment disadvantaged clients. It was felt that this could be achieved through the operation of a brokering and support system that provided strongly networked connections to the various sectors and programs. The physical presence, the preferred option for respondents, was seen as being supplemented by on-line, internet and print-based resources and information. Included in the functions of the service would be counselling services, communication strategies (including promotion and marketing), the brokering of employment options between employers and the employment disadvantaged and the question of mentoring and case management.
Negotiating work: Northern Territory Indigenous labour market report and development plan
Funded by the Northern Territory Area Consultative Committee, and was managed through the Centre for Teaching and Learning in Diverse Educational Contexts at the Northern Territory University, in collaboration with the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education.
LRG at Charles Darwin University in partnership with Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education (BIITE) has produced the report Negotiating Work: Northern Territory Indigenous Labour Market Report and Development Plan which contains key findings and recommendations aimed at increasing and improving Indigenous participation in the labour market.
The aim of the project and ensuing report was to provide an overview of the status of the Indigenous labour market in the Northern Territory. The Negotiating Work report identifies the underlying and pervasive factors contributing to the nature and extent of Indigenous participation in the Northern Territory labour market. The findings of the report illuminate many persistent problems which impede full and equitable participation by Indigenous peoples in the labour market in the Northern Territory. These problems are complex and widespread. Many of these problems have been previously identified by such reports as the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry's Northern Australia Skills Shortages report (ACCI 1997), and the recent report on welfare reform in Australia, Participation Support for a More Equitable Society (McClure 2000). However, the Negotiating Work report challenges many of the assumptions that underlie past and current approaches to labour market reform aimed at increasing Indigenous participation. These include in particular: uniform definitions of ‘work', ‘jobs' and the characteristics of a ‘good worker'; the interpretation of labour market conditions based on standardised measures of success, viability and enterprise status; and the prescriptions of ‘mutual obligations' based on culturally-bound notions of reciprocity, responsibility and fair exchange.
The report contains a range of findings and recommendations which emerge from the research. These are organised according to the chapters in the report (see pp. xiii-xvi). Strategies to implement these recommendations are contained in the Development Plan which accompanies the report.
Online Teaching
Edited by J.M.R. Cameron,1999, Learning Research Group (a program at CDU), Faculty of Education, Health and Science, NTUniprint. Price: $19.50
This book focuses on the use of computer mediated communication in teaching (CMC). It comprises contributions from seven CDU education staff members, with topics ranging from the advantages and disadvantages of using CMC, the challenges faced by lecturers in integrating CMC into existing units or using the technology to change their teaching approach, and the experience of learning via CMC from the student viewpoint.
One of the key concerns addressed in the book is whether computer mediated communication can provide a viable answer to some of the problems posed by distance and reduced educational funding. Can CMC offer students improved learning experiences? New possibilities may be opened up by the fact that online discussion produces a permanent record and that participants have time to think before posting a message or response - but what of the instant human interaction offered in face-to-face classes? There can also be a tension between allowing the flexibility of asynchronous communication, unfettered by time and space, and the need for some rules to bring about an interactive dynamic between participants in online learning.
Other issues raised by contributors regarding CMC include the unequal access of students to the Web and email. Several of the papers in this book indicate that it is resource-rich but time-poor individuals, such as CDU lecturers or on-campus students, who make the most use of CMC. It is clear that for some time yet the learning of students will need to be managed and facilitated through a number of media alternatives and delivery modes, including print, telephone, email and conferencing software.
As CDU moves to offer students greater choice in how they study and seeks to attract more overseas students, this book offers a discussion of the issues surrounding computer mediated communication grounded in the CDU context. Here are university teachers rethinking their practice in the light of technological possibilities and the realities of living in a "network society".
Doing Research in Diverse Educational Contexts
Edited by Dr P. Norman and Karen Sinclair, 1998, LRG Occasional Paper (1), Faculty of SITE, NTUniprint. Price: $19.50
This 57-page publication is comprised of a set of research papers prepared by post-graduate students in Education at the NT University. Topics encompass the following content areas - theoretical frameworks for parental involvement in formal education, the challenges involved with data collection within Aboriginal communities, the evolving nature of collaborative research, women's oral histories in the NT through the 1960s, an evaluative report of a package of English curriculum materials specifically developed for teachers in Aboriginal schools, and an oral history of a Larrikiya Aboriginal woman which provides fascinating insights into the social and cultural issues faced by Aboriginal people in modern society.
Issues in the Teaching of Physical Education in Primary School - Pedagogical Interaction as a Key Aspect of Teacher Effectiveness
Edited by Dr A.G.J Pettit, 1988, LRG Occasional Paper (2), Faculty of SITE, NTUniprint. Price: $19.50
This 30-page publication is a collection of student essays about issues concerning physical education in the NT school curriculum. Current practices associated with the teaching and learning of physical education within NT primary schools are critiqued. Authors have drawn upon their own action research projects undertaken as part of a physical education elective unit at CDU. Their papers explore the nexus between teacher, student and teaching methods, and present a range of philosophical perspectives about the status of physical education in the NT school curriculum.
Initially it was Survival - A Study of a Composite Mode Teaching and Learning Approach in Rural and Remote Australia
Allan Arnott, Jim Cameron and Greg Shaw, 1999, Learning Research Group (a program at CDU), Faculty of Education, Health and Science, CDU. Price: $19.50
Diversity and Innovation in Adult and Vocational Education
Editor: Michael J. Christie, 1998, Learning Research Group (a program at CDU), Faculty of Education, Health and Science, NTUniprint. Price: $19.50
To order any of the above publications, please contact the LRG coordinator on 08 8946 6390 or LRG@cdu.edu.au.