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Northern Institute

Optimising Australia's conceptually confused National Training System

Honorary Seminar
Presenter Dr Don Zoellner, Northern Institute Honorary
Date
Time
to
Contact person
Northern Institute
T: 08 8946 7468 E: thenortherninstitute@cdu.edu.au
Location This seminar is at the Northern Institute Savanna Room, CDU Casuarina Campus, Yellow 1.2.48
Open to Public

About

As the successful implementation of competitive VET markets enters into a predictable decline trajectory, it is incumbent upon policymakers to consider post-market options. This article explores the potential of optimising the notional national training system. In order to understand how this might be achieved, a discourse analysis of selected maps of the intended system from points of discontinuity along the policy trail is undertaken to demonstrate how Australian executive federalism has produced VET policy for the past three decades. This process exposes the existence of multiple realities that can be simultaneously experienced, which, in turn, creates conceptual confusion as to what VET is and what is expected of it. By understanding the power of discourses to bring into existence the things they describe and how this activity is conducted, it becomes possible to contemplate future directions in the development of public policies for vocational education and training.

View the well-received publication: Optimising Australia’s conceptually confused National Training System: one economic option for post-market vocational education and training presented at Australasian VET Research Association Annual Conference 2023, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Bio

Portrait of Dr Don Zoellner
Dr Don Zoellner, Northern Institute, CDU

Dr Don Zoellner has worked in the school, vocational and higher education sectors in the Northern Territory since 1973 including senior leadership roles at Centralian College and Charles Darwin University. He was a panel member of the Shergold Review of Senior Secondary Pathways. Dr Zoellner has served on numerous advisory committees, reviews and evaluations of education and training at NT and national levels. He was the board chair of Group Training NT and is the independent chair of the Industry Skills Advisory Council NT board. He was the NT representative on the Australian Industry and Skills Committee and is a member of the National VET Regulator Advisory Council. Dr Zoellner independently researches, presents and publishes on the development and implementation of VET policy.

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