Journeying through VET – a case study of foundation skills learners

Part of the 2022 stretched conference

Presenters: Michelle Circelli and Zhenyuan Li
Date: Thursday, November 24 2022

Webinar link & bonus resources available to members here

Foundation skills – language, literacy, numeracy and digital skills along with employability skills – are the cornerstone of success in work, education and community life. Vocational education and training (VET) is one of the ways for individuals to build foundation skills. Our research explored the characteristics of foundation skills learners, their learning pathways, as well as their future study and employment outcomes.
This webinar focuses on the journey of foundation skills learners and discusses the complexity and diversity of their movements through the VET system. The innovative methodology which we applied using the unique student identifier allowed us to identify four distinct pathways of foundation skills learners. Findings such as the demographic attributes and completion patterns of learners in each of these four pathways will also be discussed in this webinar.

Presenter bios:
Michelle is a senior member of the Research and Data Analytics Branch at NCVER. Having been at NCVER for 20 years she’s clearly a glutton for punishment, but she’s also had the opportunity to undertake or manage research projects covering a wide variety of issues of importance to the VET sector including industry engagement and governance, the impact of VET for disadvantaged learners, VET workforce development, and adult language, literacy, numeracy and digital skills.
Zhenyuan is a member of the Research and Data Analytics Branch at NCVER. With an economics background, his research interests span both health and education economics fields before his NCVER career. Much of his current research has been on VET completion rate prediction, the effect of VET on First Nations Australians’ employment, and adult language, literacy, numeracy and digital skills.