Queensland project summary
Foundation Skills Capability Building: from Concept to Reality -
Integrating foundation skills capability building for VET in Schools
A series of five workshops was delivered by the Queensland Department of Education, Training and Employment (DETE) to 87 vocational educators in schoolsas part of the National Foundation Skills for adults (NFSS) Foundation Skills Workforce Development (FSWD) project.The workshopscovered recent national and state initiatives, including the NFSS, the Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF), the Core Skills for Work developmental framework (CSfW), the Foundation Skills Training Package (FSK), new standards for training packages, Universal Design and the Queensland Inclusive Learning Framework.As a direct result of the project, participants were motivated to commit to a range of actions, including changing teaching pedagogy, modifying learning resources, assessing the foundation skills of learners, and mapping units of competency and assessment resources to the ACSF. They also recognised the need to undertake further professional development, both for themselves and for their peers. Several participants seized the opportunity to become part of a community of practice to support these endeavours.
It became apparent from discussionsin the workshops that the Vocational education and training in schools (VETiS) sector faces considerable capability and capacity challenges to better integrate foundation skills into VET practice and that there is a broad range in the existing knowledge about and understanding of foundation skills. For example:“industry trainers who are not teachers … need support in this area”; and “(I know about) modification within normal school assessment however I have difficulty with knowing the adjustments that can be made in VET”.
Motivation for participants to attend the workshopsvaried from ‘being nominated’ to a recognition that existing knowledge was inadequate.A genuine desire to gain more information about broader initiatives (ACSF, CSfW, FSK) as well as specific strategies for embedding LLN into VET, accessing continuous professional learning, and to identify ways to network with peers was also identified as a reason for attending. Some participants wanted to know specifically how to incorporate foundation skills into VET courses for students who experience high levels of literacy and numeracy problems. There was also a clear desire to know more about theFSK training package generally and how it could be used and what it would replace.
Through the opportunity to see demonstrated key resources supporting foundation skills,such as the application of the ACSF and to actively engage in mediated professional debate with peers and
other informed professionals, participants forged a group trust and confidence born from a common need. In open and honest conversations the groups sharedreal life examples and concerns about literacy, numeracy, information and communication technology and the employability skills of their students. They reported widespread instances of learners with poor foundation skills and the consequent the impacts onlearners’ school attendance, withdrawal from class, non-submission of assessment items, consistent failure to meet expectations, poor behaviour and limited employment prospects.
These conversations stimulated the group to identify actions that their organisations could undertake to develop the capability of staff in the delivery of foundation skills. These included the identification of publicly available reference materials and provision of training (and workplace experience) to better develop appropriate teacher knowledge and experience in vocational fields.The group considered specific trainer skills such as implementingthe ACSF, mapping competencies, learning theory and the wide range of assessment strategies to be fundamental to the success of developing learners’ generic vocational skills.
This project has set the foundations for more sustained initiatives within the VETiS and wider VET sectors.
For further information, please contact:
Les Retford
(07) 3225 8242
1FSWD Workforce Development Project QLD