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Filling the Skills Gap in Australia – VET Pathways

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Book cover University Pathway Programs: Local Responses within a Growing Global Trend

Abstract

In 2008 the authoritative Bradley Report into education in Australia identified a skills gap in the overall workforce in the country which, if not addressed, would disadvantage the nation in terms of international trade and technological innovation and development. The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) set targets for investment in potential students who would not traditionally enter tertiary education; that is, mainly those from low socio-economic backgrounds. The Australian federal government administered grants for states and territories to fulfil education targets through the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships (HEPPP) funds. The subject of this paper is the Bridges to Higher Education (Bridges) program, a collaborative initiative provided by five Sydney universities working in partnership to deliver widening participation projects in New South Wales. As part of the Bridges program, two universities- University of Technology Sydney and Western Sydney University- worked together on the Pathways/VET projects which developed several hundred pathways and many workshops for potential students. Two case studies are included to illustrate that significant outcomes were achieved through the project which was externally evaluated by Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler (KPMG).

In 2015, University of Western Sydney changed its name to Western Sydney University.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Australian Tertiary Admission Rank – see: http://www.uac.edu.au/undergraduate/atar/

  2. 2.

    Success is defined as the Equivalent Full Time Student Load (EFTSL) passed by students in a given year, calculated as a proportion of all EFTSLs attempted (University of Technology Sydney 2015, p. 46).

  3. 3.

    Attrition is defined as the headcount of students who do not return to study after being enrolled in the previous year, expressed as a percentage of total headcount in the previous year (University of Technology Sydney 2015, p. 46).

  4. 4.

    Renamed in 2015 ‘The College’

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Office of Widening Participation, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia

    Alan Beckley

  2. Equity and Diversity Unit, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Clare Netherton & Tracy Barber

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  1. Alan Beckley
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  2. Clare Netherton
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  3. Tracy Barber
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Arts, International Studies Department, Macquarie University, North Ryde, New South Wales, Australia

    Cintia Inés Agosti

  2. Australian School of Applied Management, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Eva Bernat

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Beckley, A., Netherton, C., Barber, T. (2018). Filling the Skills Gap in Australia – VET Pathways. In: Agosti, C., Bernat, E. (eds) University Pathway Programs: Local Responses within a Growing Global Trend. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72505-5_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72505-5_9

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-72505-5

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