Description
This monograph is the culmination of a three-year research program undertaken by the University of South Australia's Centre for Work+Life. It considers the barriers, support and benefit of vocational education and training (VET) for workers in the low-paid occupations (that is, those earning around $17 per hour). The research considered a wide range of quantitative data as well as the experience and perspectives of employers, workers, students and vocational educators. The findings challenge any easy assumptions that more VET will automatically enhance the position of lower paid workers, that all VET can be assumed to be similar in positive effect for lower paid workers, or that lower paid workers share similar situations, including their work/life circumstances.Summary
About the research
The factors that influence the participation in vocational education and training (VET) of low-skilled and low-paid workers were the focus of substantial research undertaken by the Centre for Work + Life at the University of South Australia from 2008 to 2010. This report is the culmination of that program.
While education and training are viewed positively by many low-paid workers, their aspirations are diverse and vary by gender, life stage and educational and work histories. They often face constrained opportunities for improving their circumstances, and VET is not a panacea for the many issues they face.
Key messages
- Training for low-paid workers needs to be of high quality, genuinely relevant and essential
to the job, and deliver real and up-to-date outcomes. Insufficient time can compromise the
quality of training. - Setting targets for qualification levels across the population will add to the pressures facing
low-paid workers without necessarily improving their circumstances or productivity. - Lower-paid workers are more likely to be in small firms with flat employment structures.
They have fewer resources to cushion work–life pressures. Positive rates of return on
qualifications are often small or non-existent. Low-paid workers are often undertaking
training to retain their job, not for career progression or higher pay. - Institutional settings matter a great deal to the realisation of aspirations and the opportunity
for second, third and even fourth chances at education. These institutions include labour
market structures, workplaces, VET organisations, unions, the family and the welfare
system. - The issues of enough time, enough money and appropriate teaching and learning emerge as vital to successful VET engagement and outcomes for those in low-paid occupations.
Problems with literacy are widespread. Good pastoral support is of crucial importance. - The overall message is that training can lead to the acquisition of new skills that are
rewarded in the labour market, but not necessarily so. When training increases the time and
money demands on workers but without generating genuine new skills or better prospects
for them, then it can make things worse for low-paid workers by falsely raising
expectations.
Tom Karmel
Managing Director, NCVER
Related items
In this interview, Steve Davis talks with researcher Barbara Pocock about her paper, 'Low-paid worke… Show more
Using data from the 2009 Australian Work and Life Index, this report examines how work-life pressure… Show more