2024 Fellows

My Fellowship will provide the opportunity to build connections with organisations in the United Kingdom that are many steps ahead of Australia in piloting apprenticeships for incarcerated people. Their experiences and insights can be applied when I am back in Australia to move forward the possibility of introducing apprenticeships into prisons in Victoria. In addition, Victorian prison education is built on a model that is best practice in Australia and better than many other countries. There are both opportunities for me to learn from others and others to learn from our experience in Victoria.

Daniel Bodnarcuk will observe training methodologies and interview educators/program coordinators at creative technology-based institutions in Europe and Australia with a focus on Audio Engineering and Sound Production. The goal is to gain insights into global approaches to training, challenges faced, and how institutions and trainers adapt to fast changing industry and technologies. Daniel will attend the 2024 Audio Engineering Society European convention at Universidad Politécnica De Madrid to facilitate this research. This will be followed by visiting a number of European institutions for the purposes of observing training and interviewing educators and program leaders. The insights gathered aims to be integrated into the curriculum at Melbourne Polytechnic. Additionally, Daniel plans to disseminate findings through relevant forums including the Audio Engineering Society, allowing VET and Higher Education Audio and Sound Production educators to collaboratively explore enhancing training methods to meet evolving industry needs and technological advancements

Jyoti Sharma is an English as an additional language (EAL) teacher, and she aims to investigate better and effective ways to integrate migrant English students into the workforce through effective and contextualized language training. She aims to look at various language training models that facilitate career transitions and integration into industries facing skills shortages in Victoria. Jyoti is planning a trip to Europe to learn about language for work and linguistic integration of adult migrants (LIAM) project which is run by the Council of Europe, which includes the UK, Germany, France, and Sweden.

This Fellowship aims to produce clear guidance for curriculum designers about how to effectively use AI when developing high-quality and compliant learning and assessment resources for VET, with specific focus on how AI generated content can incorporate employability skills and real industry workflows as expected in the VET sector. With many TAFEs experiencing a demand for high-quality learning and assessment resources, there is a potential for far-reaching and cost-saving impact across the TAFE network and VET sector. The Fellowship will also consider more broadly, AI’s suitability in the design of VET curriculum including learning, assessment, support, and syllabus.

The aim of Oksana’s Fellowship is to explore how vocational practitioners can collaborate with industry partners in co-designing teaching and learning cases to enhance the quality of teacher preparation. It is worth investigating to which extent and how industry partners can contribute to the process of co-designing cases as effective training and assessment resource and developing competencies that align with workplace expectations. With industry partners actively involved, it is not just an opportunity to immerse future educators in real-world scenarios, it is a way of preparing them for the dynamic working environments they will encounter in their careers.

This Fellowship aims to explore best practices in developing VET teaching competences, emphasizing Continuous Professional Development (CPD) tailored to the vocational education sector's evolving needs. The focus will be on programs in Germany, known for their advanced VET systems. The objective is to gain insights into effective teaching strategies and classroom management and apply these learnings to enhance VET practices in Australia.

Thuy's International VET Practitioner Fellowship aims to create a toolkit for integrating AI into vocational education and training (VET), with a primary focus on enhancing student engagement and success, particularly for those with low digital literacy. By leveraging AI, the initiative aims to make learning more interactive, accessible, and tailored to individual needs. This ensures students can overcome digital challenges while remaining aligned with industry demands. The fellowship's goal is to boost both participation and completion rates by creating a more inclusive and supportive learning environment. This approach will enhance the effectiveness of vocational education across Australia while ensuring students are equipped with the skills needed to meet current industry needs.

The Australian Government is establishing nationally networked TAFE Centres of Excellence (CoE) to provide national leadership in education and training by enhancing student learning, supporting industry needs, fostering applied research and innovation, and building partnerships with employers, unions, universities, and governments. This fellowship will explore international models to guide Australian TAFEs in becoming CoEs. Key questions include what defines a CoE, how they establish and sustain partnerships, and how they measure excellence and impact on local skills ecosystems. Research, including interviews with European and New Zealand CoEs, will inform Australian TAFEs and policymakers in the establishment and maintenance of CoEs.

Dyscalculia, often referred to as 'maths dyslexia', is a specific learning disability affecting 3.5% to 7% of the population. It stems from a neurological impairment in core number sense, impacting mental computation and the understanding of basic number concepts. The Fellow aims to enhance knowledge and understanding of Dyscalculia and its characteristics, and to impart strategies to support students with Dyscalculia, maths difficulties, and maths anxiety in vocational education and training. By researching and disseminating best practices, the Fellow seeks to improve learning outcomes for dyscalculic students and promote systemic changes.

The Fellowship will focus on how schools in marginalised communities in the United States of America use relational pedagogy and community strengths to support learners to succeed in transitioning into tertiary education. The aim of the Fellowship will be to meet with secondary schools in the USA who service diverse and marginalised communities. This will provide insights about how these schools use innovative methods of relational pedagogy and leverage community strengths to support educational outcomes. The Fellowship will explore different models of schooling to see how they could be incorporated or replicated into our VET sector in Australia.