A Study Of The Development Of Vocational Education And Training In Senior Secondary Schools In Australia Since 1990s

Since the early 1990s, in response to the increasing competition between countries on the background of globalization and high youth unemployment rate, vocational education provision in secondary schools has been a subject of international interest. This dissertation chooses vocational education and training (VET) in Australian senior secondary schools as the research topic, and attempts to present the specific practices of this aspect. The main purpose of VET in schools programme in Australia is to satisfy various demands of students to make them transit more smoothly from school to work or further education. The active cooperation among all levels governments, different education institutions and industries promotes VET in schools in Australia to grow vigorously. Among them, the government's guiding and macro-control is the guarantee to the system, funding and quality of the success of the programme; the reform and specific practices of schools and school authorities make the government's thinking and policies a reality; industries are the most important partnership to the programme, whose support and direct participation ensure the effectiveness of the programme.The framework of the dissertation runs as follows:The introduction to the dissertation explains the significance of the study, defines the chief concepts used in the article, analyzes the achievements and shortcomings of the earlier studies on topics relevant to this study and introduces the ways of thinking and the research methods of the study.Chapter 1 analyzes the background of developing VET in Australian senior secondary schools. Firstly, it introduces the international background of the programme from two aspects, including economical globalization and the trend of integration between general and vocational education. Then, it elaborates the status quo in Austrlia from three aspects, including national economic development, the development of post-compulsory secondary education and youth unemployment.Chapter 2 focuses on the reform practices on developing VET in senior secondary schools in Austrlia, which is the highlight of this dissertation. The government plays the role of overall planning and macro-control by establishing perfect and flexible national vocational education and training system, providing funds and making relevant policies; schools and school authorities make the government's policies a reality through a series of reform, including enhancing cooperation among schools, industry, TAFE and universities, absorbing VET into main stream curriculum to improve VET status in senior secondary education; the industries provide workplaces and job opportunities to the students and participate directly in the planning, governing and evaluating of the programme. Industries' support and direct participation ensure the effectiveness of the programme.Chapter 3 turns its focus to the outcomes, difficulties and trends of VET in schools in Australia. A serious of figures show the achievements of VET in schools programme. It analyzes many difficulties faced by the programme and further elaborates the trends of the programme.The last chapter is about the implication of VET in schools in Australia to China. Based on all the above presentations, it generalizes four features of the VET in schools in Australia. With regards to the our situation of senior secondary education, five enlightments are put forward from the aspects of the government's macro-control, system establishment and the reform of senior secondary education.