Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemDegrees or Advanced Diplomas? That is the question( 2014)Traditionally, the employees and potential employees of both tourism and hospitality businesses in Australia have had a binary tertiary education system from which to choose.They could either enrol in vocational courses delivered at TAFE or they could enrol in university degrees. As of December 2011 figures suggest that there are seventeen TAFEs delivering hospitality and nine delivering tourism courses, whilst there are two universities delivering hospitality and three universities delivering tourism degrees in Victoria.The purpose of this thesis is to examine which of these pathways to employment achieve the best outcomes for the graduates from either educational sector. The research concentrates on the short to medium term employment of the research participants. The employment outcomes of those who graduated with an advanced diploma of tourism or hospitality will be compared with those who graduated with degrees in either specialty to try and identify which group is ‘more successful’.Participants completed an online survey and ten of them participated in focus groups or interviews. Representatives from industry were also interviewed, two from Australia and two from Thailand.Findings from the research demonstrate that qualifications, whether they are from TAFE or university are unlikely to play an important role in the early careers of employees but that as their careers mature degree qualifications in particular are more useful.Additionally, the degree graduates have identified that the skills and knowledge gained from the degree studies have enabled them to transfer into other industries and gain higher salaries.Advanced diploma graduates who have remained in the industries are earning more than their counterparts in the industries who have degrees. They could either enrol in vocational courses delivered at TAFE or they could enrol in university degrees. As of December 2011 figures suggest that there are seventeen TAFEs delivering hospitality and nine delivering tourism courses, whilst there are two universities delivering hospitality and three universities delivering tourism degrees in Victoria. The purpose of this thesis is to examine which of these pathways to employment achieve the best outcomes for the graduates from either educational sector. The research concentrates on the short to medium term employment of the research participants. The employment outcomes of those who graduated with an advanced diploma of tourism or hospitality will be compared with those who graduated with degrees in either specialty to try and identify which group is ‘more successful’. Participants completed an online survey and ten of them participated in focus groups or interviews. Representatives from industry were also interviewed, two from Australia and two from Thailand. Findings from the research demonstrate that qualifications, whether they are from TAFE or university are unlikely to play an important role in the early careers of employees but that as their careers mature degree qualifications in particular are more useful. Additionally, the degree graduates have identified that the skills and knowledge gained from the degree studies have enabled them to transfer into other industries and gain higher salaries.
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ItemJob seekers, traps, and Mickey-Mouse training( 2012)Students have become commodities in a new market-driven Australian training system and according to the literature, increasingly subject to poor quality training. Some courses have not been adequate or appropriate for the learning needs of the students, nor industry requirements, and therefore flout the policy goal of a skilled workforce. This thesis aims to explore pathways to employment for African migrant women who undertook a Certificate III course in aged care, but remained unemployed in an area of apparent ‘skills shortage’. Utilising an ethnographic methodology, a small sample of migrant women graduates of aged care Certificate III courses participated in the study – some had been successful and others unsuccessful in obtaining employment in the field. A small sample of aged care team leaders were also interviewed. Sub-standard training qualifications were identified by participants as the biggest barrier to employment. Research findings suggest that fast-tracked, private for-profit training provision is likely to be of poor quality in comparison to public not-for-profit training provision. Findings also indicate that agents of various guises, often with conflicts of interest, have been recruiting students with apparent insufficient and even misleading information about courses. For the long-term benefit of society and the economy, a recognition of the role of well-resourced and funded public training institutions is recommended. If government continues to enable competition for funding between private and public training providers, adequate measures need to be in place to ensure more responsible disbursement of government funds in the training sector. Training providers need to be adequately checked before funds are allocated to them; including for their capabilities such as student support services, partnerships and track record of employment outcomes, but not overly audited and monitored so that professional accountability innovation and quality are stifled. Consumers need to be informed, protected and have bargaining power to be able to compete with the demands of large corporations and international markets. A Labour Market Entry Model (LMEM) is proposed that is a three pronged approach, managed and informed by an ethical local governance structure, of i) policies for quality training ii) career pathway information and iii) work creation for target labour, such as the migrant women, to overcome some of the barriers that they may face and to strategically reduce poverty and related issues in localities where there are concentrations of disadvantage. Until policies and resources are better directed towards a LMEM, partnerships of local agencies should enable residents and employer brokers to clarify career interests and aptitudes along with labour market entry requirements of local employers. They should also raise awareness on how to select a quality training course and determine which training providers and courses should be accepted into community spaces.