Vocational education and training policy and its learners — What are the links?

The Vocational Education and Training (VET) occupies a significant place in Australian educational system. The VET sector primarily focuses on the development of workplace and industry skills to enable the employment options for individual. Hence the teaching and assessment provided by VET teachers should accurately reflect workplace and industry requirements. Engagement between industry and the VET system is an essential part in ensuring that training meets the diverse needs of enterprises and the broader labour market. In this paper, we discuss VET policy on Industry Engagement of registered training organizations (RTOs) and how that would link to the VET learners in keeping the most vocational currency and relevant skills and knowledge required for the industry. This paper also explains the ways in which VET teachers engage with industries and the benefits of industry engagement to both teachers and industry. The application of cognitive learning theory and social learning theory to support the VET learners is also discussed in this paper.