Clayton, Berwyn (2013) Keeping up with the Jones’: updating of professionals in knowledgeleading organisations. In: AVETRA 16th Annual Conference, 3rd April - 5th April 2013, Fremantle, Western Australia.

Abstract

This paper reports on one part of a two-part study examining industry views on the management and maintenance of industry currency of VET practitioners. While they play a critical role in up-skilling the broader Australian workforce, research suggests that currency gaps exist amongst the VET workforce (Toze & Tierney 2010). In light of this, currency has become a concern for industry, training providers and practitioners alike (Precision Consulting 2008). Rather than taking a strictly VET view of the issue, this qualitative study gathered insights into the way nine knowledge-leading organisations in the fields of science, health, engineering and human resources dealt with the updating of their professional workforce. Findings indicate that effective updating was not only dependent upon a healthy organisational climate that sent the message that keeping current was an expected activity, it needed to be strategically planned, collaboratively undertaken, monitored and regularly reviewed. Additionally, by building greater flexibility in the way daily work was done, space was made for ‘just-in-time’, project-based learning specifically directed at the development of new knowledge and skills as demands for these emerged. For VET, similar strategies and innovative thinking about how best practitioner updating might occur would seem to be an imperative.

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