Education

In a competitive market training economy, vocational education and training (VET) and small business in Australia face a number of challenges. They need to qualify the extent of lifelong learning skills being used in the small firm workplace, define the range of learning partnerships both within VET and the wider informal learning community in which small business will invest, and decide how this might influence infrastructure for developing learning communities in regional Australia for the future. An alternative community capacity building model has been suggested. It is comprised of nine "ecologies " or microcultures of learning of equivalent importance in developing lifelong learning partners, which is considered essential for developing integrated learning communities between small business and VET. The microcultures are political, attitudes, partnerships, skills, information, technology, organizational, social capital, and regional learning ecologies. Each ecology needs to be in harmony for a lifelong learning partnership to be sustainable; any weak segment or capacity will reflect on the success or stability of the learning partnership for the long term. (Contains 85 references.) (YLB) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Community capacity building in regional VET: small business and developing an integrated lifelong learning communit