The employers' perspective of vocational education work placement programs

This study is an evaluation of Victoria University’s Workplace Learning Melbourne West (WLMW) work placement service to employers. Local Community Partnership’s (LCPs) like Workplace Learning (WLMW) are funded to coordinate work placements for vocational students and enable them to integrate about 10 days on-the-job learning in industry with classroom study.\ud To keep enterprises engaged in the program the study canvasses employers’ perspectives on the work placement service with a view to improving program effectiveness. Work placements constitute a growing element in the senior\ud secondary curriculum and the demand on employers to provide or grow opportunities for students is intense. The study sought to identify the changes required to manage the increased demand for work placements more effectively taking into account the needs of enterprises to improve the quality of the work placement service delivered and employer satisfaction with it