Industry Placement Experiences in Vocational Education: Voices from Australia

One of the premises of vocational education (VET) is a practically-based curriculum approach that aims to teach students contemporary work practices so that they are better prepared to enter the workforce. It stands to reason that if students need to be educated about contemporary work processes, then the teacher also needs to have an understanding of such processes for teaching and learning practice. Teacher currency, therefore, becomes an issue of high importance, particularly as economic and social globalisation contribute to the continuing transformation of workplaces. One way to achieve such currency may be through voluntary teacher industry placements, where the teacher is seconded to industry for a period of time. \ud Based on data gathered through semi-structured interviews, the paper discusses the experiences of VET business teachers in Australia who have undertaken an industry placement and considers issues such as: negotiating self through changing work, the work of identity formation, and organisational learning. The paper concludes that changing teaching and learning practises post an industry placement problem and are difficult to achieve due to various environmental factors including organisational barriers and regulatory constraints