Vocational education and training expert, Professor Stephen Billett, has been awarded an Honorary Research Fellowship at the University of Oxford where he will work on a collaborative study about professional competencies.
“The fellowship is a great opportunity to work directly with globally-renowned colleagues in a highly productive and esteemed department of education,’’ Professor Billett said.
He said as the kinds and qualities of knowledge required for work is constantly changing and transforming, so too is the demand for lifelong learning and training.
“This project focuses on understanding the kinds of capacities required for professional work and how they can be assessed and certified for initial occupational preparation as well as into the future.
“These issues are of growing importance to professional groups and professionals.”
While at Oxford Professor Billett will deliver a presentation on a national study he conducted across 19 Australian universities about how to enrich university students’ learning through their workplace experiences.
Also, upon invitation from UNESCO, Professor Billett will lead a workshop in Morocco in October 2019 to assist the development and uptake of workplace learning in the Southern Mediterranean area.
“It will bring together key agencies and leaders from countries in that region to understand better how workplace experiences can be used to assist the employability of young people and integrated into their technical, vocational education and training programs,” he said.
“In particular, it will focus on how young women’s participation in work-based learning can be effectively promoted in these countries.”