Towards Evidence-Based Vocational Education and Training.

This discussion paper is intended to inform the further development of the National Research and Evaluation Strategy (NRES) by strengthening its focus on evaluation in Australian vocational education and training (VET). Chapter 1 discusses the implications for the role of evaluation that changes in VET have caused in the past decade. Chapter 2 focuses on these dimensions of evaluation: for what purpose, by whom, and using which approach. Chapter 3 outlines these focus areas of current evaluation activities, from the largest scale to the smallest: evaluation of national performance; evaluation of policies and national initiatives; evaluation of practice; consumer evaluation of training provision; and critique of policies and programs. Chapter 4 describes these three outcomes to assist the use of evaluative methods to support decision making that could be achieved by extending the NRES: (1) a useful level of evaluative activities; (2) a capacity to evaluate; and (3) an informed and robust critique. Two appendixes are "The Performance of the VET System: Further Details" and "Some Possible Topics for Evaluation of National Initiatives." (YLB)