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STRAIT to the future8th Asia-Pacific Specials, Health and Law Librarians Conference Past Isolation, Present Connections, Future Choices: The Growth of VOCED
Presented by: Heather Adams
Keywords: Vocational education; Information networking; VOCED Appendix 1 | Appendix 2 | Bibliography Appendix 1National Vocational Education and Training Clearinghouse Information Network and VOCED timeline 1974 The South Australian Department of Further Education established a statewide Technical and Further Education (TAFE) Clearinghouse with the goal of promoting initiatives in research, investigation and innovation in technical and further education within South Australia. Information was recorded in a booklet called Initiatives in Further Education in South Australia (Harris, 1992). 1978 The National TAFE (Technical and Further Education) Clearinghouse and The National TAFE (Technical and Further Education) Clearinghouse System were established. The intention was to expand the South Australian TAFE Clearinghouse to include all states and territories in Australia to provide greater access to TAFE materials. (Harris, 1992). 1980 The TAFE National Centre for Research and Development was established, as an independent company jointly owned by the Commonwealth, States and Territories of Australia to undertake research on technical and further education. Transfer of the operation from the South Australian Department of Further Education to The TAFE National Centre for Research and Development, located in South Australia (Harris, 1992). The National TAFE Clearinghouse System commenced operation with a booklet called Initiatives in Technical and Further Education which was accessible on-line through the Australian Education Index (Harris, 1992). The National TAFE Clearinghouse was modelled on the ERIC Clearinghouse concept, where information related to published and unpublished material (in this case about vocational education and training) is sent to a central point from various parts of the system as well as from individuals, thus forming an information network (Jones, 1993; Robinson and Hayman 1998). The aim was to consolidate information on TAFE and training and to prevent duplication of effort (Robinson and Hayman, 1998, p.3). The Clearinghouse started with six State and two Territory Clearinghouses, plus the National Clearinghouse. Then, as now, each local Clearinghouse captured information on vocational education and training from its own area, housed the documents and sent abstracts, indexes and bibliographic information about the document or projects to the National Clearinghouse. The local Clearinghouses provided access to the documents themselves and distributed and promoted the database to their own constituency (Jones, 1993; Robinson and Hayman, 1998). 1982 The first issue of Projects in Progress covering current project information was published (Harris 1992). 1984 Suggestion that the TAFE National Centre for Research and Development became an Australian node for the ILO APSDEP Information Network (APSDIN) (Harris, 1992). 1986 The TAFE National Centre for Research and Development became the Australian focal point for the APSDIN (Jones, 1993 ; Harris, 1992). 1989 The Vocational Education and Training Database (VOCED) came into existence incorporating the two original hard copy publications (Initiatives in TAFE and Projects in Progress), and APSDIN data which allowed access to Asian Pacific materials. VOCED was produced in an electronic version (distributed on diskette) as well as hard copy. (Robinson and Hayman, 1998 ; Harris, 1992). The TAFE National Centre for Research and Development coordinates input and disseminates the repackaged information (Jones, 1994). 1991 Change of name from The National TAFE (Technical and Further Education) Clearinghouse Network to the National Vocational Education and Training Clearinghouse Information Network to reflect the changing nature of the vocational education and training (VET) sector and to reflect a broadening of the data capture strategy to include materials from the whole of the training domain not just the TAFE materials. Change of title from National TAFE Clearinghouse to National Vocational Education and Training Clearinghouse, reflecting the increased coverage of the information beyond just TAFE to incorporate information from the entire VET sector, such as information from private training providers and from university-based research. 1992 New Zealand joined the network bringing the number of official nodes to ten. The introduction of VOCED at the Auckland Institute of Technology (Adams, 1993) was seen as an opportunity for publications to be promoted on both national and international levels and to participate as part of a network to facilitate the dissemination of information. A network of contacts in New Zealand polytechnics was set in place. Enriched the data collection by adding in new perspectives. Each clearinghouse is responsible for the selection, acquisition and indexing of documents and for supplying access to the documents with the role becoming more inclusive as one of dealing with vocational education at a community level, through private providers, industry training as well as that provided by the states and territories. Change of name from The TAFE National Centre for Research and Development to The National Centre for Vocational Education Research Ltd (NCVER) to reflect the changing nature of the TAFE system. NCVER has a dual role undertaking and funding research on vocational education, operation of a clearinghouse on vocational education, the collection and analyses of statistical data. APSDIN in danger of disintegration, ILO appointed NCVER APSDEP Lead Institution in Information Network. 1994 Council of Adult Education (Melbourne) became a clearinghouse - an important sector that is difficult to cover adequately. Access gained to a collection of specialist information. Unlike other clearinghouses that focus specifically on local resources the CAE also identifies and records information from international serials with the broad area of adult education. 1995 The Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) joined the network as a clearinghouse providing information on documents and reports that have been published by ANTA. 1996 Adelaide Institute of TAFE is one of the Australian focal points for UNEVOC which covers the UNESCO countries in the Asia Pacific region (For further information on NCVER's UNEVOC partnership see Robinson and Hayman, 1998, Section 4.2 and Appendix 4). This UNEVOC node supplies input to the VOCED database. The UNESCO focal point coordinates with the APSDIN focal point to avoid duplication of data entry and to enhance dissemination of information (Jones, 1994). The material captured through the UNEVOC network has an emphasis on the education side of skill development, while the APSDIN material is towards the labour market side; of course there is considerable overlap, and in practice there is so much information to be gathered that as broad a base as possible is the best way to achieve good coverage. (Robinson and Hayman, 1998, p. 8) Records are sent to NCVER, where the National Clearinghouse coordinates the production of the database, and provides quality control and authority checking for all the records, as well as the mechanism for database production and distribution. There are now twelve nodes in addition to the National Clearinghouse. NCVER provided training for two staff of the Korea Manpower Agency, under APEC-HRD funding, to enable them to set up a regional information network and send the information to NCVER for inclusion in the VOCED database. 1997 VOCED on the web made available for searching at: http://www.ncver.edu.au/voced.htm The entire contents of the database can be searched simply and quickly on the Web. For further information see Hayman, 1997. There is provision for sending entries and/or project information directly via the NCVER's VOCED World Wide Web site. The information will be assessed at NCVER, edited for compliance with our quality standards, and added to the database if appropriate. In the case of documents, the process is similar, and the contributor will decide whether to send us the document itself for inclusion in the Clearinghouse. If the document is sent, we can make it available from the national Clearinghouse by interlibrary loan. If the document is to be retained by the contributor, they must provide a source of availability for it (this is a requirement of any document in the database). Development of a more proactive approach to capturing material intended to increase coverage significantly, and the setting in place of mechanisms for the routine acquisition of published and unpublished research information from a network of colleagues (Robinson and Hayman, 1998, p. 10). NCVER signed memoranda of understanding with the following three organisations:
In this context the MOUs cover: the exchange of published policy, research and technical reports; exchange of training statistics and other quantitative information (Robinson and Hayman, 1998, p. 9). Developed a relationship with the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation Human Resource Development (APEC-HRD) program (Robinson and Hayman, 1998, p. 9). 1999 and onwards. A view to offering more comprehensive coverage, both national and international, that is accessible to all researchers, a central resource that offers relevant and timely information to both national and international researchers. Access to relevant documents at this point in time can only be offered to researchers in Australia. The Clearinghouse staff is engaged in systematically seeking out other sources of regional VET information. These include: journal articles; electronic information available on the Internet and other databases to which we can link. Duplication of others collection is not seen as a productive use of time. A central collection point that also lists alternative sources is seen as the way to go. Development of other international links through MOUs, particularly in the Asia Pacific region, with a view to exchanging information and materials, and working together in other ways to promote information sharing and cooperative research ventures. While retaining our strong commitment to the existing APSDIN and UNEVOC networks, we believe that the way to provide a central information resource for the region is to use as broad a base as possible to acquire material. NCVER signed a MOU with the Korean Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training (KRIVET). Non-English language material will now be included in the database. From now on, contributors can send us information about their VET documents in their own languages, provided that an English language title and abstract are also supplied. It will still be of benefit to all users of the database to know that the material exists and to have a brief description of it in English even if they are unable to read the full document. Rapidly changing technology has already provided free machine-translation services via the Internet for a number of European languages; it may only be a short time before Asian languages are also able to be translated using a similar facility. Contributors will be able to retain their own material in their own Clearinghouses, libraries or documentation centres, and simply send in the information about the document for inclusion in the database. However, they must include information about the availability of the document for it to be considered for inclusion. NCVER manages funds for VET research under the National Research and Evaluation Strategy for Vocational Education and Training in Australia 1997-2000, which means that the National Clearinghouse is able to gather very quickly the information about projects funded in this way. This information is included in VOCED, as a project in progress as soon as the project is approved, and then as a completed report as soon as this is available. NCVER's office in Canberra is developing links with federal government departments in order to gather information about VET research and policy, with a view to acquiring all relevant federal government materials published for inclusion in the database. (For further information see Harris, 1992 ; Robinson and Hayman, 1998, Appendix 2). Appendix 2Glossary of terms
BibliographyAdams, Heather 1993 Vocational education and training database at AIT library. Dialogue the AIT journal of adult and higher education (1), October 1993, pp. 34-35. Aksornsuwan, Jirawan 1996 Information collection and dissemination for vocational training: an ILO perspective. Eighth ILO/APSDIN Meeting, Adelaide, 22-26 July 1996. 1996. Unpublished. 9 leaves. De Leon, Wendy T. 1996 Information and networking systems in technical and vocational education and training: Philippines. 1996. Unpublished. 3 leaves. Handbook for research in adult and vocational education 1996 Edited by Funnell, Robert. Adelaide: National Centre for Vocational Education Research. 275 p. Harris, Lea-ann 1992 A brief history of a national clearinghouse and the service provided. Unpublished report. Harris, Lea-ann 1995 Database power show. Australian training review (13), Dec 94/Jan/Feb 95, p. 8. Hayman, Sarah 1997 VOCED on the web, Australian training review (24), Sept/Oct/Nov 1997, p. 36. Jones, Marjolijn 1993 The Asian and Pacific Skill Development Information Network (APSDIN): a lesson in patience. INFOBRIDGES: linking Australia and Asia: national conference of the reference and information services section (RAISS) of the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). Darwin, 7-9 July 1993. Jones, Marjolijn 1994 UNEVOC: database for Asia and the Pacific. Unpublished paper. National Centre for Vocational Education Research 1997 National research and evaluation strategy for vocational education and training in Australia 1997-2000. Adelaide, NCVER. 24 p. Palmieri, Phoebe 1997 Networking for quality: shared purpose, shared success: best practice networking in South Australia. Adelaide: Adelaide Institute of TAFE for the LEARN Network. 71 p. Robinson, Chris and Hayman, Sarah 1998 Enhancing partnerships in TVET information networking in the Asia-Pacific region. Adelaide: NCVER. 34 p.
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