tran-internationalvocational-2011.pdf (381.75 kB)
International vocational education and training - the migration and learning mix
International VET students have divergent, shifting and in some cases multiple purposes for undertaking their VET courses. Students' motives may be instrumental and/or intrinsic and can include obtaining permanent residency, accumulating skills that can secure good employment, gaining a foothold that leads to higher education, and/or personal transformation. Moreover, students' study purposes and imagining of acquired values are neither fixed nor unitary. They can be shaped and reshaped by their families and personal aspirations and by the social world and the learning environment with which they interact. We argue that, whatever a student's study purpose, s/he needs to engage in a learning practice and should be provided with a high quality education. Indeed, we insist this remains the case even if students enroll only in order to gain the qualifications needed to migrate. The paper details the association between migration and learning, and argues that the four variations emerging from the empirical data of this study that centre on migration and skills' accumulation better explain this association than does the 'international VET students simply want to migrate' perspective. We conclude with a discussion of why the stereotype that holds VET international students are mere 'PR hunters' is unjust and constitutes a threat to the international VET sector.
History
Journal
Australian journal of adult learningVolume
51Issue
1Pagination
8 - 31Publisher
Adult Learning AustraliaLocation
Melbourne, Vic.ISSN
1443-1394Language
engNotes
This paper previously presented at a conference : Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association Conference (13th : 2010 : Surfers Paradise, Qld.) held on 8 - 9 Apr. 2010.Publication classification
C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
2011, Adult Learning AustraliaUsage metrics
Categories
No categories selectedKeywords
Licence
Exports
RefWorks
BibTeX
Ref. manager
Endnote
DataCite
NLM
DC