VET News

An Alternative Approach to Employment-Based Training Models

Employment-based training (EBT) is training for paid employees which is integrated within a work setting, related to their role, and provided or supported by employers. It can be nationally recognised or non-nationally recognised. It can be structured, or unstructured. For many employers, the crucial aspect of EBT is whether the training helps with productivity and profitability.

In Australia, apprenticeships and traineeships are widely recognised forms of EBT. As their role, format and delivery are already well researched and understood — as is their value — they are not examined in this report. Instead, this review,  which is supplemented by insights from interviews with employers in the healthcare and social assistance, construction, and information technology industries, explores alternative approaches to EBT; for example, cadetships and internships, higher apprenticeships, and on-the-job structured training such as mentoring. While these approaches are not necessarily new, their application often has implications for vocational education and training (VET) content and delivery. The interest in these forms of EBT are attributable to their fit-for-purpose designs.

This review complements recent NCVER work by Osborne et al. (2020), which explored the benefits and challenges of including a work component in VET programs (excluding apprenticeships and traineeships), and Osborne (forthcoming), which focuses on whether programs containing workplace-based delivery led to better outcomes for students, compared with those programs without the workplace-based component.

Highlights from the review:

• Employers look for training that is agile and responsive to their specific needs, is affordable, and minimises workers’ time away from their jobs. Whether the training is nationally recognised or not is generally not employers’ foremost concern. 
• Employment-based training approaches such as cadetships, internships and higher apprenticeships are well suited for meeting the needs of employers. VET providers’ experience in delivering staged training to match work experience progression, as occurs in apprenticeships and traineeships, offer them the opportunity to negotiate with employers to develop and deliver the bespoke employment-based training programs required by employers.

Access NCVER's full review here.

Date posted Oct 7, 2021