Media releases

Federation University Australia’s Professor Erica Smith, assisted by Dr Jackie Tuck, has been selected to undertake an important project analysing apprenticeship initiatives for the ‘G20’ countries.

This research has been commissioned by the International Labor Organisation (ILO), a United Nations Agency, in Geneva.

The ‘Initiative to Promote Quality Apprenticeships’ was adopted at the Beijing meeting of G20 Labour and Employment Ministers in July 2016. It aims to evaluate how the countries are developing apprenticeships and how to promote knowledge sharing among the countries.

The project involves the analysis of data from a survey sent by the ILO to respondents in each country, representing government, labour unions and employer bodies. 

Professor Smith is an acknowledged international expert on apprenticeships and is co-chair of the International Network for Innovative Apprenticeship research group.

She has undertaken previous work for the International Labor Organization to assist in the development of the Indian apprenticeship system, in 2012 and again in 2015, and more recently to develop new models of apprenticeship for Indonesia.

In October, Professor Smith was invited to present to a forum of six south-east Asian countries, in Bangkok, on the topic of how apprenticeship can address youth unemployment.

Information about these international projects will be presented at FedUni’s tenth ‘OctoberVET’ event on Thursday 9 November from 1.00pm at Ballarat Technology Park Central. The theme will be ‘Training for Industry’.

In addition, there are a number of major external speakers on the theme of training for and by industry, as well as a presentation on Fed College’s P-TECH senior secondary school partnership with IBM Australia.  

The research-based event is led by FedUni's research group RAVE (Researching Adult and Vocational Education). OctoberVET is an initiative of the Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA).  Enquiries can be directed to vet.research@federation.edu.au