Professor Erica Smith
Emeritus Professor
Erica Smith is Emeritus Professor of Education in the Institute of Education, Arts and Community, and was leader of the Researching Adult and Vocational Education group for over a decade. Professor Smith’s specialisation is vocational education and training (VET). Other areas of expertise include VET policy, training in workplaces, competency-based training, and the school-to-work transition.
Erica is Australia’s foremost apprenticeship researcher and is co-chair of the International Network on Innovative Apprenticeship. Erica is also an expert on VET teachers, their work and qualifications. She was the founding leader of Federation University’s VET teacher-education program, and until her retirement in mid-2023 convened the Australian Council of Deans of Education Vocational Education Group. She is an appointed member of the Australian Government’s VET Workforce Blueprint Steering Group and a member of the Advisory Board for the National Careers Institute, a government body.
Erica makes many invited contributions to Commonwealth and State government policy and practice in her areas of expertise and has advised governments in several other countries. She has managed over 30 national and international research projects and is an invited speaker at events around the world.
Apprenticeships: The problem of attractiveness and the hindrance of heterogeneity
Do the qualifications of vocational teachers make a difference to their teaching?
Informal training and learning in Australian firms: The need for a new perspective
The narrative of a VET workforce shortage in Australia: reality, myth or opportunity?
Australian TVET Teacher Training: Once Flourishing but Now Neglected
Expanding or restricting access to tertiary education? A tale of two sectors and two countries
Protecting us from the pandemic? Reframing the work of security officers in quarantine hotels in Australia
Thirty years of competency-based training: how Australia painted itself into a curriculum corner in vocational education and training
Choosing VET as a post-school activity: What are some influences on non-metropolitan students?
Preparation for post-school careers in rural and peri-urban Australia: Connections with employers and labour markets
The expansion and contraction of the apprenticeship system in Australia, 1985-2020
This paper chronicles and analyses the expansion and contraction of the Australian apprenticeship...
Afterword: a fresh look at workplace learning for VET teachers
The expertise and professionalism of teachers is vital in vocational education and training...
Learning and development practitioners: identity, profession and future trajectory
Apprenticeships and 'future work': are we ready?
The paper evaluates the readiness of apprenticeship systems to cope with five major developments...
A small study of big issues in apprenticeship: Companies' apprenticeship management practices in Australia
Competency-based Training Australian-style: How it Exposes VET to Risk
Drawing on twenty-five years of research and practice in competency-based training in Australia...
Employer training in Australia: current practices and concerns
This paper presents and analyses results from a research project on current trends in employer...
Environmental sustainability practices: How adults learn.
How do vocational teachers keep up to date with trends in pedagogy and in industry?
This chapter examines the important topic of the ‘dual professionalism’ of VET teachers in...
Intermediary organizations in apprenticeship systems. Geneva: International Labour Organization
Making a difference or making a dollar? Intermediary organisations in apprenticeships
In apprenticeship systems, intermediary organisations typically assist with recruitment...
Occupational preparation for manual work: Fitter/machinists and concrete operators.
The Importance of VET Teacher Professionalism: An Australian Case Study
The effectiveness of vocational education and training (VET) systems depends upon their teachers....
Young people’s decision-making as they leave school in non-metropolitan areas in Australia: Insights from those working with young people
Revisiting apprenticeships as a response to persistent and growing youth unemployment
Abstract: This chapter examines the potential of quality apprenticeship in meeting multiple...
Teaching practices among college-based teachers of apprentices
Towards a Model of Learning and Development Practice
It is widely acknowledged that learning and development (L&D) is key to well-being, innovation...
Continuity and change: employers' training practices and partnerships with training providers
ILO Survey Report on the National Initiatives to Promote Quality Apprenticeships in G20 Countries
Re-thinking skill through a new lens: evidence from three Australian service industries
The purpose of this paper is to provide another perspective on the problematic nature of the...
What makes a good VET teacher? Views of Australian VET teachers and students
The quality of teaching in the vocational education and training (VET) sector in Australia has...
Apprenticeship Management at National and Company Levels: Research Based 'Good Practices' Principles
HRD professionals are often involved closely with apprenticeship systems. Apprenticeships...
Apprenticeship: one concept, many facets
This special edition is based on papers delivered at a conference of the International...
Links between concepts of skill, concepts of occupation and the training system: A case study of Australia
Views of VET teachers, managers and students about VET teacher qualifications
This paper reports on some initial research into what students, teachers and managers in training...
Australian VET teacher education: What is the benefit of pedagogical studies at university for VET teachers?
Enterprise RTOs in Australia: An overview from research data
How closely do Australian Training Package qualifications reflect the skills in occupations? An empirical investigation of seven qualifications
This paper uses evidence from an Australian research project into under-recognized skills in...
VET teacher education in Australian universities: who are the students and what are their views about their courses?
In Australia, the question of the level and nature of qualifications for vocational education and...
When employers become training providers: What are some institutional issues?
Work and learning in jobs that are traditionally considered unskilled or low-skilled.
Credit transfer from VET to higher education: a pathways policy meets a roadblock
How can the expansion of the apprenticeship system in India create conditions for greater equity and social justice?
This paper reports on aspects of a recent project carried out for the International Labour...
Views of skill in low-wage jobs: Australian security guards and cleaners
Voices from a small discipline: How the Australian Vocational Education and Training discipline made sense of journal rankings
The topic of quality rankings of academic journals generated a great deal of debate and opinion...
What do senior figures in Australian VET and industrial relations think about the concept of skill in work?
Australian Employers' Adoption Of Traineeships
Globalising the apprenticeship concept: How far can apprenticeship systems be compared across countries and what can be gained?
Learning to Work in a Global Economy: How Countries use Apprenticeship Systems to Assist School-Leavers
Occupational Identity in Australian Traineeships: An Initial Exploration
Part-time working by students: is it a policy issue, and for whom?
This paper uses data from interviews with representatives of national and state organisations...
Possible FUTURES for the Indian APPRENTICESHIP System Options paper for INDIA
Pre-apprenticeships in Australia: differing orientations and their policy implications
Little has been published in the Australian vocational education and training (VET) literature on...
'Qualifications for work and further learning': The Australian approach to hybrid qualifications
The emerging profile of Australian learning and development specialists
The role of learning and development specialists has changed radically in the past twenty years....
Towards a model apprenticeship framework: A comparative analysis of national apprenticeship systems
Who is conducting educational research in Australia and how can their work be supported?
Educational research has long been the subject of lively and agitated debate, not least because...
Buying-out teaching for research: the views of academics and their managers
This paper reports on the practice of buying-out teaching to create time for research. A study...
Getting in through the front door: The first hurdle of researching in companies
This paper examines what is arguably the most important issue in qualitative research - access to...
Good Practice in Apprenticeship Systems: Evidence From An International Study
How vocational education and training researchers use theory in their research
This paper is a preliminary investigation of the place that theory plays in vocational education...
Living in a 2.2 World: ERA, Capacity Building and the Topography of Australian Educational Research
Managing apprentices and managing PhD students: Current concerns and transferable tips
'The national custodian': How interest groups and academic combine to restrict access of working people to qualifications
The psychological contract in apprenticeships and traineeships: Comparing the perceptions of employees and employers
This paper compares the perceptions of Australian apprentices/trainees and employers of...
Australian employers' adoption of traineeships
Demand for apprenticeships and traineeships: What are the implicatons for the future?
Does the availability of vocational qualifications through work assist social inclusion?
Employers management of part-time student labour
[No abstract available]
Has Australia turned its back on international students?
The Changing Nature of Youth Employment in Australia: How can this be understood
The educative role of a regional newspaper: Learning to be drier
Throughout the world, people have to deal with the issues of global warming and other more direct...
The importance of the psychological contract for effective learning in apprenticeships
The psychological contract in apprenticeships and traineeships: Differing perceptions
Understanding the psychological contract in apprenticeships and traineeships to improve retention
Vocational educators' qualifications: A pedagogical poor relation?
This paper uses data from a recent national project on workforce development for vocational...
Ways of Seeing: Reconceptualising Skills
Apprenticeships
A review of twenty years of competency-based training in the Australian vocational education and training system
Employability Skills
Old dogs, new tricks: training mature-aged manufacturing workers
Purpose This paper aims to examine the employment and training of matureaged workers, so that...
Part-Time Work of High School Students: Impact on employability, employment outcomes and career development
Pedagogy not political pointscoring: How training providers teach international students
VET in the compulsory years of schooling:A pathway into the future or a dead end?
Vocational Education
Vocational education and training (VET) pathways for disadvantaged youth
No Abstract Available
We're Here to Help: Agencies Dealing with Apprenticeships in Australia
What Industry wants: employers' preferences for training
High-quality traineeships: Identifying what works
Learning to be drier in dryland country
This research project, part of a much larger study, considered how people in regional communities...
Making training core business: Enterprise registered training organisations in Australia
New models of working and learning: how young people are shaping their futures differently
This paper is about the way in which young people are increasingly adopting dual identities -...
Part-Time Work of High School Students and Impact on Educational Outcomes
Practitioner researchers in vocational education and training
School students and part-time work: Workplace problems and challenges
Social construction of skill viewed through the lens of training for the cleaning industry
Teachers, Instructors and Trainers: An Australian Focus
What are the pros and cons of gaining qualifications through work?
Wicked learning: reflecting on Learning to be drier
1958-2008: how access to VET qualifications has changed in Australia
Learning to Control: Training and Work Organization in Australian Call Centres
The crowded market: Agencies dealing with apprenticeships in Australia
The understandings about learners and learning that are imparted in Certificate IV level courses for VET teachers and trainers
What do senior figures in Australian VET think about traineeships?
Academics' views on publishing refereed works: A content analysis
A serendipitous synchronisation of interests: Employers and student-working
Australian employers' strategies to improve the quality of apprentices
Curriculum and assessment in vocational education and training
Experiencing pre-apprenticeships: Participants; views of a program with dual purposes
Group training organisations: Bellwethers or shepherds?
Pre-apprenticeships in three key trades
The development of key training policies in England and Australia: a comparison
The place of work in school students' lives
The role of training in the development of human resource management in Australian organisations
Australian enterprises' use of apprenticeships and traineeships to meet specific labour shortages
A woman's work is never certificated? How the implementation of nationally recognised training in workplaces helps women get qualifications
Contesting tertiary teaching qualifications: An Australian case study
How lower-level and vulnerable workers benefit from employers' engagement with the national qualificaiton system in Australia
Leading the charge in cross-sectorial integration: Vocational teacher education and the embedding of units of competency
Learning for success: distance education students' use of their learning materials
Making choices: Exploring influences on post-school career pathways
Models of full-time and part-time vocational training for school-leavers: A comparison between Germany and Australia
Qualifying the workforce: the use of accredited training in Australian companies
Quality and qualms in the marking of university assignments by sessional staff: An exploratory study
The Certificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training: Understanding learners and learning
The delicate dance: the assessment implications of awarding students vocational qualifications within university degrees
The Experiences of apprentices and trainees in small Australian businesses: some qualitative research findings
The land of Narnia or just the back of the wardrobe? What research tells us about the real world of work for young people
Value adding to apprenticeships: How an Australian construction company invests in apprentices to produce future senior managers
A rich tapestry: Changing views of teaching and teaching qualifications in the vocational education and training sector
Enterprises' commitment to nationally recognised training for existing workers
Getting down and dirty down under: Battling over trainer qualifications in Australia
How workplace experiences while at school affect career pathways
Learning at a distance: How distance education students use their learning materials
Public policies on training and their provenance: An international comparison
The effects on young people's transition from school of formal contact with workplaces while at school
To publish or not to publish: that is the question?
Why Australian companies are turning to qualification based training for their workers
Academics attitudes towards the production of refereed publications: Some qualitative research outcomes
Articulation and embedding: Using the Certificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training to explore the relationships between the higher education and VET sectors
Australian Post-compulsory School Students' Learning in Workplaces
Continuing professional education for practitioners in post-compulsory education
Factors related to academic publishing productivity
How enterprises engage with nationally recognised training
Learning to Learn Through Work? The Important of Australian Apprenticeship and Traineeship Policies in Young Workers' Learning Careers
Political construction of skill: The effects of policy changes in entry-level training in Australia on participation rates and on the perception of 'Skill'
School-based apprenticeships and traineeships in Australia
Teenage employability: Views of employers
The development of employability skills in novice workers through employment
The effects of a decade of national training reform upon practitioners in vocational education and training
The Inescapability of Significant Contextual Learning in Work Performance
The Role of Employers in the Development of Employabilty Skills in Novice Workers
The use of nationally-recognised training in call centres
Vocational Education and Training in Schools in Australia: what are the consequences of moving from margins to mainstream?
Young people's employability: whose responsibility?
From training reform to training packages
Gaining acceptance for accredited training within a university
Learning to labour at the turn of the century: Paul Willis revisited
The baby and the bathwater: Making a case for work experience
The development of employability skills in novice workers
The first job: Experiences of young Australians starting full-time work
The scope for state intervention in young people's learning and training
A foot in both camps: School students and workplaces
Australian Quality Training Framework: Impact of provisions relating to teaching and teacher qualifications
Figures in a new landscape: The experiences of workers and learners in a new VET system
Learning and training in school-based new apprenticeships
Lifelong learning at work: How it begins
The new child labour? The part-time school student workforce in Austraia
Theory and Practice: the contribution of off the job training to the development of apprentices and trainees
The relationship between organisational context and novice workers' learning
Training Packages: Debates around a new curriculum system