The Skills Lab approach
Skills Labs take a holistic view to skills solutions – bridging new skills needs with the aspirations of learners and building capabilities for contemporary teaching and learning.
Skills Labs drive collaborative skills solutions and are the vehicle to address long-term entrenched issues in skilling policy and outcomes. Labs use the Victorian Skills Authority’s (VSA’s) data and insights together with expertise from stakeholders with a stake in contemporary skills (such as government, employers, unions, educators, learners and community groups) to design contemporary skills responses.
Labs can also rapidly test teaching, learning and assessment processes so innovations that are found to be effective in engaging learners and delivering results can be deployed quickly.
As a result, vocational education can build its reputation for contemporary and relevant skills solutions for learners, Victorian industry and communities. The VSA has partnered with Holmesglen Institute to test the Skills Lab methodology through a care economy lab.
The lab is exploring new approaches to learning design underpinning the national Diploma of Nursing to improve completion rates and better prepare graduating enrolled nurses for evolving nursing practices.
A key part of the lab is to enhance learner experience and engagement through redesign of teaching, learning and assessment practices with a view to better learning and graduate outcomes. The learnings from the trial lab will provide insights for future labs and proposed Centres of Excellence, and provide test materials for qualification redesign proposed as part of the Five Point Education and Training response for the Care Economy.
The final report, due early-to-mid 2024, will include evidence-based recommendations for changes to delivery of the Diploma of Nursing, such as new learning resources and assessment practices that can be adopted by other vocational education and training (VET) providers. Other findings are expected to inform policy makers and regulators on areas for improvement to ensure the currency of VET qualifications.
Updated