NCVER News | 21 October 2013
Skilled migrants and their families face the prospect of not being socially integrated into the local labour market and the community more generally, according to new research by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER).
The research report - Skilled migrant women in regional Australia: Promoting social inclusion through VET – considers how vocational education and training can assist in achieving ‘social inclusion’ for skilled migrant families. The study centred on the Greater Shepparton region in Victoria, an area that has seen an expanding number of migrants settling from new and emerging communities in Australia.
As to how vocational education and training can promote social inclusion, the research found that increasing numbers of skilled migrants in the Greater Shepparton region have education and training needs not yet recognised by the VET sector. The findings suggest that:
- There is a gap in provision, with no education and training aimed specifically at skilled migrants.
- Skilled migrants do not consider vocational education and training as offering suitable education and training opportunities.
- Education and training provision in the region lacks coordination and qualification pathways.
- Systemic measures are not in place to consider the ways by which local educational and training institutions can meet the needs of skilled migrants.
Nevertheless, the findings identified some good practices that enhanced individual migrants’ employability skills in both the VET and university organisations. These practices involved support in relation to job seeking and local work experience and to understanding specific professional networks and labour markets. In particular, within the TAFE sector, a strategy of encouraging skilled migrants to participate in the organised volunteer programs developed for humanitarian migrants facilitated the skilled migrants’ transition into a new field of professional employment in human services and human development.
