Thursday, September 01, 2005

New Books

Anlezark, A. & Dawe S. & Hayman, S. 2005, An aid to systematic reviews of research in vocational education and training in Australia, NCVER, Adelaide.
ERC TD/ TNC 82.01

A systematic review of research is a decision-making tool for policy and practice. It is a piece of research in its own right, using explicit and rigorous methods that follow a standard set of stages: to identify; critically appraise; and synthesise relevant research (both published and unpublished) to answer a specific question.This report documents the establishment of NCVER's own eight-step model for future systematic reviews of research.

Thomson, P. et al. 2005, The mature-aged and skill development activities: A systematic review of research, NCVER, Adelaide.
ERC TD/ TNC 82.02

Many older Australians are up-skilling or retraining to maintain gainful employment or pursue other interests. This study, a systematic review of existing research, set out to find evidence that skill development activities for the mature-aged lead to improved employment opportunities and improved productivity. It also looks at what factors act as barriers or facilitators to these key outcomes, and the implications of this review for vocational education and training policy and practice and research.