Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to clarify the specific facts on appointment and standards for practical teachers in higher vocational education institutes with a focus on Technical and Further Education Institutes (TAFE) in Australia. The method of analysis implemented was a semi-structured interview survey on managers of TAFE and relevant professional bodies, after summarizing the systems in general from various public materials. Based on the results, there were three findings as described below: The first is that the qualification for training and evaluation (the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment), considered necessary for qualification of vocational education and training (VET) teachers by law in Australia, is not sufficient for teaching. Therefore, Registered Training Organisations had been demanding a higher education qualification as the actual recruitment standard for VET teachers. It is assumed that a teaching specialty is also necessary in the training courses as a requirement for qualification as VET teachers. The second point is that there is no standard on the number of years of work experience specified by the law in Australia. It was found that VET teachers were therefore flexibly recruited in each state and each occupational field with proof of the latest and most relevant experience as a requirement. Flexible recruitment is considered effective in securing a certain rate of practicing teachers. The third point is that there were very little data on VET teachers in Australia, while data preparation and investigation on VET are being advanced by National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER). In the future, it is assumed that data collection and elucidation of facts on VET teachers will be an internationally common issue.
