Abstract:
Policy discussions and texts related to generic skills, variously referred to as key skills, competencies, employability skills, and graduate outcomes, share a tendency to foreground the needs of employers and industry (e.g. Employability Skills Report, 2002). A related policy concern to getting the skill mix `right¿ is responding to Australia¿s skills shortage, again, by being led by the needs of industry and employer groups (see eg., Skilling Australia, DEST 2005). This paper proposes that VET graduates¿ perceptions of their needs, their responses to training and their experiences at work provide valuable insights to policy discussions of these issues in two ways: the ongoing development of generic skills training and more generally, to enhancing the contribution of skilled workers to organisations.
