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Getting it Right from the Start (GIRFTS) is a research study that aims to implement a response to intervention (RTI) framework in early primary school (Foundation and Grade 1) to improve oral language and reading. RTI is a multi-tiered conceptual framework that supports student learning through delivery of high-quality classroom instruction, early identification of students with additional learning needs and early intervention. This research snapshot highlights some real-life examples from the GIRFTS study and outlines strategies schools can use to increase their readiness for change. School staff (teachers and leaders) and implementation support partners (ISPs) provided examples of strategies that increased school readiness for change during focus groups and interviews conducted 12 to 15 months after the GIRFTS project commenced in their school communities. This snapshot focuses on 3 key strategies that school staff and ISPs reported focusing on to increase readiness during the initial stages of implementation of GIRFTS. They are: (1) ensuring buy-in from the school community and external stakeholders; (2) investing in training programs and support systems; and (3) accepting that change takes time, and that readiness for change is dynamic. [This report was prepared by the Centre for Community Child Health, a research group of Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) with funding contributions from Eureka Benevolent Fund.]

Evidence-based practices are backed up by research evidence. This means there is broad consensus from rigorously conducted evaluations that they work. Teachers, educators and policymakers need to determine how applicable education evidence is to their context when considering adopting new evidence-based practices. Research conducted in different educational contexts--including locations, student demographics, year levels or subject areas--may still offer broadly relevant insights. This research report presents a literature review conducted by The Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) of whether studies of effectiveness of 3 well-established, evidence-based teaching practices reveal variation in positive impact across contexts. Specifically, they examined meta-analytic reviews of the effects of formative assessment, explicit instruction and mastery learning on student achievement. Overall, findings indicate that the three practices are beneficial across different subgroups of students and subject areas.

Schools need to make strategic decisions regarding the practicalities of delivering interventions for students struggling with foundational literacy and numeracy skills. This includes planning -- or designing -- how the overall learning environment and experience of the intervention will work to obtain desired results, not just the instructional content it will consist of. This research report uses evidence to provide guidance for secondary school leaders making decisions about staffing, timetabling and intensity when delivering interventions in schools. It focuses on 3 key design considerations that influence the effectiveness of an intervention program: (1) intensity -- group size, frequency, length and duration of interventions; (2) timetabling -- how schools make time for tiered interventions in their regular timetable; and (3) staffing -- how schools develop a staffing structure that can support the delivery of intervention instruction.

This publication presents completion and attrition rates for apprentices and trainees four years after commencement for contracts and individuals. (1) Contract completion and attrition rates are derived by tracking the outcomes of contracts of training over time; and (2) Individual completion rates account for individuals recommencing; or ceasing one contract and starting another in the same or superseded qualification, with a different employer. The publication also presents projected contract completion and attrition rates for the latest commencing apprentice and trainee cohorts using a 'life tables' methodology.

This document provides technical detail and supporting data for the research findings discussed in 'The student journey in VET: the many faces of completion and non-completion'. The analysis in this technical paper explores: (1) an approach to identifying VET subject enrolment activity that serves a compliance or regulatory purpose; (2) variability in completion rates across VET qualifications, and associated differences in patterns of subject enrolments and outcomes; (3) different indicators of student outcomes in VET, including program completion, subject completion, and movement to subsequent VET; (4) student training pathways exploring the extent to which students undertook programs, stand-alone subjects, or a combination of the two, and how this training choice evolved over time; and (5) student training pathways exploring the extent to which students went on to enrol in a program at a higher, lower, or the same level of educations, and how these pathways compared for students who did and did not complete their initial program.

This research explores the many faces of course completion and non-completion in vocational education and training. By tracking student enrolments via the unique student identifier in the National VET Provider Collection, we gain a greater understanding of how individuals mix and match training types and their movement through VET, enabling identification of a broader range of training successes. One such measure of success is the completion of all enrolled subjects despite qualification non-completion. Using this measure, an additional 19.8% of 2016-commencing students had a successful outcome with VET, on top of the 49.5% who successfully completed their program. The analysis also showed that students mix and match various elements of training by enrolling in and completing subjects, either alone or in addition to program enrolments, and that compliance or regulatory-related subject enrolments impact training outcomes in complex ways.

This report provides a summary of the outcomes of international students who completed their vocational education and training (VET) qualification in Australia in 2022. These students were surveyed as an additional component to the 2023 National Student Outcomes Survey. Information is presented on international onshore VET qualification completers' reasons for training and their employment outcomes, their satisfaction with training and further study outcomes. Overall, 13 594 international onshore VET qualification completers responded to the survey.

"VET partnerships powering a dynamic workforce" is the theme for the 33rd National Vocational Education and Training (VET) Research Conference 'No Frills.' In keeping with the conference's theme, this discussion paper focuses on Australia's workforce demands and the importance of equipping the workforce with necessary skills through targeted education, training and partnerships.

This publication provides a summary of the outcomes of apprentices and trainees aged 15 years or over who undertook an apprenticeship or traineeship during 2022. It includes those who completed an apprenticeship or traineeship (completers) and those who cancelled or withdrew (non-completers). The figures are derived from the 2023 National Student Outcomes Survey. Information is presented on apprentices' and trainees' reasons for training, reasons for non-completion, employment outcomes, further study outcomes and satisfaction with the apprenticeship or traineeship. An apprentice or trainee is a person who undertakes a contract of training with an employer and a training provider.

Students who perform well at school academically are more likely to complete Year 12 and experience smoother transitions from education to employment. However, disentangling the effects of prior academic achievement on later performance from other confounding factors, such as socioeconomic status, has proved difficult. This study uses data from the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY), in conjunction with data from the National Assessment Program -- Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) and MySchool, to consider the contextual factors that affect a student's academic trajectory. Using measures of students' academic achievement, demographic factors, information about the school they attended and subsequent outcomes, the study explores the association between students' academic performance at school and their schooling outcomes, as evidenced by their Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR). It investigates whether Year 9 NAPLAN scores can be used to predict students' likelihood of obtaining an ATAR upon completing Year 12, and the likelihood of obtaining a high ATAR, controlling for several demographic characteristics.

Apprenticeships remain an important source of skilled workers in Australia; however, commencements have not kept pace with the skills demand projected in the previous decade. During that same decade, undergraduate university enrolments grew considerably. In investigating whether young people who would previously have chosen an apprenticeship have instead entered university, this study uses data from the Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (LSAY) to compare the characteristics of apprenticeship-bound young people with those who are university-bound and to determine whether the characteristics have changed between 2007 and 2019.