The Library and Information Service, within DET (Department of Education and Training) , manages Western Australia's VET (Vocational Education and Training) Clearinghouse, as part of the National Vocational Education and Training Clearinghouse Information Network.
The National Clearinghouse which co-ordinates the network, is based at the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) in South Australia.
The Department of Education and Training has an agreement with NCVER to provide a State Clearinghouse, which acts not only as a vehicle for obtaining information, but also as a disseminator of local VET research.
Information is forwarded to the National Clearinghouse by the local state clearinghouses, and from a wide range of other sources, and is incorporated into VOCED, the UNESCO/NCVER research database for technical and vocational education and training, an international database of research abstracts.
The aim of the clearinghouse network is to:
- give greater access to national, regional and international vocational education and training research and policy information and materials
- encourage new initiatives in this educational sector
- provide avenues and opportunities for promotion, publicity and dissemination of material and information
- prevent the duplication of research and other initiatives, thus reducing wastage of resources
- provide help-desk support and training in the use of the VOCED database
- promote the use of the VOCED database as a vehicle for dissemination of information about VET.
VOCED Contents and Coverage
The type of material collected includes:
- research reports
- evaluation studies
- policy documents
- survey results / questionnaires
- proceedings (workshops/seminars/conferences)
- theses
- research projects (ongoing/current/planned)
- journal articles
DET staff can tell others about their research and contribute to the Clearinghouse. You can do this by sending two copies of your work to the Library and Information Service at Royal Street. The Clearinghouse officer will then abstract and index the work and send these details to the National Clearinghouse to be put on the VOCED database.
Your contribution is essential for the
dissemination of information on VET research in WA.