Training and Adult Education (TAE) Programmes: Graduate Destinations & Employers' Views Surveys 2011
Conducted from 2011 - 2012
By:
Professor Andrew Brown, Director of Research Division
Institute for Adult Learning
Rebecca Ye, Research Associate
Institute for Adult Learning
What is the question?
This series of research studies endeavoured to investigate the impact of Workforce Skills Qualification (WSQ) Training and Adult Education (TAE) Programmes on IAL graduates’ labour mobility and career trajectories. To complement our understanding of these trajectories, we also examined the views of their employers and how the employers perceived the training received to have contributed to the organisation as well as their employees’ skills utilisation and employability.
Why is it important?
The mandate for the Institute for Adult Learning (IAL) is clear; in order to contribute to developing an effective, innovative and responsive Continuing Education and Training (CET) sector that is able to meet the needs of industries and the Singapore workforce, the IAL sets out to enhance the capabilities and professionalism of adult educators (AEs) by establishing clear professional standards for CET design and delivery. Evaluating the impact of its various training programmes and initiatives is therefore imperative for the IAL.
More importantly, as a key player in the development of the AE workforce, it is necessary that IAL keeps a pulse on the destinations and trajectories of its graduates. The Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) information that resulted from such studies will be able to support policy making, policy development, organisational improvement, the management of activities, and enhance transparency and support accountability (Mackay, 2007), all of which are crucial to the IAL as it sets out to achieve its goals and objectives.
How did we do the research?
The first of this series of studies examined, specifically, the destinations and trajectories of IAL’s Advanced Certificate in Training & Assessment (ACTA) graduates who received their full qualification between March 2010 and December 2010. At the point of commencement of this project (June 2011), these graduates had been in the workforce for at least half a year, since their enrolment in the ACTA programme. Some of them had been in the training workforce, some not; nevertheless, we were interested in the trajectories of these individuals regardless of their occupational status, particularly for those who were in the training workforce and how they were utilising the skills acquired from the ACTA training programme.
The investigation was done through the administration of a questionnaire to the graduates, and their employers. Follow-up focus group discussions and in-depth interviews may be conducted if further examination is required to supplement the findings from the surveys.
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