Reshaping Vocational Education and Training in Aotearoa New Zealand

Dr Selena Chan is an educational / research capability developer at Ara Institute of Canterbury (formerly Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology – CPIT). She brings into her research, her past experiences as a craft/tradesperson and vocational education educator. Through the last two decades, her work has informed the support of entry into and completion of apprenticeship; development of technology-enhanced learning in VET; the recognition of the dual identities of vocational educators as craftsperson and teacher; and improved understanding of the ways practice-based learning is enacted. Much of this work is presented and discussed in her 2020 book, 'Identity, pedagogy, and technology-enhanced learning: Supporting the processes of becoming a trades person'. Her latest book published in 2021, 'Digitally-enabling ‘learning by doing’ in vocational education: enhancing ‘learning as becoming’ processes', summarises the learnings derived from supporting the curriculum design and shift to ‘distance learning’ wrought by the pandemic

Dr Nicholas Huntington has worked at the intersection of research and policy for a range of agencies, organisations, and research units. Before taking up his current role with the Nursing Council of New Zealand, he managed the Building and Construction ITO’s policy response to the government’s vocational reforms. Prior to that he led the policy and strategic projects portfolios at Ako Aotearoa, the National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence, where he had a particular focus on promoting vocational education research, skills and workplace-led learning, the relationship between education and work, and supporting learner voice in tertiary education. He was a member of the Tertiary Education Commission’s Workforce Development Council Design Reference Group. Nicholas has authored and co-authored publications on a wide range of topics, from electoral politics to health workforce development, and his recent doctoral thesis explores how practitioners in New Zealand’s skills policy community engage with the concept of evidence-based policy.