One of the major challenges facing VET is to shift as much training as possible from campus-based classrooms to the workplace, to increase the relevance, value and immediacy of learning. This shift requires collaboration between providers and industry, particularly where the industry is used to classroom-based delivery.

One industry that still relies heavily on traditional classroom-based training is the baking industry, with apprentices routinely dispatched several times a year to distant campuses for blocks of training. However, the baking industry is characterised by variable work hours and a high number of casual employees, so staff often have difficulties accessing institution-based training.

A group of researchers and VET practitioners set out this year to investigate flexible learning options that would suit the baking industry, enabling more learning in the workplace.

Ninety students studying the Baking trades course volunteered to participate in the project and the researchers split them into two groups. The first group was called the face-to-face group, for whom content was delivered in a teacher-centred traditional learning environment.

The second group was designated the hybrid group and involved the use of what the team called blended learning. These students were given tasks to complete before each lesson, in the workplace, with the tasks delivered via SMS, email, a blog and a web site. The lessons conducted on campus for the hybrid group were student-centred and self-paced, where the teacher functioned as a facilitator and mentor.

The researchers compared the knowledge and skill level of the two groups after a series of learning activities and found that the hybrid or blended learning model resulted in higher levels of learning than the traditional face-to-face model.

The above research is the focus of my column in Campus Review, to be published on 1 December 2004.