Transformative learning in Diploma of Community Services programs

Abstract

Employment in the Australian community services industry will generally require an individual to undertake a formal qualification. One such qualification is the Diploma of Community Services which is a Vocational Education and Training (VET) program. Like all VET qualifications in Australia it is ‘competency based’ - that is, it uses a curriculum model which involves submitting a job role to a task analysis and employing a behavioural template to the analysis to produce ‘units of competency’. In my experience as a community services worker and now as a community services VET teacher I have become increasingly aware of personal change in Diploma of Community Services students that is not part of the competency-based curriculum and the impact such change has on job readiness. According to a handful of research projects (e.g. Hodge, 2010a) personal change is an important part of the process of becoming a worker - especially in human services areas of work. This idea will be explored in this project. Drawing on the theory of Transformative Learning (Mezirow, 1978, 1990, 1991, 2006) this project explores experiences of personal change in learners while studying the Diploma of Community Services. Transformative learning concepts will be considered in the context of the participant’s experience. This research will be of interest to community services organisations and education institutions interested in the training of effective community services workers.