Pathways: following the highway, taking the scenic route or journeying through the dreaming

Embedded in much Vocational Education and Training discourse and research is the notion of ‘pathways’ between education/training and employment. The use of this term has become so common place and its relevance so deeply assumed, that the meanings and manifestations of such ‘pathways’ are rarely unpacked in policy statements and research recommendations. The importance of ‘pathways’ has become an inarguable and necessary condition of effective Vocational Education and Training (VET) initiatives. Congruent with this, the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation (CRC-REP) partnership developed an agenda which identified a need to develop a systemic understanding of ‘pathways’ between education, employment and enterprise for Aboriginal people in remote regions of Australia. As a component of the CRC-REP “Investing in People Program” a “Pathways to Employment” research strand has recently been initiated.

Rather than a focus on research findings, this paper is a preliminary discussion on the possible directions the “Pathways to Employment” project could take. It aims to explore assumptions behind the notion of a pathway between education/training and employment/enterprise as well as expectations associated with economic participation. By raising questions about the common place and assumed relevance of ‘pathways’ and certain forms of economic participation this paper proposes an alternative research agenda. One which recognises the existence of potentially different ontologies, epistemologies and axiologies shaping Aboriginal aspirations for vocation and work in remote community contexts and subsequently influencing how pathways can be meaningfully conceptualised.