Professor Erica Smith
Emeritus Professor
Campus
Biography
Erica Smith is Emeritus Professor of Education in the Institute of Education, Arts and Community, and was leader of the Researching Adult and Vocational Education group for over a decade. Professor Smith’s specialisation is vocational education and training (VET). Other areas of expertise include VET policy, training in workplaces, competency-based training, and the school-to-work transition.
Erica is Australia’s foremost apprenticeship researcher and is co-chair of the International Network on Innovative Apprenticeship. Erica is also an expert on VET teachers, their work and qualifications. She was the founding leader of Federation University’s VET teacher-education program, and until her retirement in mid-2023 convened the Australian Council of Deans of Education Vocational Education Group. She is an appointed member of the Australian Government’s VET Workforce Blueprint Steering Group and a member of the Advisory Board for the National Careers Institute, a government body.
Erica makes many invited contributions to Commonwealth and State government policy and practice in her areas of expertise and has advised governments in several other countries. She has managed over 30 national and international research projects and is an invited speaker at events around the world.
Find me on
- Publications
The nature and benefits of partnerships between employers and training providers
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1080/13636820.2024.2417224
The oversight of VET teacher-education in Australia
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1080/13636820.2025.2521817
Women and apprenticeships: An Australian perspective
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.54844/vte.2025.0928
How women are disadvantaged in the Australian apprenticeship system
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1017/elr.2025.10033
The narrative of a VET workforce shortage in Australia: reality, myth or opportunity?
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1108/ET-03-2023-0078
Rescue and recovery: The COVID and post-COVID responses of apprenticeship systems
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1080/02692171.2024.2336546
VET Teacher Education in Australia: Three Levels across Two Sectors
- Book Chapters
- DOI reference: 10.3278/9783763976690
Informal training and learning in Australian firms: The need for a new perspective
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1111/ijtd.12307
Apprenticeships: The problem of attractiveness and the hindrance of heterogeneity
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1111/ijtd.12281
Do the qualifications of vocational teachers make a difference to their teaching?
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1080/13596748.2023.2166690
Expanding or restricting access to tertiary education? A tale of two sectors and two countries
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1080/13596748.2022.2076059
Protecting us from the pandemic? Reframing the work of security officers in quarantine hotels in Australia
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1080/10301763.2022.2120349
Thirty years of competency-based training: how Australia painted itself into a curriculum corner in vocational education and training
- Book Chapters
- DOI reference: 10.1016/B978-0-12-818630-5.02079-0
Australian TVET Teacher Training: Once Flourishing but Now Neglected
- Book Chapters
- DOI reference: 10.1007/978-981-16-6474-8_26
Getting ready for new apprenticeship arrangements for a new world of work
Choosing VET as a post-school activity: What are some influences on non-metropolitan students?
Preparation for post-school careers in rural and peri-urban Australia: Connections with employers and labour markets
The expansion and contraction of the apprenticeship system in Australia, 1985-2020
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1080/13636820.2021.1894218
Learning and development practitioners: identity, profession and future trajectory
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1111/1744-7941.12207
Afterword: a fresh look at workplace learning for VET teachers
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1080/14480220.2020.1757890
Competency-based Training Australian-style: How it Exposes VET to Risk
Making a difference or making a dollar? Intermediary organisations in apprenticeships
The Importance of VET Teacher Professionalism: An Australian Case Study
- Book Chapters
- DOI reference: 10.1007/978-3-319-94532-3_23
Occupational preparation for manual work: Fitter/machinists and concrete operators.
How do vocational teachers keep up to date with trends in pedagogy and in industry?
- Book Chapters
- DOI reference: 10.1007/978-3-658-24460-6_22
Employer training in Australia: current practices and concerns
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1111/ijtd.12152
Apprenticeships and 'future work': are we ready?
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1111/ijtd.12145
Young people’s decision-making as they leave school in non-metropolitan areas in Australia: Insights from those working with young people
A small study of big issues in apprenticeship: Companies' apprenticeship management practices in Australia
Revisiting apprenticeships as a response to persistent and growing youth unemployment
Towards a Model of Learning and Development Practice
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.22324/ijhrdppr.1.113
Continuity and change: employers' training practices and partnerships with training providers
Re-thinking skill through a new lens: evidence from three Australian service industries
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1080/13639080.2016.1243231
What makes a good VET teacher? Views of Australian VET teachers and students
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1080/14480220.2017.1355301
The emerging profile of Australian learning and development specialists
Work and learning in jobs that are traditionally considered unskilled or low-skilled.
Learning to Control: Training and Work Organization in Australian Call Centres
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1177/0022185607087900
A woman's work is never certificated? How the implementation of nationally recognised training in workplaces helps women get qualifications
Models of full-time and part-time vocational training for school-leavers: A comparison between Germany and Australia
Quality and qualms in the marking of university assignments by sessional staff: An exploratory study
A rich tapestry: Changing views of teaching and teaching qualifications in the vocational education and training sector
The understandings about learners and learning that are imparted in Certificate IV level courses for VET teachers and trainers
Learning at a distance: How distance education students use their learning materials
Learning for success: distance education students' use of their learning materials
Qualifying the workforce: the use of accredited training in Australian companies
The development of key training policies in England and Australia: a comparison
The role of training in the development of human resource management in Australian organisations
Making training core business: Enterprise registered training organisations in Australia
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1080/13636820902996491
The development of employability skills in novice workers through employment
Part-Time Work of High School Students and Impact on Educational Outcomes
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1375/ajgc.19.2.216
What are the pros and cons of gaining qualifications through work?
Social construction of skill viewed through the lens of training for the cleaning industry
New models of working and learning: how young people are shaping their futures differently
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1080/13596740903360984
The Certificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training: Understanding learners and learning
Theory and Practice: the contribution of off the job training to the development of apprentices and trainees
Australian Quality Training Framework: Impact of provisions relating to teaching and teacher qualifications
Learning to Learn Through Work? The Important of Australian Apprenticeship and Traineeship Policies in Young Workers' Learning Careers
The Role of Employers in the Development of Employabilty Skills in Novice Workers
Vocational Education and Training in Schools in Australia: what are the consequences of moving from margins to mainstream?
The delicate dance: the assessment implications of awarding students vocational qualifications within university degrees
Experiencing pre-apprenticeships: Participants; views of a program with dual purposes
A serendipitous synchronisation of interests: Employers and student-working
The land of Narnia or just the back of the wardrobe? What research tells us about the real world of work for young people
The Experiences of apprentices and trainees in small Australian businesses: some qualitative research findings
Leading the charge in cross-sectorial integration: Vocational teacher education and the embedding of units of competency
How lower-level and vulnerable workers benefit from employers' engagement with the national qualificaiton system in Australia
Making choices: Exploring influences on post-school career pathways
Australian enterprises' use of apprenticeships and traineeships to meet specific labour shortages
Value adding to apprenticeships: How an Australian construction company invests in apprentices to produce future senior managers
The effects on young people's transition from school of formal contact with workplaces while at school
Public policies on training and their provenance: An international comparison
Getting down and dirty down under: Battling over trainer qualifications in Australia
Why Australian companies are turning to qualification based training for their workers
Articulation and embedding: Using the Certificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training to explore the relationships between the higher education and VET sectors
The effects of a decade of national training reform upon practitioners in vocational education and training
Political construction of skill: The effects of policy changes in entry-level training in Australia on participation rates and on the perception of 'Skill'
Academics attitudes towards the production of refereed publications: Some qualitative research outcomes
Continuing professional education for practitioners in post-compulsory education
Learning to labour at the turn of the century: Paul Willis revisited
Figures in a new landscape: The experiences of workers and learners in a new VET system
Pedagogy not political pointscoring: How training providers teach international students
Links between concepts of skill, concepts of occupation and the training system: A case study of Australia
- Book Chapters
- DOI reference: 10.4324/9781315670331
Old dogs, new tricks: training mature-aged manufacturing workers
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1108/13665621011053190
VET in the compulsory years of schooling:A pathway into the future or a dead end?
Part-Time Work of High School Students: Impact on employability, employment outcomes and career development
What Industry wants: employers' preferences for training
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1108/00400911011037346
A review of twenty years of competency-based training in the Australian vocational education and training system
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1111/j.1468-2419.2009.00340.x
Apprenticeships
- Book Chapters
- DOI reference: 10.1016/B978-0-08-044894-7.00774-0
Employability Skills
- Book Chapters
- DOI reference: 10.1016/B978-0-08-044894-7.00783-1
What do senior figures in Australian VET think about traineeships?
The importance of the psychological contract for effective learning in apprenticeships
Australian employers' adoption of traineeships
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1080/13636820.2011.559267
Does the availability of vocational qualifications through work assist social inclusion?
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1108/00400911111171986
Vocational educators' qualifications: A pedagogical poor relation?
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.5172/ijtr.9.3.204
Demand for apprenticeships and traineeships: What are the implicatons for the future?
The psychological contract in apprenticeships and traineeships: Differing perceptions
The Changing Nature of Youth Employment in Australia: How can this be understood
Buying-out teaching for research: the views of academics and their managers
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1007/s10734-011-9452-9
How vocational education and training researchers use theory in their research
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.5172/ijtr.2012.10.3.251
Part-time working by students: is it a policy issue, and for whom?
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1080/13639080.2011.623123
'The national custodian': How interest groups and academic combine to restrict access of working people to qualifications
Managing apprentices and managing PhD students: Current concerns and transferable tips
The psychological contract in apprenticeships and traineeships: Comparing the perceptions of employees and employers
Getting in through the front door: The first hurdle of researching in companies
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.5172/ijtr.2012.10.3.153
Good Practice in Apprenticeship Systems: Evidence From An International Study
Pre-apprenticeships in Australia: differing orientations and their policy implications
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1080/13636820.2012.738428
'Qualifications for work and further learning': The Australian approach to hybrid qualifications
Occupational Identity in Australian Traineeships: An Initial Exploration
- Book Chapters
- DOI reference: 10.1007/978-94-007-5398-3_9
Learning to Work in a Global Economy: How Countries use Apprenticeship Systems to Assist School-Leavers
Globalising the apprenticeship concept: How far can apprenticeship systems be compared across countries and what can be gained?
Who is conducting educational research in Australia and how can their work be supported?
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1007/s13384-013-0106-z
When employers become training providers: What are some institutional issues?
Towards a model apprenticeship framework: A comparative analysis of national apprenticeship systems
Living in a 2.2 World: ERA, Capacity Building and the Topography of Australian Educational Research
Understanding the psychological contract in apprenticeships and traineeships to improve retention
The crowded market: Agencies dealing with apprenticeships in Australia
Voices from a small discipline: How the Australian Vocational Education and Training discipline made sense of journal rankings
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1080/14480220.2014.11082044
Credit transfer from VET to higher education: a pathways policy meets a roadblock
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1080/13596748.2014.897517
How can the expansion of the apprenticeship system in India create conditions for greater equity and social justice?
What do senior figures in Australian VET and industrial relations think about the concept of skill in work?
Views of skill in low-wage jobs: Australian security guards and cleaners
How closely do Australian Training Package qualifications reflect the skills in occupations? An empirical investigation of seven qualifications
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1080/14480220.2015.1051351
VET teacher education in Australian universities: who are the students and what are their views about their courses?
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1080/13596748.2015.1081752
Australian VET teacher education: What is the benefit of pedagogical studies at university for VET teachers?
Apprenticeship: one concept, many facets
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1108/ET-05-2016-0083
Views of VET teachers, managers and students about VET teacher qualifications
Apprenticeship Management at National and Company Levels: Research Based 'Good Practices' Principles
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.22324/ijhrdppr.1.104
Vocational education and training (VET) pathways for disadvantaged youth
- Journals
- DOI reference: 10.1108/et.2010.00452eaa.001
