Between School and Adult Life: An Approach to the Evaluation of Pre-Vocational Education in TAFE. ACER Research Monograph No. 5.

An evaluation study of some work preparation (or pre-vocational education) programs in New South Wales and Queensland (Australia) was conducted to accomplish the following objectives: (1) to establish a general methodological framework for the continuing evaluation of Technical and Future Education (TAFE) pre-vocational programs; (2) to obtain a worthwhile assessment of the effectiveness of a selected number of work preparation programs currently offered; and (3) to identify major problems and factors which could guide the future development of work preparation programs. In developing a strategy for the evaluation of TAFE pre-vocational education programs, a start was made by examining the main aspects of its rationale and the key features of four programs in this field. The results of this examination enabled general approaches to educational evaluation to be incorporated in an evaluation framework for pre-vocational education. Subsequently, it was possible to identify data which needed to be collected about each element of the framework and to suggest instruments which might be used for this purpose. Finally, suggestions were made of means by which data gathered about each element in the framework could be used in further analyses. (This report is primarily concerned with the first objective and contains a description of some new developments in pre-vocational education, a discussion of the rationale for programs in this area, and an outline of an evaluation approach.) (BM)