Ralph Saubern Biography
Ralph Saubern is the Director, Professional Resources at the Australian Council for
Educational Research. Professional Resources brings together in one division ACER’s full
range of services in support of improved, evidence-based professional and organisational
practice, including:
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Assessment services
Professional learning
Publications and resources
Information services.
Mr Saubern was appointed to ACER in 2000 and worked until 2010 in
ACER Press, the publishing arm of ACER, including as General Manager
and Publisher from 2007-2010. In 2009, Mr Saubern undertook a sabbatical
with The Song Room, a national not-for-profit organisation that provides
free, long-term music and arts-based programs for children in
disadvantaged and high need communities. In 2010 he returned to ACER
and was appointed General Manager, Schools in the Assessment Services
Division and shortly after to the role of Director, Assessment Services, with responsibility for
leading school, vocational and higher education assessment services. In 2012 Mr Saubern
was appointed as Director, Professional Resources, following a decision to merge the
Assessment Services and Professional Resources Divisions to bring together six ACER
program units (including units focused on assessment services, professional learning and
publishing and resources development) into one client-focused division.
Mr Saubern began his career in education as an ESL/EFL teacher, teaching and lecturing at
Holmesglen Institute, RMIT University, Deakin University and Monash University. At Monash
University he held the position of Computer Assisted Language Learning Co-ordinator before
a secondment in 1998 led to his appointment as General Manager of Wiser Software, a
start-up educational multimedia publisher.
In addition to his substantive role at ACER, Mr Saubern serves as a non-executive director
on the board of the Australian Council for Educational Research (India) Pvt Ltd, a wholly
owned subsidiary of ACER. ACER India is focused on working in partnerships across South
Asia – including with classroom teachers, school leaders, education consultants, system
leaders, governments, parents and caregivers and learners themselves – to improve
educational outcomes and develop local solutions to local problems.
Presentation
Using Data to Improve Core Skill Development in VET – An Australian Perspective
In response to the increasing demands of modern workforce and general life participation
and perceptions of poor or declining educational standards, governments around the world
are emphasising the important role of education systems in developing in learners a broader
set of skills that will meet the challenges and demands of work, study and life in the 21st
century. In many cases this has led education systems to focus increasingly on learning
outcomes as a measure of system quality in addition to more traditional measures of inputs
and outputs. In refocusing the notion of ‘quality’ around this proximate purpose of education
(student learning outcomes), systems have been able to set ambitious agendas on
improvements in outcomes and monitor and evaluate progress against those
agendas. While substantial investments have and are being made in the VET system in
data collection and analysis in regard to enrolments, costs, completions and employment
outcomes and in relation to monitoring, compliance and risk management, there has been
less emphasis on collecting empirical evidence about the quality of teaching and broader
learning outcomes and using such evidence to support local and system-wide continuous
improvement strategies.
This presentation will be in two parts:
1. A summary of some key data and research about language, literacy and numeracy (LLN)
skills, including from the OECD Adult Literacy and Lifeskills (ALL) and Programme for
International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) surveys, and implications for
education, employment and society. This part of the presentation will focus on a series
of key questions: how can notions of system quality be refocused to drive outcomes
which the needs of individuals, employers and society? what are the skills that have
been identified as key to success in 21st century workforce and society? what do we
know about the LLN skills of the workforce and general population? how can data be
used to enhance learning outcomes in VET?
2. The development of LLN assessment tools by the Australian Council for Educational
Research (ACER) to support TVET/FE providers and educators in Australia in collecting
evidence of student LLN skills and planning and implementing improved teaching and
learning strategies.