Kira Clarke

Kira Clarke

Senior Research Fellow, Youth Opportunity Team, Social Policy and Research Centre, Brotherhood of St Laurence

Kira Clarke is a Senior Research Fellow in Youth Opportunity in the Social Policy and Research Centre (SPaRC) at the Brotherhood of St Laurence (BSL). She currently leads SPaRC’s skills and training policy and research stream and co-leads evaluations of the national systemic change youth employment initiative – the National Youth Employment Body (NYEB). Prior to joining BSL in February 2020, Kira was a Lecturer in Education Policy within the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne. As a university researcher (2004–2019), she completed more than 35 grant-funded and commissioned research projects, through which she developed high level technical research skills, and a deep knowledge of education and training policy trends in Australia and internationally. As a national expert in vocational education and training policy, particularly as it relates to youth transitions and young people, Kira led the widely cited Entry to Vocations study of VET in Schools (2012–14) for NCVER. She completed two research studies (2014–15 & 2015–17) funded through the competitive National Vocational Education and Training Research (NVETR) program and in partnership with the Brotherhood of St Laurence, examining the role of the vocational education for early school leavers. Kira is the current President of the Australasian Vocational Education and Research Association (AVETRA) and Victorian co-convener of WAVE (Women in Adult & Vocational Education). She previously presented at CCA’s July 2017 Conference in Melbourne.