[1] He has received funding from the Australian Research Council and sits on the editorial and advisory boards of several academic journals, including the Journal on Workplace Learning, Vocations and Learning, and Empirical Research in Vocational Education and Training.
[10][11] Since the 1990s, Billett's research has consistently emphasized the potential of workplace learning, conceptualizing workplaces as learning environments where the use of knowledge, roles and processes are continuously negotiated, framing the learner's participation in situated work activities, and appreciating practical knowledge.
[22] Together with Margaret Somerville, he has also highlighted how workplace practices shape individuals' identities and are, in turn, shaped by workers based on their subjective experiences, e.g. if they demand better occupational health and safety in order to improve the quality and perception of their occupation; however, the learning process underlying such actions is hardly taken into account by most lifelong learning policies.
[24][25] Finally, more recently, Billett has pleaded for the inclusion and integration of practice-based experiences in higher education, which requires close relations between academic institutions and practice settings and their personnel, while recognizing that both learning environments may have different imperatives.
Currently (2015-2018), he manages a research project on how to increase students' employability by improving post-practicum educational processes.