VET Round Table Communiqué
This half-day program held on 12 March 2009 focussed on the implications of a new tertiary education environment on the VET sector.
Approximately 70 participants attended the VET Round Table hosted by RMIT in collaboration with the VTA and B-HERT. Like the panel, the participants came from a diverse range of backgrounds and this encouraged the informative multi-perspective discussion that followed.
Perspectives Presented
David Hind, President of B-HERT as Chair invited the panel members to spend 15 minutes outlining their views about how the VET sector is positioned in the new education environment.
Peter Noonan, as a member of the Bradley review team, focused our attention on outcomes, qualifications and skills. There are important differences between higher education (HE) and the competency based VET sectors but vocational education occurs in both sectors and business doesn’t distinguish between a university or VET educated workforce – they just need the skills. While clearly supporting the importance of a tertiary education system that provides all workforce needs, it is important that diversity based on differing forms of qualifications should be preserved while improving linkages because students and employers need choice and distinctiveness. Homogenisation and credentialism creep must be avoided; instead provision must be shaped by demand.
Megan Lilly from the AiGroup agreed that the uniqueness of the VET sector should not be lost and expressed some caution about a single tertiary sector. A single sector puts pressure on qualifications with the undesirable effect of the VET sector becoming seen as only a feeder or pathway to higher education. The top end of the VET sector qualifications currently provides exit to employment, a highly valued and important outcome for the sector.
Qualifications can, however, also have built into them path ways to higher education. The feeder-only model is not supported by AiGroup. What is supported are national (streamlined) regulatory arrangements where HE and VET remain as separate arrangements. In her view the best way to deal with the equity issues raised in the Bradley Report is to retain both pathways. The Australian Qualifications Framework Council needs to build a bridge between the VET and HE and industry needs to be part of the process.
Tony Eramo as a Training & Development Manager with Bluescope Steel - Western Port located on the Mornington Peninsula, is a VET user and provided us with on-the-ground information about what business needs. Bluescope, as a large company facing competition from other companies and other materials, focuses on education from school through to VET and HE. The Western Port plant operates sophisticated equipment and therefore training to a set skill must be based on a competency standard. The underpinning knowledge behind the processes forms the competitive edge for the company. When providers are engaged to undertake shop floor training, the courses are nationally accredited and it is predominantly done on-site. The trainers are embedded in the business and this close alignment allows for flexibility which is a benefit, for example, to shift workers.
Leadership training is also important to a major manufacturing company in an industry that is capital intensive and cost competitive. They work closely with their university provider offering a blended leadership program according to a national standard (Business Front Line Management Certificate).
In addition, Bluescope is also involved in schools assisting students prepare for job interviews, recruitment of university graduates and they sponsor cadetships and scholarships. They sponsor academic research and activities in their Metallurgy Centre. Tony expressed the concern that often training is the first thing to go in hard times because it is a discretionary spend. He noted that it is hard to find technical experts and maybe that presented opportunities for partnerships. From his perspective, there are a lot of providers chasing a finite number of students and perhaps a funding model that encourages so many providers may need to be reviewed.
Professor David Battersby, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ballarat and a significant dual sector provider, supported the government’s ‘emboldened view’ that is provoking a rethink of the interface between HE and VET. Does the nation need separate systems? He made a plea for a common qualification language to allow universities and the VET sector to connect effectively; seamlessness of qualifications, fees, income support and regulatory oversight between VET and HE architecture to support a single system. To overcome fragmentation, one needs to look at the joint purpose and the interface between degrees offered by universities and TAFE.
Points Raised
Some of the points raised in response to the perspectives presented included:
- The focus should not be on sectors or institutions but rather the strategy point is to differentiate between different forms of qualifications and individuals can choose what they need.
- In relation to social inclusion, there is some outstanding work going on involving mentoring and case management. There are many localised solutions that are working to implement social inclusion.
- The more the funding can be mainstreamed, the better the outcome ie social inclusion leading to workforce participation.
- The social inclusion agenda needs to focus on the supply end targets. A serious conversation is needed in order to attract people back into the system. 35-40% of the people that need to be attracted have never heard of VET. Alarm bells should be ringing about our (lack of) knowledge of these people. We need to be able to connect with them.
- How to make it more seamless from secondary to tertiary? It’s so complex now for students; we need more specialists in schools focussed on VET and HE.
- From a business perspective, we don’t really distinguish who the provider is – right course/right price.
- The University of Ballarat has 50 staff working at Bluescope in both Port Kembla NSW and Western Port Victoria; the University of Wollongong also works with them. Working cross border is a real challenge.
- The Teaching and Learning Performance Fund was established in 2003. In 5-6 years there seems to have been a quantum leap in focus on university teaching workforce capability in planning for HE. If the outcome is quality, government should fund it in creative formats.
- There is a lack of seamlessness for secondary school graduates and their future lives. There needs to be greater flexibility in pathways that students can follow into professions.
- Another issue is portability – mobile accreditation works well for university but not for VET students. Although progress has been made the remaining state to state variation continues to cause difficulties.
Final Remarks
In wrapping up the session, Professor Battersby remarked on:
- the ferment of ideas, philosophies and questions;
- it is evident that now (in contrast to the past) that these issues are back on the national agenda;
- the fact that we are about to witness a new public policy agenda;
- the intersection of key challenges eg social inclusion agenda is now at the forefront in relation to the human capital agenda and the VET contribution to the workforce agenda;
- the education revolution is now taking a much broader approach to issues relevant for VET.
