QUOTES FOR CHRISTMAS<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VET Centre<\/b><\/span> on Tuesday, 22 December 2015 in <\/span><\/b>VET<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The VET Blog is signing off for 2015. The ever-present Christmas dilemma is what to give our blog readers as a parting gift for the year? Thankfully, India’s <\/span>EdTechReview<\/span> has just the thing to feed your professional thinking over the Christmas-New Year break. The good folk at EdTechReview have put together <\/span>100 Educational Quotes Educators and Ed Leaders Will Love<\/span> – some one-liners to dip into while you’re taking it easy by the pool.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here’s a sample:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework (Edith Ann, aka Lily Tomlin)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>One learns by doing a thing; for though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try (Sophocles)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Do you know the difference between education and experience? Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don’t (Pete Seeger).<\/span><\/p>\n

Wait. There’s more in the hamper. A bundle of Aussie quotable quotes about education over at <\/span>Australian Inspiration<\/span>. The page headed <\/span>Education & Learning<\/span> comprises short thoughts from national notables like Quentin Bryce, Barry Jones and John Monash. A sample:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Get growing. Back yourself and make mistakes. It’s your mistakes and observations that are your greatest tutors (Costa Georgiadis)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Sport … teaches life’s lessons. But there’s no substitute, in my book, for education, because that gives you choice (Fiona Wood)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Education doesn’t give you the answers, but enables you to ask the questions! (Suzanne Connelly).<\/span><\/p>\n

NEW DIRECTIONS FOR VET IN VICTORIA – MACKENZIE REVIEW AND THE VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSE<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VETCentre<\/b><\/span> on Monday, 21 December 2015 in <\/span><\/b>VET Reforms<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

On 16 December the Victorian government released two much awaited documents – the<\/span>VET Funding Review Final Report<\/i><\/span> (174 pages) and <\/span>Skills and Jobs in the Education State: The Government’s Response to the VET Funding Review<\/i><\/span> (20 pages). We will devote several posts to the report and government response early in the New Year. This post offers a very general overview of aspects of both documents.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Final Report<\/i> is a comprehensive investigation of how best to design the state’s VET funding model so that private, industry and government expenditure maximises the benefits of training. Quality is the byword in the Report<\/i>’s careful survey of training, student support and individual, industry and economic outcomes. It establishes the pivotal role of TAFE Institutes as publicly funded providers and recognises that private providers play a valued role in a diverse, responsive training system.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Final Report<\/i>’s Introduction provides several paragraphs (page 6) that set the context for priorities and practice in coming years:<\/span><\/p>\n

First and foremost, the Review recommends that the Government make clear what it wants from the VET system, and its significant investment in the sector. This should include a statement of the outcomes it seeks to achieve from VET. The Review considers it should prioritise adult literacy and numeracy, youth, retrenched workers, the long-term unemployed and disadvantaged students. This will then inform the development, administration and implementation of the new system.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the heart of the reforms being proposed is a simpler, more stable funding model, supported by a resetting of the subsidy rates. From this, funding will be able to be better targeted – to training by higher quality, lower risk providers, and in areas of real need and value. As a result, students will be more likely to get the jobs or other outcomes they seek from their training.<\/span><\/p>\n

Students will be asked to contribute to the cost of their training.<\/span><\/p>\n

TAFE institutes will be better supported and funded in a way that reflects the costs they bear and their contribution to the state. All of the sector will be encouraged and incentivised to improve.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Final Report pulls no punches about the morally hollow behaviour of providers who have misdirected funding and dudded learners. The Report<\/i>’s recommendations are crafted to create a VET system that lives and breathes quality. In the process the rorters will be exposed. (Sadly, some of them are gob-smacklingly slow to learn as this piece in The Australian<\/i> makes all too plain – <\/span>‘Sign up now, and quickly’<\/span>, by Julie Hare, 18 December.) The Final Report<\/i> suggests there is plenty of room to measure and monitor performance in ways that emphasise quality and spur continuous improvement across the entire VET system. On pages 112-113 the reviewers, Bruce Mackenzie and Neil Coulson, propose a number of ways in which performance assessment could be given a sharper edge and also furnish industry, students and the public with much better information about which providers are doing the best job. For example, the Final Report floats that the idea that a performance assessment taskforce could be established which:<\/span><\/p>\n

… could assess an individual provider’s capability through direct observation of its classes and teachers, reviewing training material, reviewing evidence of learning over time, and talking to students about their training experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

This process could encourage continuous improvement within the training sector by giving providers independent feedback on the quality of the training they deliver, while also bolstering the states quality assurance regime.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another option the Final Report<\/i> suggests is to establish a self-assessment and external review process<\/span><\/p>\n

… where providers undertake a self-assessment of their performance across a range of outcomes and process indicators. In New Zealand outcome indicators include training outcomes (further study or employment outcomes) while process indicators include (student supports available or assessment practices). Providers consider those outcomes and process most relevant to their organisation.<\/span><\/p>\n

These self-assessments are then verified though an inspection carried out by independent assessors. The assessors have a track record of delivery and leadership in the relevant sector and are trained in the methodology and techniques of the inspection framework.<\/span><\/p>\n

By incorporating elements of these approaches into its performance and continuous improvement approach to VET, government could drive real improvements in the quality and reputation of Victorian VET.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shifting provider attention from inputs and processes to outcomes is to be welcomed. It entails a very different orientation to auditing and evidence than the one we’ve had to work with for too long.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Final Report makes 109 recommendations. They will have considerable influence. The Victorian Government has made it very plain that the recommendations are not going to sit on the shelf. The Government’s Response<\/i> embraces the recommendations, setting them on a pathway to implementation with clear statements of intent and timelines.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Government’s Response<\/i> sets out its expectations for the system like this (page 7):<\/span><\/p>\n

The Government will define three overarching objectives that explicitly state what it expects from the VET system and will regularly measure and report on the performance of the VET system under these objectives:<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Deliver quality training that meets current and future industry needs<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Ensuring employer confidence through the availability of a highly skilled, adaptable and productive workforce and servicing the job needs of local communities, industries and the economy.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Grow employment and further education outcomes<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Helping people to transform their lives, their careers and their future and move between different stages of education and training.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Promote equity and address disadvantage<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Creating opportunities for all Victorians to get the skills they need for the jobs and futures they want, no matter their level of disadvantage or their situation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Taking these three objectives as the touchstones for policy, the Victorian Government has specified six themes that will underpin the VET reform journey:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>A clear vision for VET in Victoria, targeted to meeting industry need and providing job outcomes<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>A responsive and sustainable model that promotes lifelong learning<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Defining clear roles for TAFEs and community sectors to ensure strong and sustainable systems<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Transparency for students, industry and employers<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Supporting quality and continuous improvement<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Promotion of equity for learners of all abilities.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is considerable work to do yet in moving from recommendations and statements of intent to clear policy and a transparent, predictable funding framework. The next steps in the journey are:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>From January 2016 – <\/span>Modelling and impact assessments to inform funding design<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>February to June 2016 – Focused consultation with key stakeholders<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Mid 2016 – Funding model announced with details of subsidy levels<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>From 2017 – New model to be progressively implemented.<\/span><\/p>\n

On 16 December the Victorian Government also released six Fact Sheets that distil the implications of changes ahead for key stakeholders in VET:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Our vision for industry<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Our vision for regions<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Our vision for community providers<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Our vision for training providers<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Our vision for TAFEs<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Our vision for students.<\/span><\/p>\n

You can <\/span>download the Fact Sheets here<\/span>, along with the Final Report<\/i> and theGovernment’s Response<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

GENDER EQUALITY IN EDUCATION AND OCCUPATIONAL CHOICE<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VET Centre<\/b><\/span> on Monday, 14 December 2015 in <\/span><\/b>Research<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Early in 2015 the <\/span>OECD<\/span> released <\/span>The ABC of gender equality in education: Aptitude, behaviour, confidence<\/i><\/span> (182 pages). The report looks at gender differences across a range of matters, from academic performance and occupational preferences to workforce participation. Drawing on data from the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the report sets out to answer two questions:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>why are 15-year-old boys more likely than girls, on average, to fail to attain a baseline level of proficiency in reading, mathematics and science?<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>why do high-performing 15-year-old girls still underachieve in areas such as mathematics, science and problem solving when compared to high-performing boys?<\/span><\/p>\n

The answer to both questions has implications for VET delivery and assessment, influencing factors like who enrols in a VET qualification and what LLN support they may need. The data tell different stories from country to country, yet there is surprising consistency in what the stories are about. For the purposes of this post we’ll leave aside the big picture, and the answer to those two key questions, and zero in on occupational choice.<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s very clear we have much work to do yet if we are to increase the proportion of girls who choose traditional trades, for example, and the proportion of boys who take up roles in traditionally feminised occupations like child care. The work we have to do isn’t confined to the last few years of school when VET taster programs are offered and careers teachers are active. We need to get to work at pre-school and primary school levels with the aim of building aptitude and confidence from the early years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among the research findings set out on page 98 of the report are these:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>less than 5% of girls in OECD countries, on average, contemplate pursuing a career in engineering or computing (and the definition of computing and engineering includes such gender-neutral fields as architecture), while 16% of girls expect a career in health (excluding nurses and midwives) but only 7% of boys do.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>in 2000, 36% of 15 year old boys and 43% of girls that age expected to work as managers or professionals when they were 30; but in 2012, only 22% of 25-34 year-old men and 23% of 25-34 year-old women worked in such occupations.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>while PISA reveals large gender differences in reading, in favour of 15-year-old girls, the Survey of Adult Skills suggests that there are no significant gender differences in literacy proficiency among 16-29 year-olds. Boys catch up for two reasons it would seem – postsecondary access to LLN support and, importantly, skill development through job-related reading and writing.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>among workers in their 30s, 40s and particularly workers in their 50s and 60s, men appear to be considerably more likely than women to read and write at work, as well as to use numeracy, ICT and problem-solving skills.<\/span><\/p>\n

Figure 4.11 in the report shows the proportion of boys and girls expecting a career in engineering or computing. Only about 9 per cent of Australian students had these career directions in mind, compared to 20 per cent in Poland or 13 per cent in Norway and Taiwan. However, Australia’s 9 per cent is quite different when looked at through a gender lens – the proportion of Australian boys expecting a career in engineering or computing is around 17 per cent, while for girls it’s just 3 per cent. This expectation comes home to roost when we look at the gender differences in field of study (Figure 4.21) which shows that 30 per cent of boys are enrolled in post-secondary engineering, manufacturing and construction qualifications compared to 3 per cent of girls.<\/span><\/p>\n

The picture is quite different in health occupations – 11 per cent of Australian boys and girls expect to end up in this field, with the gender difference being 14 per cent for girls and 8 per cent for boys.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is more to learn from this report if you have the time. For example, look at Table 1.1 which shows the percentage of 15 year old students who are underperformers in all subjects at school. Australia comes in 20th of around 60 nations involved, behind countries as diverse as Hong Kong, Vietnam, Canada, Ireland and Czech Republic. About 8 per cent of girls and 11 per cent of boys underperform across all their subjects of study. For the roughly 20 per cent of young Australians underperforming across the board in comparison to their peers internationally, this isn’t a great platform for launching into postsecondary education, which is basically essential for a growing proportion of entry level jobs.<\/span><\/p>\n

You may be interested in two January 2014 posts we ran in The VET Blog that looked at ‘ungendering’ occupational choice in the trades:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Women in trades (1)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Women in trades (2)<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

EXTENDING THE EXPERTISE OF VET TEACHERS IN ASIA<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VET Centre<\/b><\/span> on Tuesday, 08 December 2015 in <\/span><\/b>VET<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

We do have a national VET system, and policies that are specific to Australia and to each state and territory. However, VET is an international endeavour. Societies, businesses and governments are everywhere concerned with the availability of contemporary workplace skills, training that maximises employees’ ability to adapt to new technologies, and training and assessment that is up to speed with innovative services, products and business processes. That global VET context is what brings The VET Blog to refer occasionally to activity beyond Australia. This post is another entry on that theme and focuses on RAVTE, the <\/span>Regional Association for Vocational Teacher Education in East and Southeast Asia<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is much effort at the moment on bringing the VET systems of Asia into closer relationship. Key aspects of the evolving relationship include improving understanding across borders about national qualification frameworks, enhancing the portability of qualifications between nations, raising awareness about the structure and operation of quality frameworks, and harmonising aspects of assessment. It’s a big agenda that Australia is both contributing to and benefiting from.<\/span><\/p>\n

RAVTE is only a few years old, yet it sits at the centre of these efforts at aligning VET systems simply because teachers are at the heart of all VET systems – they are the people who facilitate student learning that matches the needs of employers and learners. RAVTE states its main objectives as being:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>to enhance vocational teacher education (including institutional development)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>to improve research activities on vocational education and to establish it as a scientific discipline<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>to foster regionalisation processes and cooperation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Membership is institutional and <\/span>RAVTE’s website explains<\/span> that:<\/span><\/p>\n

At present 23 universities from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam are members of RAVTE.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among the member institutions are:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Hong Kong Institute of Education<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Indonesia University of Education<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Singapore’s Nanyang Polytechnic<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education.<\/span><\/p>\n

RAVTE held its second General Assembly meeting on 26-28 November at Ho Chi Minh University. There will no doubt be a report from that meeting on the RAVTE website in the near future.<\/span><\/p>\n

RAVTE also offers an e-newsletter which you can sign up for at the <\/span>bottom left of the home page<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

A few weeks ago we ran a post titled <\/span>A potpourri of articles on VET professional development in our region<\/span>. That post focused on <\/span>TVET@sia<\/i><\/span>, an online journal devoted to professional development research and ideas for VET teachers and trainers. The journal is produced by RAVTE with the support of the South East Asian Ministers of Education Organization, the Regional Centre for Vocational and Technical Education and Training (SEAMEO VOCTECH) and UNESCO Bangkok.<\/span><\/p>\n

AUSTRALIAN TRAINING AWARDS 2015 – CONGRATULATIONS TO WINNERS AND NOMINEES<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VET Centre<\/b><\/span> on Monday, 07 December 2015 in <\/span><\/b>VET<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The path from state and territory awards to national awards ended this year in Hobart on 19 November. The national event offered 17 awards in individual, business and RTO categories. A Lifetime Achievement Award was also announced – this year it went to Peter Henneken whose four decades in the Queensland public service saw him closely and expertly engaged with training and employment policy and programs.<\/span><\/p>\n

The full list of winners and runners-up in each category is available <\/span>here<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those whose contributions were recognised this year included:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Excellence in Language, Literacy and Numeracy Practice Award – Lyn Wilson (Sydney TAFE – <\/span>Petersham College<\/span> Foundation Studies)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>VET Teacher\/Trainer of the Year Award – Stephen Lunn (lead Vocational Education and Training Hospitality Teacher, <\/span>Guildford Young College<\/span>, Tasmania)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>School Pathways to VET Award – <\/span>Southern Cross Catholic Vocational College<\/span>, NSW<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Small Training Provider of the Year Award – <\/span>Plumbing Industry Climate Action Centre<\/span>, Victoria<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Large Training Provider of the Year Award – <\/span>VERTO<\/span>, NSW.<\/span><\/p>\n

For 21 years the Australian Training Awards have recognised high performing individuals and organisations. The Awards website offers a <\/span>snapshot page<\/span> of some past winners and what’s transpired for them since winning an Award. Snapshots are included for:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Academy of Interactive Entertainment (2007 Small Training Provider of the Year)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Challenger Institute of Technology (2005 and 2012 Large Training Provider of the Year)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Fiona French (2012 VET Teacher\/Trainer of the Year)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Rory Smeaton (2010 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Student of the Year)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Tracy Sutton (2006 Australian Apprentice (Trainee) of the Year)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Jonathan Kemble (2003 Australian Apprentice of the Year).<\/span><\/p>\n

The trek to the 2016 Australian Training Awards has now begun. Applications for 2016 opened on 1 December 2015!<\/span><\/p>\n

MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY’S NEW CENTRE FOR VOCATIONAL AND EDUCATIONAL POLICY<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VET Centre<\/b><\/span> on Thursday, 03 December 2015 in <\/span><\/b>VET<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

On 6 November, Victoria’s Minister for Training and Skills, Steve Herbert, launched the<\/span>Centre for Vocational and Educational Policy<\/span> within the Melbourne Graduate School of Education.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Centre’s expertise and its research program centre on the transitions and pathways within and between secondary school and post-secondary education, and encompasses work-based training.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Centre’s <\/span>current list of projects<\/span> gives a solid sense of how its energies will be deployed. They include:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Innovative partnerships for youth engagement in education and work, funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage grant<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Investigating quality teaching in the Victorian VET sector, funded by the Victorian Department of Education and Training<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Independent validation of assessment: Developing and piloting and external assessment model, funded by the Victorian Department of Education and Training<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Factors affecting demand for higher level VET qualifications by students from low SES backgrounds and possible policy interventions to increase their participation in higher VET qualifications, funded by the NSW Skills Board.<\/span><\/p>\n

The launch event commenced with two panel discussions. Panelists included:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Robin Shreeve (CEO, Western Sydney Institute, TAFE NSW)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Bruce Mackenzie (most recently Chair of the Victorian VET Funding Review)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Leslie Loble (Deputy Secretary – External Affairs and Regulation, NSW Department of Education)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Shelley Mallett (General Manager – Research and Policy, Brotherhood of St Laurence, and Professorial Fellow in Social Policy, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne).<\/span><\/p>\n

The Centre’s Directors are well known to the VET sector – John Polesel and Shelly Gillis. <\/span><\/p>\n

GROWING NUMBERS OF OLDER AGE APPRENTICES<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VET Centre<\/b><\/span> on Tuesday, 01 December 2015 in <\/span><\/b>Research<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

In late September, the <\/span>National Centre for Vocational Education Research<\/span> released an intriguing report titled <\/span>Adult trade apprentices: exploring the significance of recognition of prior learning and skill sets for earlier completion<\/i><\/span> (102 pages).<\/span><\/p>\n

Intriguing on two grounds, though there are lots of other reasons to read the report which comes out of research conducted by Jo Hargreaves and Davinia Blomberg.<\/span><\/p>\n

First ground. We’ve all noticed that apprentices are getting older. Just how much older was a surprise. The report has it that:<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1995, the average age of a commencing male and female apprentice was 19 years. In 2013, the average age of a commencing apprentice had increased to 26 years for males and 27 years for females. Although the average age has increased significantly since 1995, the most common age of a male and female apprentice has not changed and is still around 18 years of age.<\/span><\/p>\n

What’s more, in 2004 about 1 in 50 apprentices commenced when they were 45 or older. By 2013 that proportion had grown to 1 in 10.<\/span><\/p>\n

Second ground. It seemed at least likely that the growth in older age apprenticeship commencements would be accompanied by a substantial increase in RPL granted. The data disagrees:<\/span><\/p>\n

An RPL-granted subject outcome for trade apprentices 25 years and older has increased from a low base (3.5% in 2009 to 7% in 2013); however, these levels for trade apprentices are markedly lower than peer-age students who either have no training contract or who have a traineeship. The subject enrolments with RPL-granted outcomes for this group are far higher, at 78% in 2013.<\/span><\/p>\n

RPL has been around for a good spell now, so it’s surprising to learn from the report that ‘16.1% of apprenticeship graduates aged 25 years and over reported relevant prior skills and experience but did not have their training shortened because RPL assessment was not offered.’<\/span><\/p>\n

VET REFORM – UPSIDES, DOWNSIDES, NEXT STEPS<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VET Centre<\/b><\/span> on Monday, 30 November 2015 in <\/span><\/b>VET Reforms<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

A few weeks back the <\/span>Australian Council for Private Education and Training<\/span> (ACPET) released a thoughtful report entitled <\/span>Australia’s skills reform journey: The case for VET reform and progress to-date<\/i><\/span> (79 pages).<\/span><\/p>\n

The report, undertaken by ACIL Allen Consulting, puts context around the recent spate of ugly news about the behaviour of a small number of private RTOs, rounds up the lessons from the reform activities of the past half dozen years, and assesses the best options for ongoing reform in the VET sector. The focus of the report is on what has happened in Victoria where the spate of changes and the rate of change has been most marked.<\/span><\/p>\n

The report sets out the significance of VET in maintaining the stock of skills Australia needs to support social wellbeing and economic prosperity. It revisits the case for VET reform and identifies the key instruments of the reform agenda – a student entitlement to training, and increasing contestability in training provision. The report goes on to identify six shortfalls that have compromised microeconomic reform in the sector:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>concerns around the quality of training and in particular, assessment of students, including the practice of using subcontractors to deliver training<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>potentially unsustainable growth in enrolments<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>predatory marketing practices, including the role of third party brokers<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>poor student selection processes, including the enrolment of students that are not suited or sufficiently prepared for higher level qualifications<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>enrolments in areas of low labour market demand and poor employment prospects<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>specific concerns around the performance and\/or behaviour of a handful of private training providers.<\/span><\/p>\n

The paper suggests, with good reason, that these problems partly relate to a longstanding focus on system design and funding inputs without a balancing focus on training outcomes. That balancing focus is likely to be more prominent as the VET reform journey continues. It’s overdue.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the start of each chapter in the report key points are summarised. Among the key points for chapter 3 (‘Early adopters of VET reform have delivered quantifiable results’) are these:<\/span><\/p>\n

The most apparent result of skills reform has been the increase in the volume of VET enrolments:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>From 2002 to 2009, VET enrolments did not grow; increasing levels of government funding were unable to spur sufficient enrolment growth to keep pace with population growth.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>From 2009 there was a significant increase in both government funding and VET enrolments, largely the result of skills reforms introduced in Victoria in 2009, and in South Australia in 2012-2013.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>In all the other states, funding continued to grow but enrolments remained static.<\/span><\/p>\n

This report is focussed primarily on the publicly available data from Victoria as the first-mover in the current phase of VET reform. The data show that the skills reforms have accelerated the move towards private provision.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>In Victoria, apprenticeship and traineeship enrolments increased, with private RTOs growing their share modestly from 44 per cent to 55 per cent.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>In other non-apprenticeship training, there was almost a doubling in enrolments and a marked increase in market share of private RTOs, which increased from 6 per cent to 48 per cent.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>These increases in the market share of private RTOs have come primarily from growth in the market, rather than from a dramatic reduction in training delivery by TAFE institutes. Absolute aggregate enrolments in the TAFE sector have remained mostly stable over the last 10 years.<\/span><\/p>\n

A very positive note, then, is that participation in training increased following introduction of training reforms. From the students’ perspective, it seems that expansion in training provision has not dented satisfaction greatly. As the report notes:<\/span><\/p>\n

Overall student satisfaction with VET declined marginally following skills reform in Victoria. Students at TAFE institutes are more likely to report that they are satisfied compared to students at private RTOs, and students at ACE providers are more likely to report that they are satisfied compared to TAFE students.<\/span><\/p>\n

It would appear that the decline in satisfaction with private RTOs coincided with the large increase in enrolments at private RTOs following the introduction of the VTG. Prior to 2008, private RTOs reported higher levels of student satisfaction than TAFE institutes in all of these measures. Similar patterns are observed in terms of reported job outcomes.<\/span><\/p>\n

While they warrant attention, these quality concerns also need to be placed in the context of the substantial growth in the Victorian VET system following the introduction of skills reform. As the number of government subsidised enrolments doubled from 2005 to 2013, it is estimated that the proportion of students that did not report that they were satisfied with the quality of delivery rose marginally from 13.1 per cent to 14.7 per cent.<\/span><\/p>\n

Student satisfaction is a proxy for training quality – they aren’t the same thing. Job outcomes are another measure we can turn to, but it isn’t necessarily the best pointer to quality of provision. Comparing job outcomes for two periods – 2005-2008 and 2013-2014 – the report notes that:<\/span><\/p>\n

… private RTOs had previously held a modest lead over other RTOs in both metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas. Consistent with the marginal decline in overall satisfaction, private RTOs have lost ground in this area.<\/span><\/p>\n

Quite a bit of ground really. Job outcomes have fallen for both TAFE and private providers, though more steeply for private providers. An important observation here is that the Australian economy has been through a bit of heavy weather since 2009 – particularly in employment for young Australians – so job outcomes are unsurprisingly lower than for the earlier period.<\/span><\/p>\n

Neither student satisfaction nor job outcomes are good measures of training outcomes, but in the absence of more robust, nationally consistent data, they are rough stand-in measures, but rough enough.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pages 51 and 52 of the report have lists of the top 20 Victorian RTOs by enrolments and by absolute growth in enrolments. These lists are helpful because they put market share and total enrolments in perspective. An interesting side note is that of the top 10 RTOs showing an increase in VET Fee-HELP enrolments in Victoria from 2011-2013:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>five were private RTOs (ACTE, Careers Australia, Navitas Professional Institute, Study Group Australia, and Think Colleges)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>three were non-Victorian TAFEs (NSW TAFE Commission, TAFE SA, and Gold Coast Institute of TAFE)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>two were Victorian TAFE Institutes (RMIT and Holmesglen).<\/span><\/p>\n

ACPET’s report does provide useful context for thinking through where we go with the VET reform journey from this point on. Tighter regulation, smarter management of government-funded training contracts, improved and comprehensible information about training providers and training outcomes, a nationally consistent approach to student training entitlements – all of these are essential if a reformed VET sector is to do the job the country needs it to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

WOMEN IN ADULT & VOCATIONAL EDUCATION<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VET Centre<\/b><\/span> on Monday, 30 November 2015 in <\/span><\/b>VET<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

WAVE<\/span> is a national network of women involved in VET, adult education and the broad field of work-related education and training. WAVE provides seminars & workshops, research, policy advocacy and advice, as well as networking on an international, national and state basis. <\/span><\/p>\n

Read WAVE’s most recent newsletter:<\/span><\/p>\n

OUTCOMES FROM ASQA’S TARGETED AUDITS OF VET FEE-HELP PROVIDERS<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VET Centre<\/b><\/span> on Thursday, 26 November 2015 in <\/span><\/b>Research<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

On 20 October, the <\/span>Australian Skills Quality Authority<\/span> (ASQA) released a report, <\/span>Targeted audits of VET FEE-HELP providers<\/i><\/span> (34 pages). The report is the outcome of an audit project commenced in April this year which involved 21 RTOs and included interviews with 417 students from those RTOs. The purpose of the project was to assess compliance with the VET Quality Framework and the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 on three fronts:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>the accuracy of marketing and information provided to potential students<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>the advice provided to potential students during enrolment, and<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>the information provided to students before enrolment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sixteen RTOs were included based on complaints received by ASQA about those providers. Another five RTOs included in the audit project were selected because they were large providers with students enrolled under VET FEE-HELP, but against which there were no recent complaints. Of the 21 RTOs audited, seven were found to be fully compliant and eight had conditions imposed pending follow up action by the RTOs. One RTO had its registration cancelled, and five are ‘still subject to ongoing regulatory scrutiny.’<\/span><\/p>\n

Not a rosy outcome, with two in three of the audited providers having compliance problems.<\/span><\/p>\n

The report lists four actions that ASQA will take in future. In part, they are as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Action 1. ‘ASQA will continue to closely monitor and target RTOs approved for VET FEE-HELP where complaints and intelligence data, and the outcomes of this project, indicate this is necessary.’<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Action 2. ‘ASQA will continue to engage with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Department of Education and Training to share regulatory intelligence and coordinate regulatory action to ensure RTOs doing the wrong thing are penalised to the full extent of the respective laws.’<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Action 3. ‘It is proposed to establish of a dedicated working group with DET to continue sharing intelligence on areas of risk and emerging risk, including data analytics on indicators of risk in DET’s VET FEE-HELP data submitted by RTOs. This working group would meet on a regular basis to assist ASQA to better target RTOs with key indicators of risk.’<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Action 4. ‘ASQA is using the findings of this project to develop a range of communication material aimed at:<\/span><\/p>\n

o    <\/span>RTOs – to improve their understanding of and compliance with the requirements of the relevant standards<\/span><\/p>\n

o    <\/span>Students – to provide them with relevant information and assist them to make informed decisions.’<\/span><\/p>\n

Getting a handle on how providers interact with the VET FEE-HELP program has clear implications for getting the best outcome from government funding, which matters to citizens who foot that bill through taxes or through taking out income contingent loans. The significance of that cost is shown in a report released a couple of months ago by Commonwealth Department of Education: <\/span>2014 VET FEE-HELP Statistical Report –Summary<\/span> (6 pages).<\/span><\/p>\n

Among the highlights of the report listed on page 1 are these:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>The number of students accessing VET FEE-HELP loans increased by around 103 per cent between 2013 and 2014, from just over 100,000 students to nearly 202,800<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>The total value of VET FEE-HELP loans accessed in 2014 ($1,757 million) was more than double the amount accessed in 2013 ($699 million).<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Since VET FEE-HELP was first made available to students in 2009, a total of $3.1 billion in VET FEE-HELP loans has been accessed by VET students<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>As at 31 December 2014, there were 254 providers approved to offer VET FEE-HELP.<\/span><\/p>\n

The report provides a range of data. For example, in 2014:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>66 per cent of students accessing VET FEE-HELP loans were female<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>46 per cent were aged under 25 years<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>6 per cent of VET FEE-HELP assisted students were Indigenous<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>25 per cent were from regional and remote areas<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>25 per cent were from low socioeconomic areas.<\/span><\/p>\n

NCVER RELEASES DATA ON THE TOTAL NUMBER OF VET STUDENTS AND COURSES IN 2014<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VET Centre<\/b><\/span> on Tuesday, 24 November 2015 in <\/span><\/b>Research<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>National Centre for Vocational Education Research<\/span> has always provided us with excellent data about the training system. Now it’s taking us to new heights with the release on 10 November of <\/span>Total VET students and courses 2014<\/i><\/span> (32 pages). For the very first time we have figures on accredited training provided by all providers.<\/span><\/p>\n

The new data on total VET activity is not quite complete as some providers are yet to contribute their statistics, but it’s pretty close to a full picture. The data comes from 4601 providers across Australia – private providers (2865), schools (960), community education providers (497), enterprise providers (210), TAFEs (57), and universities (15).<\/span><\/p>\n

There is a summary of the overall picture presented on pages 5-7 from which we glean that, for example, in 2014:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>3.9m students were enrolled in training, including 57 per cent with private providers and 27 per cent in TAFE<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>NSW had the largest total enrolment (29 per cent) and the Northern Territory the fewest (1.3 per cent)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Learners were enrolled in 6344 unique programs<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>701,100 program completions were in certificates I-IV, and 114,500 completions were at diploma level or above.<\/span><\/p>\n

The tables in the balance of the report provide us with more detail. For example, Table 1 provides the participation rate by age for each state and territory. For Victoria, the participation rate – the percentage of all those enrolled in VET – looks like this:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>55 per cent of all people aged 15-19<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>36 per cent of all those aged 20-24<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>22 per cent of all those aged 25-44<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>14 per cent of all those aged 45-64<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>2 per cent of all those 65 or older.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is an accompanying report <\/span>Equity groups in total VET students and courses 2014<\/i><\/span>(10 pages) which is another great data treasure. The highlights for 2014 shown on page 1 include:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Indigenous students make up 3.7 per cent of all VET students<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Rural and remote students make up 14.3 per cent of all VET students.<\/span><\/p>\n

The report also breaks down student enrolments by state, so if we look at Western Australia and Tasmania for the two equity groups just mentioned we find that:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>In WA, 4.8 per cent of all student are Indigenous, and 16.8 are rural and remote students<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>In Tassie, 4.3 per cent are Indigenous, and 38.9 per cent are rural and remote.<\/span><\/p>\n

The NCVER has also put together some data visualisations, or infographics, that help to tell the story behind the data in very accessible ways. The data visualisations are available<\/span>here<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

This latest release takes us a big step further than the data released on government funded training only, which released earlier this year. The VET Blog posted about this release in August – see <\/span>Learners count –Better data on students in government funded training<\/span>. The data in that report was updated in September – <\/span>use this link<\/span> to the updated report on Government-funded students and courses<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

NEW TECHNOLOGY WILL REQUIRE NEW WORKFORCE SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VET Centre<\/b><\/span> on Monday, 23 November 2015 in <\/span><\/b>Workforce Development<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

In late September, the Boston Consulting Group released a report called <\/span>Man and machine in industry 4.0: How will technology transform the industrial workforce through 2025?<\/span> The report zeroes in on the manufacturing industry and how the advent of digital technologies (including robotics) will change the kinds of jobs available and the skills needed. While the report is focussed on manufacturing in Germany, and advanced manufacturing powerhouse, it’s not hard to see how similar changes will occur across industry sectors in Australia.<\/span><\/p>\n

The sections of the report are listed on the left of the web page. There are two sections we thought it might be interesting to explore a little more deeply.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first of those sections is titled ‘How will industrial jobs evolve?’ The report notes that:<\/span><\/p>\n

Although the extent to which Industry 4.0, especially robotics, will replace human labor remains a matter of debate among experts, we found universal agreement that manufacturers will increasingly use robotics and other advancements to assist workers. Some experts argue against the notion that all manufacturing jobs can be automated. As Ingo Ruhmann, special adviser on IT systems at Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research, explains, “Complete automation is not realistic. Technology will mainly increase productivity through physical and digital assistance systems, not the replacement of human labor.” The increased use of assistance systems means that the qualitative changes brought about by Industry 4.0 will likely be positive for the workforce. The number of physically demanding or routine jobs will decrease, while the number of jobs requiring flexible responses, problem solving, and customization will increase.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the jobs that will change is one that has already changed very substantially and frequently over the past 100 years – the job of the mobile service technician whose job it is to repair or maintain any number of different kinds of machines that sit in offices and factories, and move around construction sites of various kinds. The report reckons the future might evolve like this:<\/span><\/p>\n

Today’s service technicians may spend only a few hours each day on value-added work at a single site. Most of their workday is spent traveling to the site and discussing the service problem and a solution with other experts or second-level support colleagues. Manual operations throughout the end-to-end process result in significant delays and downtime. In contrast, Industry 4.0 will enable technology-assisted, predictive maintenance. By remotely reviewing a stream of real-time data on machine performance, the technician will be able to proactively identify defects and order spare parts before arriving at a site. Once on-site, the technician will be assisted in making repairs by augmented-reality technology and will be able to receive remote guidance from experts off-site.<\/span><\/p>\n

With changes of that magnitude in the offing – 2025 is not so far away – it’s clear that the VET sector will have to be pretty nimble to keep up with changing demand for skills and underpinning knowledge. That brings us to the second section of the report that merits some exploration here: ‘What should education systems do?’ The report lists five priorities for education systems and educators:<\/span><\/p>\n

1.    <\/span>Provide broader skill sets<\/span><\/p>\n

2.    <\/span>Close the IT skills gap<\/span><\/p>\n

3.    <\/span>Offer new formats for continuing education.<\/span><\/p>\n

Each of these priorities has implications for initial education and training, training for the existing workforce, and retraining for those who lose their jobs. The VET system is a pivotal player in each of those contexts.<\/span><\/p>\n

(You’ll note that the report talks about universities in this section. It’s useful to recognise that Germany’s post-secondary education is designed very differently to Australia’s. For example, Germany has universities of applied sciences and universities of cooperative education that don’t have mirror images in Australia. When reading this section of the report it’s probably a good idea to go with your instincts and assume that what sounds like VET is VET Down Under.)<\/span><\/p>\n

The VET Blog occasionally dips into the future of work and what that means for the future of VET practice. Some examples:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>The NBN effect on jobs in Australia<\/span> (posted October 2015)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Making your way – the working futures of young Australians<\/span> (posted September 2015)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Changes in the work Australians will do, and who they work for<\/span> (posted August 2015)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Growing and declining industries in Australia<\/span> (posted July 2015)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Will advanced economies like Australia have enough workers in 2030?<\/span> (posted January 2015)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Skill demand and skill preparation in growth industries<\/span> (posted December 2014)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Unlocking skills in hospitals: better jobs, better care<\/span> (posted May 2014)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Employer demand for STEM skills – AiG report<\/span> (posted April 2013).<\/span><\/p>\n

WE’RE A CREATIVE MOB DOWN UNDER, COMPARED TO EVERYONE ELSE<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VET Centre<\/b><\/span> on Thursday, 19 November 2015 in <\/span><\/b>Research<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Back in July the <\/span>Martin Prosperity Institute<\/span>, part of the University of Toronto, released its third annual ranking for <\/span>The Global Creativity Index<\/span> (GCI). The GCI ranks 139 nations based on measures related to talent, technology and tolerance.<\/span><\/p>\n

Don’t like to skite, but here’s the top ten:<\/span><\/p>\n

1.    <\/span>Australia<\/span><\/p>\n

2.    <\/span>United States<\/span><\/p>\n

3.    <\/span>New Zealand<\/span><\/p>\n

4.    <\/span>Canada<\/span><\/p>\n

5.    <\/span>Denmark<\/span><\/p>\n

6.    <\/span>Finland<\/span><\/p>\n

7.    <\/span>Sweden<\/span><\/p>\n

8.    <\/span>Iceland<\/span><\/p>\n

9.    <\/span>Singapore<\/span><\/p>\n

10. <\/span>Netherlands<\/span><\/p>\n

On the three Ts, Australia was 7th in technology (measured by research and development investment, and patents per capita) and 4th in tolerance (measured by treatment of immigrants, racial and ethnic minorities, gays and lesbians).<\/span><\/p>\n

On talent, Australia came in in 1st. Talent is measured by looking at two measures:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>the share of the workforce in the creative class, and<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>the share of adults with post-secondary education.<\/span><\/p>\n

Australia does well on the creative class measure with 45 per cent of its workforce in these fields: science and technology and engineering; arts, culture, entertainment, and the media; business and management; and education, healthcare, and law.<\/span><\/p>\n

Apart from patting ourselves on the back, what the GCI claims to show is important from the perspective of national prosperity. The GCI maps the measures it uses against a range of indicators like the amount of national income per head of population and the extent to which money is more or less equally distributed across a nation. The report notes that:<\/span><\/p>\n

Nations that score highly on the GCI have higher levels of economic output, entrepreneurship, economic competitiveness, and overall human development.<\/span><\/p>\n

Best not to pretend that it’s all rosy. The 2015 edition of the World Economic Forum’s points Human Capital Index shows us at number 13 overall, with a very pronounced soft spot in developing the skills of our young people aged under 15. (See our July post,<\/span>Australia’s ranking on human capital, according to the World Economic Forum<\/span>.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Obviously VET contributes to Australia’s strong showing in the GCI through its active contribution to all the occupational fields listed above. We have strengths in areas measured by the GCI and it’s important to make them work hard for us. The GCI suggests we have good national conditions for promoting high levels of entrepreneurialism. Among the benefits of doing so would be to reduce high levels of youth unemployment through increasing entrepreneurial capability during initial education and training. The VET Blog often dips into questions like these. For example, recent posts include:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Youth entrepreneurialism can help tackle youth unemployment in Australia<\/span> (June, 2015)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Where you live influences what kind of training you seek<\/span> (April 2015)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Teenagers, unemployment, and tertiary education<\/span> (March 2015).<\/span><\/p>\n

WESTERN AUSTRALIA’S TRAINING SECTOR REFORM PROJECT<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VET Centre<\/b><\/span> on Tuesday, 10 November 2015 in <\/span><\/b>Industry<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Western Australia’s Minister for Workforce Development, Liza Harvey, issued a <\/span>media release<\/span> on 14 October which announced the launch of a<\/span><\/p>\n

… Training Sector Reform Project to examine the function and structure of Western Australia’s public training system to ensure a sustainable system which equips students with the best skills to get jobs.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Project was prompted by the <\/span>Independent Review of the Vocational Education and Training Sector in Western Australia<\/span> which was released by the WA government in June 2014. If you’d like to recap a little, you can read <\/span>The VET Blog post about the Review report<\/span>  which we put up in July last year.<\/span><\/p>\n

The project will have a steering committee chaired by Cheryl Edwardes, a long serving minister and shadow minister in the Western Australian Parliament from 1989-2005.<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s expected that an initial report will be submitted before the end of this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

There’s not much detail yet on the website of the WA Department of Training and Workforce Development but <\/span>this looks like the right page<\/span> for updates.<\/span><\/p>\n

THE SENATE AND THE COMMONWEALTH MINISTER RESPOND TO VET FEE-HELP RORTING<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VET Centre<\/b><\/span> on Monday, 09 November 2015 in <\/span><\/b>VET<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

On 15 October the Senate’s Education and Employment References Committee released a report titled <\/span>Getting our money’s worth: The operation, regulation and funding of private vocational education and training (VET) providers in Australia<\/i><\/span>. The Committee received 89 submissions and held public hearings in Sydney and Melbourne.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is no surprise that the report lambasts unethical practice by those private providers who have chosen to regard government-funded training through VET FEE-HELP as a profit pool rather than a training resource. A few words from the report give you the general idea:<\/span><\/p>\n

The committee has been provided and has heard harrowing and concerning evidence of misconduct by private VET providers. The private VET sector has been subject to a range of allegations in the public arena not limited to that of exploitative conduct, shoddy training and massive profits at the public expense … It is an irony that in the name of social justice an exploitative scheme to enrich individuals has been allowed to flourish at the expense of the most vulnerable who end up with a debt, but no qualification, or a worthless qualification.<\/span><\/p>\n

This sentiment is echoed in both the main report and the minority report. The minority report notes that:<\/span><\/p>\n

During this inquiry the Committee has heard some very disturbing stories about the unscrupulous behavior of some training providers, using high pressure sales tactics to prey on the vulnerable in society, leaving students with a lifetime of unwanted debt that may never be repaid and taxpayers with increasing liabilities.<\/span><\/p>\n

We ought to be properly wary of assertions that all private providers are scooping the pool. The difficulty is that the appalling behaviour of some is depleting the reputation of many private providers and undermining trust in the VET system generally. As the minority report puts it:<\/span><\/p>\n

Government Senators condemn this unconscionable behavior which has served to damage the reputation of the VET industry and negatively affected public perceptions of the quality of training that is provided by the majority of providers in the vocational education sector.<\/span><\/p>\n

The report contains 16 recommendations that cover a broad range of matters such as:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Limiting access to VET FEE-HELP so that ‘only providers with the highest reputation for quality have unfettered access to the scheme’<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Calling for ASQA to ‘ conduct a concerted and urgent blitz of all providers to ensure that they are consistently complying with the national standards, especially those relating to student recruitment’<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Applying ‘minimum hours standards to VET FEE-HELP eligible courses’<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Proposing that ‘an Ombudsman focused on domestic students in the VET sector be created, and further suggests that this position be industry-funded’<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Giving ASQA ‘powers to directly regulate brokers or marketing agents in the VET sector, and to protect students.’<\/span><\/p>\n

Also on 15 October, Luke Hartsuyker, the new Minister for Vocational Education and Skills, introduced legislation into Parliament that is designed to tackle some of the abuses which feature in the Senate Committee’s report. The Minister’s media release, <\/span>VET FEE-HELP Bill to push dodgy providers out of the market<\/span>, sets out seven legislative provisions. Three are intended ‘to prevent inappropriate enrolments and debts by:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>‘Introducing a two day cooling off period between enrolment and the application for a VET FEE-HELP loan so that course enrolment is no longer confused with the loan application process;<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>‘Introducing minimum pre-requisites such as literacy and numeracy to ensure students can complete the higher level VET courses (diploma level and above) for which VET FEE-HELP is available; and<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>‘Requiring a parent’s or guardian’s signature before a student under 18 years can request a VET FEE-HELP loan to protect younger students.’<\/span><\/p>\n

The other provisions outlined in the Minister’s media release are intended to ‘further protect students and taxpayers by:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>‘Making it easier for a student to have their debt cancelled where they have been signed up for a loan inappropriately and for the Government to recoup the cost from providers;<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>‘Introducing minimum registration and trading history requirements to ensure new VET FEE-HELP provider applicants have a proven history of delivering quality training;<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>‘Introducing infringement notices and financial penalties for breaches of the VET FEE-HELP Guidelines; and<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>‘Technical amendments to strengthen the Department’s administration of the scheme and its partnerships with Australian Skills and Quality Authority to monitor and enforce compliance.’<\/span><\/p>\n

The new legislative proposals are contained in the <\/span>Higher Education Support Amendment (VET FEE-HELP Reform) Bill 2015<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

REJIGGING THE NEW TAE<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VET Centre<\/b><\/span> on Thursday, 05 November 2015 in <\/span><\/b>Research<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Before the ink was dry on the proposed changes to the TAE, <\/span>IBSA<\/span> was asked to have another look at whether the Cert IV could better develop teacher understanding of assessment practice. IBSA’s has responded with <\/span>Strengthening Assessment in the TAE Options Paper<\/i><\/span>. The Options Paper<\/i> explains the background to the request:<\/span><\/p>\n

ASQA has recently collected evidence, through strategic audits in Early Childhood Education and in Aged Care as well as through other audits, that assessors struggle with meeting the regulator’s standards.  The ASQA audits found that one of the main reasons for non-compliance in relation to assessment is poorly developed assessment tools that did not ensure that the requirements of a unit would be met.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Department of Education and Training has asked IBSA to conduct consultations with stakeholders regarding strengthening the emphasis on assessment skills in the TAE Training and Education Training Package.<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s all happening in a bit of a blur. The Options Paper<\/i> was released in October and consultations were due to finish by 23 October with a series of webinars. It’s likely that before this post goes to air, the option will be chosen and conveyed Australian Industry and Skills Committee for endorsement as part of the new TAE training package.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Options Paper<\/i> contains two proposals – Proposal A and Proposal B.<\/span><\/p>\n

Proposal A is titled ‘Enhance assessment within the TAE training package’. Three enhancement options are floated:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>OPTION 1<\/span><\/b> – Enhance assessment within the TAE Training Package by includingTAEASS502 Design and develop assessment tools<\/i> as a core unit of competency in the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment and the TAEASS00011 Assessor Skill Set<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>OPTION 2<\/span><\/b> – Develop a new unit to be added to the core in the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment and added to the TAEASS00011 Assessor Skill Set<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>OPTION 3<\/span><\/b> – Enhance the existing assessment units of competency within the core of the Certificate IV by adding increased volume and frequency into the performance evidence of the assessment requirements.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Options Paper<\/i> sets out the advantages and disadvantages of each option, and there are some tricky judgements to make. For example:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Option 1 would reduce the number of elective units required for the qualification to just one, which would hamper the ability to shape the TAE to meet particular needs<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Option 2 would mean that to hold a current Cert IV all teachers\/trainers would need to upgrade.<\/span><\/p>\n

The title of Proposal B tells its own story: ‘Including the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) volume of learning specifications in the qualification description for qualifications within this package.’ Incorporating the volume of learning is really about ensuring that short duration TAE programs that are really rip-offs are chased out of existence. Hard to quibble with that.<\/span><\/p>\n

The wider context for a more leisurely discussion about VET teacher qualifications is worth taking time to think through. Take these two approaches, example.<\/span><\/p>\n

First, one line of debate holds that the minimum qualification for VET teachers\/trainers should be an education degree, as is the case for school teachers (though interestingly not the case for university lecturers\/tutors). The argument in part is that the complexity and breadth of VET teaching practice, and the diversity of the student cohort, is such that a qualification of degree length is essential.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another line of debate holds that a degree would put VET teaching beyond the reach of many industry practitioners who want to engage in VET teaching on a part time basis, or who want to make the shift to VET teaching from their industry job. Making those options less attractive would be bad news for the VET teaching workforce. It’s a virtue of the VET sector to welcome teachers with industry backgrounds. So the argument goes, better to see the Cert IV as an entry level qualification.<\/span><\/p>\n

The discussion can go on. If the TAE is an entry level qualification then you need to add two or three requirements for the long haul. Perhaps these would work:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>someone holding a Cert IV must upgrade to a TAE diploma within five years or their right to continue teaching lapses<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>teachers must complete a mandatory minimum number of points for professional learning activities each year (and some or all of these activities might count as credit towards a TAE diploma)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>in the first two or three years of VET teaching, the minimum number of points for professional learning activities must include active engagement in coaching or mentoring with skilled VET teachers.<\/span><\/p>\n

While that discussion goes on, there is ongoing discussion about the importance of establishing a professional association for VET teachers so they have both the opportunity and the responsibility to inform the debate about their own professional practice. On that score you might like to refer to:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>A blog post titled <\/span>The UK has a new VET professional body<\/span> (posted on 18 September, and which has already clocked up 500 hits)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>A VET Development Centre report from 2012, An association for VET’s professionals: What’s the story?<\/i> You can <\/span>download the report from this web page<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

VET AS A SECOND CHANCE – EVIDENCE FROM EUROPE<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VETCentre<\/b><\/span> on Friday, 30 October 2015 in <\/span><\/b>VET<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

We know that VET performs an important role in Australia as a second chance for many young people who aren’t able to complete Year 12 or its equivalent. There is now some interesting evidence from Europe about that second chance. It comes from<\/span>CEDEFOP<\/span> (theEuropean Centre for the Development of Vocational Training) which last month issued a Briefing Note, <\/span>Vocational education and training prevents and counteracts early leaving from the education system<\/span> (4 pages).<\/span><\/p>\n

The Briefing Note tells us that:<\/span><\/p>\n

One third of those who have experienced dropout at upper secondary level subsequently take up a vocational training programme and ultimately obtain an upper or even postsecondary level qualification.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now you have to concentrate to follow the statistics here, but what we end up with is a clear signal about the value of the second chance afforded by VET:<\/span><\/p>\n

… more than half of the young people who drop out of school (51.2%) eventually complete education at upper secondary level or above. Out of these, two thirds do so through vocational education and training. It allows them to acquire a qualification while gaining valuable workplace skills and experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

CEDEFOP’s research found that:<\/span><\/p>\n

… countries with a high incidence of apprenticeships tend to have lower numbers of early leavers … Those who prefer less theoretical forms of learning benefit from the more ‘hands-on’ approach.<\/span><\/p>\n

A swag of European countries have put in place policies to reduce the proportion of young people who don’t finish secondary school, and Australia has been at this task for a long time too. The Briefing Note indicates that the European Union<\/span><\/p>\n

… set itself the goal, in its Europe 2020 strategy, to lower the rate of early leaving from education and training to less than 10% by 2020. According to Eurostat data, the mid-term results are encouraging; the European average decreased from 17% in 2002 to 11.1% in 2014.<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s important to reflect on the role that teachers and trainers play in making the second chance pay off, along with appropriate services from training providers. There’s a single sentence in the Briefing Note that wraps it up:<\/span><\/p>\n

… both the quality of teaching and close follow-up of participants are paramount for keeping learners aboard.<\/span><\/p>\n

A POTPOURRI OF ARTICLES ON VET PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN OUR REGION<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VET Centre<\/b><\/span> on Thursday, 29 October 2015 in <\/span><\/b>Research<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The July issue of <\/span>TVET@sia<\/i><\/span> is online and devoted to professional development research and ideas for VET teachers and trainers. TVET@sia<\/i> is an online journal published with the support of the South East Asian Ministers of Education Organization, Regional Centre for Vocational and Technical Education and Training (SEAMEO VOCTECH), and UNESCO Bangkok.<\/span><\/p>\n

The journal’s focus is twofold. It’s concerned with TVET in general, and with TVET teacher education in particular.<\/span><\/p>\n

Published twice a year, the fifth issue of the TVET@sia<\/i> focuses on ‘Approaches and achievements in TVET personnel professional development.’ A quick scan shows that researchers and practitioners with articles in this issue come from Australia, Brunei, Germany, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia and Singapore.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are nine articles that deliver a rich sense of what VET practitioners are doing across our region. The articles and authors are as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>‘Approaches to preparing TVET teachers and instructors in ASEAN member countries’, by Paryono Paryono (SEAMEO VOCTECH Brunei)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>‘Learning management strategies for in-service training of vocational instructors in Lao PDR – Using collaborative learning and a professional learning community approach in authentic situations: a case of automotive technology,’ by  Phouvieng Phoumilay (Ministry of Education and Sports), Prayong Klanrit and Chatchai Muangpatom (both of Udon Thani Rajabhat University), and Boualinh Soysouvanh (Faculty of Engineering, National University of Laos)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>‘The role of networking and internationalization of technical universities in academic staff competence development,’ by  Razali Hassan, Alias Masek, and Mimi Mohaffyza Mohamad (all of University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>‘Moving beyond talk-and-chalk-teaching – a holistic didactical approach to teacher training through trilateral cooperation between Germany, Indonesia and Myanmar,’ by  Nindya Dwi Fosa (Tabitha Consultancy), Katharina Peinemann (Technical University of Dortmund), Thomas Schröder (Technical University of Dortmund)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>‘TVET teachers, a reflection on trends in Indonesia and Australia,’ by  Margaret Malloch (Victoria University, Melbourne) and Abdullah Helmy (State Polytechnic of Malang)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>‘Australian VET teacher education: What is the benefit of pedagogical studies at University for VET teachers?’ by  Erica Smith (Federation University), Keiko Yasukawa (University of Technology, Sydney) and Steven Hodge (Griffith University)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>‘Pedagogical tools for continuous professional development and their impact,’ by  Helen Bound (Institute for Adult Learning, Singapore) and Sue Stack (University of Tasmania)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>‘Approaches to the quality improvement of TVET teachers in Mongolia: a lost opportunity,’ by Stephen J Duggan (Parkville Global Advisory)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>‘Boundary crossing – A theoretical framework to understand the operational dynamics of industry-school partnerships.’ By Matthew Flynn (Well Grounded Consultancy), and Hitendra Pillay and James Watters (both of Queensland University of Technology).<\/span><\/p>\n

Issue 5 of TVET@sia<\/i> was co-edited by Len Cairns from Monash University, Joachim Dittrich (University of Applied Sciences Bremerhaven, Germany), Thomas Schröder (Technical University of Dortmund), and Agus Setiawan (Indonesia University of Education).<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>first issue<\/span> of TVET@sia<\/i>, released in May 2013, dealt with TVET collaboration in our region. Which allows us to refer to a recent post on The VET Blog, <\/span>Promoting Australia’s VET capability in Asia<\/span> (posted 8 September 2015).<\/span><\/p>\n

TECHNOLOGY AND AUSTRALIA’S FUTURE<\/b><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VETCentre<\/b><\/span> on Monday, 26 October 2015 in <\/span><\/b>Industry<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>Australian Council of Learned Academies<\/span> (ACOLA) is an organisation that brings together four organisations: <\/span>Australian Academy of Science<\/span>, <\/span>Academy of Social Sciences in Australia<\/span>, <\/span>Australian Academy of the Humanities<\/span> and <\/span>Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Back in 2012 <\/span>Australia’s Chief Scientist<\/span>, Ian Chubb, and the <\/span>Australian Research Council<\/span>put a significant challenge to ACOLA – write a report that tells us how best to deal with the impact of technology on work and society. On 23 September that report was launched. Its title is <\/span>Technology and Australia’s Future: New technologies and their role in Australia’s security, cultural, democratic, social and economic systems<\/i><\/span> (328 pages).<\/span><\/p>\n

Yep, it’s a whopper and unsurprisingly so given the wide terrain it covers. You might be relieved to know that there is a summary (36 pages) <\/span>available on this page<\/span>. Also unsurprising is that the report has lots to say about matters relevant to vocational education and training.<\/span><\/p>\n

For many trades and other teachers there will be some pleasure in knowing that the report puts very high value on ‘tinkering’:<\/span><\/p>\n

Technology is a vehicle for creative expression. Encouraging hands-on tinkering with technology can instil a creative perception of technology that can lead to better engagement. Positioning technology as a vehicle for human creativity can inspire Australians to create, adopt and modify technology … Enhancing the tinkering aspect of STEM education at all levels (K–12, and tertiary) could create a culture that embraces technological change (p22).<\/span><\/p>\n

The report suggests that we need to do some other tinkering with the VET system because making the most of, and making our peace with, technology relies heavily on skills development. It’s not just about the skills to develop new technologies. It’s also about having the skills to use and adapt technology. The ACOLA report suggests we need to rejig our approach – the quote in the following paragraph of the report comes from an NCVER publication called <\/span>Linking qualifications and the labour market through capabilities and vocational streams<\/i><\/span>:<\/span><\/p>\n

Vocational training, in particular, must achieve a better balance ‘between the “generalist” qualifications of secondary and higher education and the job-specific competencies currently delivered by the VET system.’ Specifically it has been suggested that vocational training in future should focus more on ‘vocations’ or ‘vocational streams’, which represent groupings of similar occupations rather than the present focus on competencies that are highly specific to tightly defined job qualifications. The intention is that education and training to develop workers’ ‘vocational capabilities’ should provide a better balance of skills so that workers are able to perform their current duties with existing technologies and also to adapt to emerging technologies with the confidence to modify and improve processes and practices in the future (pages 77-78).<\/span><\/p>\n

This plays into an ongoing challenge for VET. We need to train people for the jobs that are out there and that industry wants to fill right now. How do we marry that with the expectation that we will also train people for the skills they will need to adapt to the jobs we haven’t even thought of yet? Loosening the focus of training may be one way to do it by looking at a field of work rather than a specific job. There’s an intriguing footnote at the bottom of page 78 related to the paragraph quoted above, and maybe it gives us cause to think more closely about this conundrum. The footnote reads:<\/span><\/p>\n

In this regard it might be noted that in 2013 only one third of VET graduates were in jobs directly associated with their qualification, further underlining the value of training to develop peoples’ adaptive capacity.<\/span><\/p>\n

In effect, we are already training many people for jobs other than those that are the occupational outcome of the qualifications we deliver to them.<\/span><\/p>\n

The report also takes time to consider workforce development and training, about which it notes that ongoing skills development relies on:<\/span><\/p>\n

… policies that invest in a culture of experimentation, tinkering, an acceptance of uncertainty and an understanding that failure is inherent in technology change. Of course, only a small proportion of life is spent at school so it is important to instil skills of lifelong learning. Australian workers need the confidence and ability to adopt emerging technologies and processes that will improve efficiencies and productivity.<\/span><\/p>\n

The report also emphasise the importance of being ready, as a nation, to assist workers whose skills are made obsolete by rapid technological change:<\/span><\/p>\n

There are several ways to mitigate differential impacts of technological change:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Occupational obsolescence can be mitigated by ensuring that vocational training targets tomorrow’s jobs rather than yesterday’s, and by training people to be adaptable.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Programs that promote technology literacy for all Australians can make the benefits of new technologies more widely accessible.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Social safety nets can reduce the prospect of individual harm.<\/span><\/p>\n

When launching the report, Ian Chubb made it plain that if we are to deal comfortably with technological change, then:<\/span><\/p>\n

The key to it all is education.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Education that allows individuals to pursue many different paths, but gives them a common language and sense of purpose.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Education that teaches us our history in ways that help us shape the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Education that engages us, excites us, inspires us.<\/span><\/p>\n

VET MAKES THE WORLD WEALTHIER, FAIRER AND ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VETCentre<\/b><\/span> on Thursday, 22 October 2015 in <\/span><\/b>VET<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

UNESCO takes responsibility for the United Nations’ work on education, science and culture. Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) figures prominently in UNESCO’s work, as can be seen from the organisation’s <\/span>Education Strategy 2014-2021<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier this year UNESCO released <\/span>Unleashing the potential: Transforming Technical and Vocational Education and Training<\/i><\/span> (225 pages). The book is the result of collaborative work by TVET specialists around the world, including Griffith University’s Stephen Billett. The introduction to the book sets out three broad areas in which TVET makes substantial contributions:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>There is an economic rationale for TVET because it is a ‘a source of the skills, knowledge and technology needed to drive productivity in the knowledge-based and transition societies of the twenty-first century’<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>There is a compelling social equity rationale because TVET builds the human capital of individuals which enlarges their life chances<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>There is a TVET sustainability rationale, about which the book quotes a 2013 NSW government report which observes that sustainability is concerned with ‘living within the limits of what the environment can provide, understanding the many interconnections between economy, society and the environment, the equal distribution of resources and opportunities.’<\/span><\/p>\n

Each of these themes crops up throughout the book, which covers an array of topics in six chapters. Those topics include:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Policies and policy measures to promote social equity (p. 81)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Creating pathways to higher education (page 96)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Strengthening quality assurance arrangements (p. 110)<\/span><\/p>\n

A great benefit of the book is that allows us to set Australia’s VET system in a global context by comparing and contrasting our own circumstances with those applying in other nations, from Germany to the Philippines and beyond.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two areas that tweak attention are ‘Professionalizing TVET teachers and trainers’ (p. 113) and ‘New modes of work’ (p. 153).<\/span><\/p>\n

On professionalising the VET workforce, the book notes that in Europe, <\/span>CEDEFOP<\/span> (theEuropean Centre for the Development of Vocational Training) has developed a Competence Framework that identifies future skills requirements for TVET professionals:<\/span><\/p>\n

These skills include a recognition of and emphasis on informal learning; capacity to collaborate within and among TVET institutions and the world of work; ability to network institutions with local and regional stakeholders; awareness of international perspectives on training; capacity to use ICT and digital networks; a holistic perception of TVET; a need for learner autonomy and self-directed learning; competency in pedagogical, networking and communication skills for TVET teachers and trainers; ability to use new media; knowledge of the interaction between education and society; and organizational competence development<\/span><\/p>\n

This section makes a general observation that will sound very familiar to Australian ears:<\/span><\/p>\n

… most TVET teacher training has been hampered by two factors that are proving difficult to overcome. First, it is difficult to link specialized TVET teacher training programmes to practice in the workplace. There is little evidence of industrial placements that would provide future teachers with current experience and work practices. Second, it is frequently difficult, particularly where the academic model prevails, to link the educational part of TVET teacher training programmes to acquiring the competencies that TVET teachers and trainers need.<\/span><\/p>\n

The book calls for more research and careful policy attention to ‘initial TVET teacher and trainer education, and continuing training and capacity-building, all of which are needed to support and implement successful TVET reforms.’<\/span><\/p>\n

On the matter of how the nature of work is changing, the opening paragraphs of this section on pages 153-154 are worth pondering. They set out a host of ways in which occupations and industries are adapting to new ways of doing things, which is a core driver for what VET does. The book notes that change is apparent in the:<\/span><\/p>\n

… shift from mass production, and mass-market services, to a more customized approach to meeting individual consumer preferences. Technological innovations have contributed to the changing character of consumer demand: for example the surge in mobile communications and online retail has created further changes in demand for skills. Technology has also facilitated changes in the workplace, and made changing modes of work possible. These new modes of work have both temporal and spatial dimensions. A key source of competitiveness is achieved by reducing the turnover time of capital, which means having fewer warehouses to hold stocks, manufacturing goods on demand and ordering ‘just in time’. As outsourcing results in less job security, there is an imperative on workers to be ready to make career changes, to be able to transfer their skills, abandon obsolete skills and to learn new ones. At the individual level networking and interpersonal skills are increasingly valuable.<\/span><\/p>\n

Technology has also enabled task teams to be established in a more flexible way, around specific time-limited projects and using the Internet to overcome the barriers previously created by distance. Now that workers no longer need to be in the same location to cooperate, and there has been a rise in teleworking, this geographical dispersal has implications for how organizations work and the capacities required by their staff. International, multicultural project teams are increasingly common. As specialized knowledge and information has become more widely available, the skills demanded by the new modes of work increasingly go beyond what a person knows, to include their abilities to find relevant knowledge and information on a range of topics, and to be able to remain up to date. Analytical and ‘soft’ skills such as communication, intercultural understanding and interpersonal skills have therefore become increasingly important from an economic point of view.<\/span><\/p>\n

The book makes a number of recommendations about how to strengthen national VET systems. These enabling strategies include strengthening capacity for data collection and management. Australia has a pretty useful capability in VET data collection, management and analysis. There are gaps that need filling. One gap it might be worth us focusing on is how we get the right information and analysis into the hands of teachers and trainers, and how teachers and trainers can assist in generating and analysing the right information and analysis. More bottom-up involvement of professionals at the front line would be a very good thing.<\/span><\/p>\n

EIGHT LEARNING AND TEACHING STRATEGIES THAT MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VET Centre<\/b><\/span> on Tuesday, 20 October 2015 in <\/span><\/b>Research<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>Australian Society for Evidence Based Teaching<\/span> concentrates on what the research tells us about great teaching in schools. That said, important principles of teaching practice apply wherever learning and teaching is the order of the day. In June the Society posted a very useful article titled <\/span>8 Strategies Robert Marzano & John Hattie Agree On<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Marzano and Hattie are the acknowledged captains of education when it comes to combing the research evidence and identifying what is effective in teaching and learning. And they don’t always come to the same conclusions. When they do it’s probably worth taking a close look.<\/span><\/p>\n

The article is concerned with the teaching strategies that make the biggest difference to students’ results. The Big 8 are:<\/span><\/p>\n

1.    <\/span>A Clear Focus for the Lesson<\/span><\/p>\n

2.    <\/span>Offer Overt Instruction – explicitly teach the things your students need to learn<\/span><\/p>\n

3.    <\/span>Get the Students to Engage With the Content<\/span><\/p>\n

4.    <\/span>Give Feedback<\/span><\/p>\n

5.    <\/span>Multiple Exposures – if you want students to internalise new information, you need to expose them to it several times<\/span><\/p>\n

6.    <\/span>Have Students Apply Their Knowledge<\/span><\/p>\n

7.    <\/span>Get Students Working Together<\/span><\/p>\n

8.    <\/span>Build Students’ Self-Efficacy – that is, build each student’s belief about their ability to successfully complete a task.<\/span><\/p>\n

John Hattie is Chair of the <\/span>Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership<\/span>. The VET Blog has run a couple of posts about research on effective teaching that draw on Hattie’s work:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Teaching practices with the biggest effects on student achievement<\/span> (posted 28 March 2014)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Seven things to remember about feedback – infographic<\/span> (posted 2 July 2014).<\/span><\/p>\n

VET IN SCHOOLS IN OECD COUNTRIES – ITS IMPACT ON PARTICIPATION IN WORK AND POST-SECONDARY EDUCATION<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VETCentre<\/b><\/span> on Monday, 19 October 2015 in <\/span><\/b>VET in Schools<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

In July the OECD released <\/span>Focus on vocational education and training (VET) programmes<\/span>, a four page overview of upper secondary VET programs in OECD nations. In Australia we do VETiS differently across state and territory jurisdictions. Nonetheless, there are specific references to Australia as a whole in this paper so it gives us some broad benchmarks.<\/span><\/p>\n

The OECD’s membership comprises 34 of the world’s most developed economies. The paper notes that in one-third of OECD countries ‘over half of all upper secondary students participated in pre-vocational or vocational programmes but less than 30% of those students were exposed to work-based learning.’ On the OECD’s numbers (presented in a chart on page 1) about 50 per cent of Australian secondary school students enrols in VETiS. Australia just squeaks into this top third. In Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, the Netherlands and the Slovak Republic 70 per cent or more of upper secondary students do VET programs.<\/span><\/p>\n

We need to temper those percentages with other data. In Australia, for example, there is a strong expression of the idea that VET provides ‘second chance’ education to early school leavers. It’s not something we explicitly recognise often enough, but it’s there. The OECD paper reports that:<\/span><\/p>\n

On average, the age at graduation is higher for vocational graduates (22 years old) than for graduates of general programmes (19 years old). However, in Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Norway, the average age of graduates from vocational programmes is 25 or older; in Australia, it reaches 31. One reason for these differences is that, in many education systems, VET provides a second chance by enabling some to reintegrate into a learning environment, developing skills that will thereafter increase their employability. For example, the Australian VET system is flexible and able to satisfy different needs at different stages of people’s lives, whether they are preparing for a first career, seeking additional skills to assist in their work or catching up on educational attainment.<\/span><\/p>\n

The paper also observes that:<\/span><\/p>\n

Having a strong work-based learning component integrated into VET programmes can act as a guarantee of excellence … In some systems, school-based learning is widely combined with work-based learning. Examples of this type of ‘dual system’ can be found in Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, the Slovak Republic and Switzerland.<\/span><\/p>\n

Work-based learning isn’t a strong feature in VETiS in Australia. It is mostly encountered in school-based apprenticeships. This isn’t the same as saying that VETiS should be seen as a direct pathway to employment in Australia. That kind of progression is fading fast in our economy. There are fewer and fewer entry level jobs for school leavers. The first step into the labour market is increasingly one that is taken after graduation from a post-secondary qualification. (The VET Blog’s July post on this may be of interest – <\/span>VET’s crucial role in readying young people for further study and work<\/span>.) However, this doesn’t have to be set in stone. It’s entirely possible for Australia to build in aspects of a dual system into our secondary school VET programs. It would be a big challenging change and we’d need the education sectors, government, business and unions to get to ‘yes’ so it would take time too.<\/span><\/p>\n

We could explore options for VET internships and cadetships, and structure VETiS outcomes so they act as active pathways to post-secondary study and employment. This isn’t as fanciful as it might seem. The United States is a long way from a dual system, yet there are examples of effective internship programs in which secondary schools and local businesses work together – see, for example, San Diego Met High School’s <\/span>Learning Through Internships\/Interests<\/span> program.<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s interesting that the OECD paper reports upper secondary VET graduates are five times less likely to enrol in post-secondary education than those who complete general academic programs. But again, this varies across countries and the variations have a lot to do with how well the secondary and post-secondary education systems are joined up. Pathway management is a key, and the report offers three examples where it’s done well:<\/span><\/p>\n

… in Switzerland, dual diplomas combining a VET qualification with a university entrance qualification facilitate access to higher education. In Germany, access to university for VET graduates was formally enhanced in 2009 and is strongly supported by government campaigns. Lastly, in the Netherlands, the different learning routes – including vocational programmes – are structured in such a way that young people have the possibility to progress within the track they have chosen, and reach the equivalent of tertiary level education.<\/span><\/p>\n

The paper offers a ‘bottom line’ – what it is wise for VETiS policy and practice to seek to achieve. The bottom line is this:<\/span><\/p>\n

An increasing number of countries are recognising that good initial vocational education and training has a major contribution to make to economic competitiveness. At upper secondary level, VET is more strongly correlated to employability than general education, especially when policy makers succeed in aligning the skills obtained in the programmes with those demanded by the labour market. Nevertheless, improving the quality of VET is crucial to combatting the negative image of VET in many countries and to creating opportunities for further education. To achieve this, social partners can engage with the various levels of the VET system, from secondary to higher education, to develop work-based learning and to provide flexible modes of study suitable for adults with working and home commitments.<\/span><\/p>\n

VET QUALITY AND VET REGULATION – LESSONS FROM ABROAD<\/b><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VETCentre<\/b><\/span> on Wednesday, 14 October 2015 in <\/span><\/b>VET Reforms<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

It’s no secret that in the last 18 months or so the spotlight on quality and regulation of VET provision has got brighter and the voices for change have become louder and urgent. It’s great that the concern about VET quality is so intense. So it always should be. It’s grating that widening concern about VET quality has been focused by the unbelievable behaviour of a few providers who decided VET was about profit rather than education and training. Let there be an end to them.<\/span><\/p>\n

The question we must now confront is how to bring an end to them. That shines the spotlight on two elements that must be at the fore in a contestable market: provider regulation, and the informed exercise of choice by people who enrol in a VET program. It’s likely the Victorian government, through Steve Herbert, Minister for Training and Skills, will have more to say on this very soon, drawing on the recommendations of the VET Quality Review (see <\/span>this VET Blog post<\/span>) and the VET Funding Review (due very soon). It’s also likely the new Commonwealth Minister for Education and Training, Simon Birmingham, will continue to tweak the regulatory regime as he has done for the past year or so in his junior ministerial role.<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>NCVER<\/span> is, as usual, doing the kind of research that helps inform the policy choices for VET regulation. In mid-September NCVER released <\/span>Regulating and quality assuring VET: international developments<\/span> (72 pages), written by Josie Misko. The report investigates approaches to regulation in Canada (province of Ontario), New Zealand, Finland, Sweden, South Africa and United Kingdom, and by two accrediting agencies in the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n

The structure of the report is good because at the end of each chapter there is a section titled ‘Lessons learnt’ in which Misko suggests what it might sense to do about regulation in Australia. After an opening chapter that surveys definitions of quality and its importance, ‘Lessons learnt’ appears at the end of each of these chapters:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Deciding on suitable quality frameworks, standards and indicators<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Sensible and effective regulation<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>A significant role and voice for industry<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Improving the quality of teaching and assessment<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>The need for accountability and transparency<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Combining internal monitoring mechanisms with external review (this means a process of structured self-assessment\/self-review by providers that is linked closely to review by the responsible regulator).<\/span><\/p>\n

That’s a lot of turf, and it’s all covered very well. We might look at just one area here, much of which is covered in the chapter titled ‘Improving the quality of teaching and assessment’ (pages 42-48). The report suggests that we really need to get to grips with teacher\/trainer preparation and continuing professional development, and we need to establish accepted standards of teacher\/trainer professionalism regarding external validation of assessment tools, strategies, and practices and the moderation of results. None of these ideas is new to debate in Australia. We’ve had long discussions about the adequacy of the Certificate IV in TAE, and about the need for a professional association for VET teachers\/trainers. (On this last point, you might be interested in a VET Blog post of a few weeks back – <\/span>The UK has a new VET professional body<\/span>).<\/span><\/p>\n

On the matter of teacher preparation, the report notes that:<\/span><\/p>\n

… lack of knowledge about the theory or techniques of assessment as well as validation and moderation practices could be in part addressed by requiring the inclusion of more assessment modules in the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment Training Package and requiring training systems and\/or registered training organisations to offer practitioners regular professional development activities about assessment, including RPL. Lack of rigour in assessments, especially for the Certificate IV in Workplace Training and Assessment, might also be addressed by implementing more stringent registration processes for registered training organisations wanting to have this qualification on scope.<\/span><\/p>\n

Teaching, learning and assessment are continually evolving. The advent of e-learning and e-assessment is an example, and harnessing their power is still an area of pedagogy that is unfolding. Models of workplace delivery and assessment are changing too, as are industry expectations about learning and assessing soft skills. The nature of work is constantly changing and the training system must keep up with those changes in delivery and assessment practice. It’s also true that learning how to teach is a reflective exercise best undertaken individually and with collaboratively with other teachers. The initial qualification is a platform for practice – how you build on that platform is a matter for ongoing professional development. Yet we have no nationally agreed mechanism for requiring and tracking professional growth. The report observes that:<\/span><\/p>\n

Suggestions are made for the creation of a ‘master VET practitioner’ or ‘master teacher’ category and for providing qualifications that would enable those with general teaching qualifications to acquire VET teacher qualifications. There are also suggestions for a professional association for Australian VET, which would eventually be responsible for accrediting or registering teachers and trainers; a mentoring system for beginning teachers; and a formal teaching scholarship centre, which would focus on the pedagogy of VET.<\/span><\/p>\n

Under ‘Lessons learnt’ in the chapter on ‘Improving the quality of teaching and assessment’, Misko writes:<\/span><\/p>\n

Effective training and assessment practices are the key components of a well-functioning VET system. They underpin the quality and integrity of knowledge and skills acquisition, the qualifications issued by awarding bodies or providers and the reputations of institutions. Key to their development is having in place comprehensive programs for the preparation and induction of trainers and assessors as well as requirements for continuing professional education.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regulatory effort based on stringent quality principles for training delivery ought to mean that enterprises and students, who must make the decision about which RTO to go to for their training needs, can choose confidently because only competent RTOs are in the training marketplace.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regulatory effort based on stringent quality principles for training delivery ought to mean that enterprises and students, who must make the decision about which RTO to go to for their training needs, can choose confidently because only competent RTOs are in the training marketplace.<\/span> Last modified on Wednesday, 14 October 2015<\/span><\/i> Continue reading<\/span> Hits: 1165<\/span><\/p>\n

AWARDS SEASON FOR VET AND VICTORIA’S LEARN LOCALS<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VETCentre<\/b><\/span> on Thursday, 08 October 2015 in <\/span><\/b>VET<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The Awards season is almost over. In Hobart on 19 November the Australian Training Awards will bring together state and territory award winners in 15 categories. In addition, a Lifetime Achievement Award and a National Achievement Award will be announced.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finalists in the VET Teacher\/Trainer of the Year Award are:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Geoff Way from <\/span>CMI Toyota Adelaide<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Stephen Lunn from Tasmania’s <\/span>Guilford Young College<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Kate Herbert from Victoria’s <\/span>Swinburne University of Technology<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Danni Grundy from the <\/span>C. Y. O’Connor Institute<\/span> in WA<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Troy Everett of <\/span>TAFE NSW – Illawarra Institute<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Melissa Dinn from <\/span>Kirana Training<\/span> in the ACT<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Mathew Deveraux from the Northern Territory’s <\/span>Taminmin College<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Sharan Berry from <\/span>TAFE Queensland East Coast<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Details about the finalists in all categories are being posted progressively on the <\/span>Australian Training Awards website<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Victoria held its State Training Awards ceremony on 28 August. The finalists and winners in 14 categories are listed <\/span>here<\/span>. Among those receiving awards were:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Shane Lawtey from <\/span>Melbourne Polytechnic<\/span> – Victorian VET Client Service\/Support Excellence Award<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Lyndoch Living Aged Care<\/span> Training Initiative – Victorian Industry Collaboration Award<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce<\/span> – Victorian Employer Award for Apprentice Development<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Plumbing Industry Climate Action Centre<\/span> – Victorian Small Training Provider of the Year<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Wodonga Institute of TAFE<\/span> – Victorian Large Training Provider of the Year (with special congratulations from the VET Development Centre as we sponsor this award)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Nhill Neighbourhood House Learning Centre<\/span> – Victorian Community Training Provider of the Year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nhill Learning Centre also featured in Victoria’s Learn Local Awards ceremony at Collingwood Town Hall on 10 September, winning the AMES Diversity Innovation Award for its Job Ready, Lifestyle and Karen Language programs.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Learn Local Awards winners are listed <\/span>here<\/span>, and include:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Karen Fleischer, <\/span>Paynesville Neighbourhood Centre<\/span> – Outstanding Practitioner<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Creating Pathways into the Community, <\/span>Shepparton Access<\/span> – Outstanding Pathways Program<\/span><\/p>\n

o    <\/span>YouthNow’s<\/span> BizE Centre – Excellence in Creating Local Solutions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Congratulations to all finalists and winners.<\/span><\/p>\n

THE NBN EFFECT ON JOBS IN AUSTRALIA<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VETCentre<\/b><\/span> on Monday, 05 October 2015 in <\/span><\/b>Industry<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

NBN Co ¬– the organisation responsible for rolling out Australia’s national broadband network – commissioned a study on how the NBN will influence what work we will do and how we’ll do it. The report, <\/span>Super connected jobs: understanding Australia’s future workforce<\/span> (16 pages), starts out with a section titled ‘The great Australian work shift.’ The report’s author, Bernard Salt, suggests that:<\/span><\/p>\n

Australian jobs of the future will have two layers: jobs created by new technology and jobs created by increased population levels.<\/span><\/p>\n

Increasing population levels marks Australia out as different from most developed economies which must work out how to deal with declining populations that will be, on average, much older than ours. Salt notes that:<\/span><\/p>\n

High levels of immigration and a strong birth rate will lift the base population over the next decade. Australian jobs of the future will be different to jobs of the future in Japan or Germany, where the change emphasis lies with the way technology is reconfiguring labour demand. The Australian workforce will also be reshaped by the impact of new technology but there is the added fact that many quite traditional jobs will remain in high demand because of population growth in this nation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The report points out the areas of job growth all have a common thread: connectivity. Salt looks at five categories of work that will grow, each of which will make substantial use of the benefits of connectivity:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>The care givers – social workers, aged-care workers, child-care workers and youth workers.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>The technocrats – medical laboratory scientists, electrical engineers, computer programmers and web designers.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>The specialist professions – general medical practice, dentistry, gerontology, urban planning, occupational health & safety, primary school teaching, secondary school teaching, university lecturing and vocational trade teachers.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>The doers – electricians, carpenters and sales reps.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>The creatives – fitness instructors, pet groomers, photographers and beauty therapists.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are several things to note about this list:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>First, these job categories and occupations are all based on growth in specific occupations over the past 10 years<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>The occupations are very similar to the ones we are familiar with now – what will be different is how digital technology will alter the way we do them<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Trade teachers are on the growth list, but as you can readily see, there will be a continuing need for VET teachers who know how to put digital technology to work in the occupations they teach to. Salt provides growth figures for occupations from 2001 to 2011 and notes that primary school teacher numbers grew by 22 per cent over that period. That means there are lots of lifelong learners on their way to tertiary education.<\/span><\/p>\n

Salt explains it like this:<\/span><\/p>\n

… whatever jobs are created in the future a common denominator will be, access to the universal connectivity designed to be delivered by the NBN network.<\/span><\/p>\n

Digital disruption combined with universal connectivity will indeed create new business models and new jobs. But for the majority of the Australian workforce, job growth will occur in categories that are tied to population and housing growth and to an expansion of existing commercial contracts in mining, agriculture and even manufacturing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Access to fast broadband no matter where one lives is more likely to refine and improve current jobs rather than replace them entirely.<\/span><\/p>\n

Salt also points out that the emphasis on STEM and entrepreneurship skills will continue to grow. In both these areas Australia has a bit of work to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

ESSENTIALS OF WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VETCentre<\/b><\/span> on Wednesday, 30 September 2015 in <\/span><\/b>VET Reforms<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Industry Skills Councils (ISCs) were charged by the Australian government with maintaining and improving links between industry and the ongoing development of nationally recognised vocational education and training. ISC work on training package development came to an end in April this year when the government announced <\/span>new arrangements for training product development<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

ISCs were part of the VET furniture from 2004 so it is a good thing that the depth of experience and breadth of learning that ISCs built up is captured for future reference. The ISCs commissioned research that we’ve not mentioned before in the VET Blog. A final report on the research was released in mid-2014, titled <\/span>Impact analysis of the workforce development activities of Industry Skills Councils – and lessons for the future<\/span> (114 pages).<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps one of the most interesting parts of the report is the identification of five critical success factors for workforce development which emerged from case studies undertaken as part of the research. The critical success factors are:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Senior support for workforce planning and development within the organisation<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>A consistent culture of training and workforce development<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>The availability of flexible and tailored training options<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Alignment between workforce development plans and investments with long-term strategic objectives<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Government co-investment and support.<\/span><\/p>\n

Each of these is explained in some detail. For example, access to flexible, tailored training options is discussed from a number of angles. The report notes that:<\/span><\/p>\n

For most enterprises, investing in workforce development comprises not just the financial costs of training, but also that oftentimes more significant costs of temporary disruptions to operations, and lost staff wages and employees are taken offline for training … the availability of flexible and tailored training options are critical, both to ensure that there is high-quality, work-based training, and to minimise the aforementioned disruptions and costs.<\/span><\/p>\n

The authors go on to say that:<\/span><\/p>\n

… government funding or programs should therefore allow for a high degree of flexibility in training delivery, and not discourage the development of innovative solutions that meet the specific training needs and operational context of a given enterprise. As reported by Qube Ports and Bulk [one of the case study organisations], training does not have as great an impact when it is generic, and when individuals cannot relate it to their day-to-day jobs.<\/span><\/p>\n

The report works its way to four key lessons for design of future workforce development programs:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>An enterprise-led model. Future workforce development programs should be genuinely enterprise-led, based on some up-front investment to help develop strong business engagement.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Co-investment from enterprises. Appropriate co-investment levels are both necessary for, and an indication of, high level commitment to workforce development and the attendant benefits within an enterprise.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Capacity, capability and credibility of supporting intermediaries. Given the need to directly engage and develop the capacity of enterprises, appropriate intermediaries will play an important role in the implementation of government workforce development policies.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Broad measures of benefit and outcomes. Meaningful outcomes measures that are aligned with the long-term return on workforce planning and development for the enterprises, industries or regions need to be developed and incorporated into future program designs. These could include increased profitability, productivity gains, improved competitiveness, community benefits, and industry specific parameters such as quality of care outcomes in the health sector.<\/span><\/p>\n

There’s also a good table on page 11 of the report which draws distinctions between workforce development and training. Characteristics of workforce development include:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Aimed at the enterprise, industry and\/or region<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Skills needs are enterprise specific and targeted<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Key objectives are industry productivity and competitiveness.<\/span><\/p>\n

Characteristics of training include:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Aimed primarily at the individual<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Skill needs are generic and transferable<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Key objectives are employment outcomes.<\/span><\/p>\n

ONGOING DECLINES IN AUSTRALIAN VET EXPENDITURE<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VETCentre<\/b><\/span> on Tuesday, 29 September 2015 in <\/span><\/b>Research<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Melbourne’s <\/span>Mitchell Institute<\/span> has completed an analysis of what is happening to the growth in funding across the school, VET and university sectors, and how each sector’s share of funding is changing. The analysis is reported in <\/span>Expenditure on education and training in Australia<\/i><\/span> (11 pages), which was released in late August.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Institute’s work shows that from 2003-2014:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Higher education expenditure has grown by 40 per cent, from $16.5 billion to $23.5 billion<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>School education expenditure has grown by 25 per cent, from $33.2 billion to $41.4 billion<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>VET expenditure has grown by 5 per cent, from $6.0 billion to $6.3 billion (with a marked decline from 2012-2013 to 2013-2014)<\/span><\/p>\n

As the authors note, ‘The gap in spending between VET and the other education sectors is growing despite national agreements to improve workforce skills levels.’<\/span><\/p>\n

The report also provides data on the growth of Higher Education Loan Programme (HELP) payments from 2008-2013. VET FEE-HELP was introduced in 2009. By 2013 it accounted for 12 per cent of all income contingent loan payments to providers. The report observes that:<\/span><\/p>\n

While access to income contingent loans is growing, many VET students are facing increasing levels of upfront fees but cannot access income contingent loans. Governments should consider the benefits of establishing a single and consistent income contingent loan scheme as part of a new tertiary funding model.<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier posts in The VET Blog have looked at Mitchell Institute reports that explore the national value in moving to a single income contingent loan scheme:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Fair shares – student contributions to the cost of tertiary education<\/span> (posted 6 August 2015)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Paying for tertiary education in Australia – governments and students footing the bill<\/span>(posted 11 March 2015).<\/span><\/p>\n

NCVER RESEARCH GRANTS ANNOUNCED<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VETCentre<\/b><\/span> on Monday, 28 September 2015 in <\/span><\/b>Research<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>NCVER<\/span> has announced the outcomes of its funding round under the National Vocational Education and Training Research (NVETR) program. Seven grants were awarded and all bear on matters of current significance to the evolution of VET practice and the VET system.<\/span><\/p>\n

Griffith University’s Steven Hodge<\/span>will lead a research project looking at the contribution of the VET student placement process to innovations. The project will ‘examine the whole process of student placement, including the role of the firm, the student and the provider, and how this contributes to innovation in the host firm.’ (Readers who attended the VET Development Centre’s Teaching and Learning Conference will remember Steven as one of our keynote speakers.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Don Scott-Kemmis and Associates have a grant to investigate ‘<\/span>the current and possible future role of VET in the emerging entrepreneurial ‘system’ in Australia – and to provide a specific regional case study.’ (Entrepreneurialism is a topic of growing interest and the development of entrepreneurial skills is working its way up the agenda for education providers. You may be interested to look at an earlier post on The VET Blog –<\/span>Youth entrepreneurialism can help tackle youth unemployment in Australia<\/span>.)<\/span><\/p>\n

A Brotherhood of St Laurence research team, led by Eric Dommers, will undertake a research project entitled ‘Factors enabling entry into and engagement with VET for young early school leavers.’<\/span><\/p>\n

Justin Brown from the Australian Council for Educational Research will head up a project that will look at learner choice in fully-contestable training markets. The project will consider:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>the awareness and perceived value of entitlements to training, from the students’ perspective<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>the extent to which these choices are restricted by local training supply and labour market needs<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>the extent to which the VET system and underpinning RTO practices are responding consistently in terms of:<\/span><\/p>\n

o    <\/span>equipping young people with information needed to make an ‘informed choice’<\/span><\/p>\n

o    <\/span>access to entitlements<\/span><\/p>\n

o    <\/span>strategies to improve access and broaden choice.<\/span><\/p>\n

The other projects are:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>‘Enhancing training advantage for remote Indigenous learners’ – led by Ninti One Ltd and John Guenther from Flinders University<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>‘Improving student participation and success in post-school VET’ – led by Stephen Lamb from Victoria University’s Centre for International Research on Education Systems<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>‘Choosing VET: investigating the formation of VET aspirations’ – led by Jenny Gore from The University of Newcastle.<\/span><\/p>\n

A little more detail on the projects is available <\/span>here<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

A PROFILE OF FOUNDATION SKILLS PRACTITIONERS<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VETCentre<\/b><\/span> on Tuesday, 22 September 2015 in <\/span><\/b>Language, Literacy and Numeracy<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>National Foundation Skills Strategy Project<\/span> (NFSS) has done a terrific job in exploring best practice in LLN and extending support to foundation skills practitioners. You can now access a range of reports and support materials from the NFSS website, including:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Professional practice in foundation skills final report<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>contact details<\/span> for the Foundation Skills Community of Practice projects<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>case studies of Foundation Skills Workplace Champions (scroll to the bottom of <\/span>this page<\/span>).<\/span><\/p>\n

This post focuses on one key input to the final report noted above, which is titled <\/span>Research to identify and qualify professional practice in foundation skills<\/i><\/span> (30 pages). That key input is the outcomes of a survey of almost 800 foundation skills practitioners conducted by the NCVER in late 2014. The data from the survey is reported in <\/span>Who is delivering foundation skills?<\/span> (72 pages).<\/span><\/p>\n

You can browse through the report to pick up the details, or go straight to the summary section (pages 37-40). The report tells us that of those who completed the survey:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>78% were women aged between 45 and 64 years<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>almost 30% were from Victoria, followed by 22% from NSW<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>almost 54% were employed on a full time basis<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>about a third has worked in foundation skills for more than 15 years.<\/span><\/p>\n

That’s a gold mine of deep experience and know-how. The survey had a particular line of inquiry related to professional learning opportunities for foundation skills practitioners.<\/span><\/p>\n

The survey asked practitioners about the content of the professional development they had mostly undertaken, to which they replied reporting and systems compliance; using new resources, learning about new delivery modes\/methods, digital literacy and integrating LLN into vocational contexts. The report notes that practitioners were happy with these development opportunities.<\/span><\/p>\n

They were also asked what kind of professional learning would make the most difference in the future. Practitioners had three suggestions:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Becoming more adept at using and exploiting new technologies and incorporating their use into training would be useful to some respondents in fulfilling their current role.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>More in-depth professional development focused on specific learner groups (such as those with learning disabilities, disengaged youth or those with mental health issues), and mixed-level groups.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Networking with other practitioners and experts, and professional development focused on managerial and leadership skills were also considered to be activities that could help respondents fulfil their current roles.<\/span><\/p>\n

The survey also asked practitioners whether they would support a formal arrangement for recognising the professional development they undertake as occurs, for example, with professional associations. So you might think of something as straightforward as formal certificates of attendance, or something more structured like a system of points for continuing professional development (CPD). Nearly 80% of those who responded to the survey were in favour of formal arrangements. They came up with a long list of benefits including:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>increased credibility of the individual and professionalism of the industry;<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>would encourage more teachers to invest more time in their own professional development<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>ensures individuals maintain currency<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>more recognition of professional development will bring greater value to it and employers will recognise its worth;<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>offers opportunities to be part of a larger networking system which may help further develop skills by associating with other professionals<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>provides a systematic means of maintaining a record of professional development undertaken, particularly important for capturing self-funded training.<\/span><\/p>\n

That’s a pretty resounding vote in favour, and a list of sound reasons for doing so. Perhaps we need to think some more about the value of, and support for, a professional association for VET practitioners.<\/span><\/p>\n

One question on the survey asked about the kind of work done by survey respondents who were not directly involved in LLN and employability skills training. It’s a very long list of key support activities. This is just a sample:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Resource development:<\/span><\/p>\n

o    <\/span>developing training and assessment resources and tools<\/span><\/p>\n

o    <\/span>gathering\/collating appropriate resources for use by trainers<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Pathways and support:<\/span><\/p>\n

o    <\/span>providing information to trainers and\/or students about educational pathways or appropriate learner support groups<\/span><\/p>\n

o    <\/span>discuss study and work goals with learners<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Capacity building:<\/span><\/p>\n

o    <\/span>training volunteers<\/span><\/p>\n

o    <\/span>organising professional development for staff involved in the direct delivery of foundation skills to learners<\/span><\/p>\n

o    <\/span>delivering LLN-related units in the Training and Education Training Package<\/span><\/p>\n

o    <\/span>mentoring trainers who deliver units in the Foundation Skills Training Package<\/span><\/p>\n

o    <\/span>working with vocational trainers to incorporate LLN tasks into VET assessment tasks and learning activities<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Administrative-related roles:<\/span><\/p>\n

o    <\/span>administer and coordinate courses including course and session planning, timetabling, pre-enrolment information, interview and LLN assessment of students<\/span><\/p>\n

o    <\/span>compliance and audit management<\/span><\/p>\n

o    <\/span>marketing of program<\/span><\/p>\n

o    <\/span>problem-solving information technology issues<\/span><\/p>\n

o    <\/span>source funding<\/span><\/p>\n

o    <\/span>strategic planning.<\/span><\/p>\n

MAKING YOUR WAY – THE WORKING FUTURES OF YOUNG AUSTRALIANS<\/b><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VETCentre<\/b><\/span> on Monday, 21 September 2015 in <\/span><\/b>Research<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The indefatiguable Foundation for Young Australians (FYA) has just released a report that has generated a good deal of media interest and discussion across the nation. The report is called <\/span>The new work order: Ensuring young Australians have skills and experience for the jobs of the future, not the past<\/i><\/span> (50 pages). The report’s appeal rested in part on its practical approach to an emerging reality we frequently skirt around. FYA’s CEO, Jan Owen, puts it pretty directly in her Foreword to the report:<\/span><\/p>\n

Economic changes are transforming work through automation, globalisation and more flexible work. This could bring opportunity. But it could also further disadvantage young people in labour markets. For example, the report shows currently around 70% of young Australians are getting their first job in roles that will either look very different or be completely lost in the next 10 to 15 years due to automation. Nearly 60% of Australian students (70% in VET) are currently studying or training for occupations where at least two thirds of jobs will be automated. Over 50% of jobs will require significant digital skills and yet our young people are not learning them in schools.<\/span><\/p>\n

At FYA we see a significant opportunity to sure up our nation’s future by investing in the next generation and backing them to create the kind of world they want to live in. Core to this will be a generations of enterprising young people who are job builders and creators, not only job seekers.<\/span><\/p>\n

That’s why FYA is calling for a national enterprise skills strategy to ensure young people are prepared for the economy of the future and equipped with the tools to drive economic and social progress. We want all young Australians to learn the skills to be digitally-literate, financially-savvy, innovative and adaptable and help them navigate complex careers of the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

The VET Blog has dipped into this territory a couple of times in recent months. If you’ve a mind, you could check out:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>a June post titled <\/span>Youth entrepreneurialism can help tackle youth unemployment in Australia<\/span> ¬– the post considers a paper from the <\/span>Australian Clearinghouse for Youth Studies<\/span> on supporting young people through engagement with start-ups and employment focused social enterprises<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>a July post entitled <\/span>Growing and declining industries in Australia<\/span> – here we looked at the Careers in Australia Report from <\/i><\/span>finder.com.au<\/span> that demonstrates substantial shifts towards high skilled, service oriented jobs in the Australian economy (with variations between states and territories which must be acknowledged)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>an August post titled <\/span>Changes in the work Australians will do, and who they work for<\/span> – this post reflects on a <\/span>Committee for Economic Development of Australia<\/span> report called<\/span>Australia’s future workforce?<\/i><\/span> The report suggests that around 40 per cent of Australian jobs are likely to be automated in the next 10-15 years, and that there is a strong trend towards employment growth relying much more on self-employment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Each of these explorations is in synchrony with the FYA report. The new work order<\/i>suggests that<\/span><\/p>\n

our tertiary and VET education systems need reform. In the context of this education and future jobs mismatch, it may be worth exploring whether our tertiary institutions should be more directed at encouraging entrepreneurship, including self-employment. In particular, governments could explore the feasibility of making accessible HECS, FEE HELP, and government-subsidised training in VET to students who participate in entrepreneurship education facilities run by successful entrepreneurs.<\/span><\/p>\n

FYA’s report is a useful reference for several reasons beyond the challenging analysis and recommendations for education systems and government policy.<\/span><\/p>\n

First, the graphical representation data is very good – this makes it easy to inform discussions about future work prospects and educational planning, whether that it is at the individual level with students, or the strategic level with your colleagues.<\/span><\/p>\n

Second, chapter 5 offers an overview of policies adopted in other countries, or proposed by the OECD, that seek to support young Australians to become working Australians with a productive future.<\/span><\/p>\n

THE UK HAS A NEW VET PROFESSIONAL BODY<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VETCentre<\/b><\/span> on Friday, 18 September 2015 in <\/span><\/b>Workforce Development<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The VET Development Centre has long held an interest in the potential for a VET professional body in Australia. Some readers may recall the Centre’s research study on this topic, undertaken by Hugh Guthrie and Berwyn Clayton. Their report – An association for VET’s professionals: What’s the story?<\/i> – is available from <\/span>this page on the Centre’s website<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

So with that abiding interest, our eyes turned to recent developments in the UK. It’s a slightly complicated background story but the end result is that a couple of months ago the<\/span>Society for Education and Training<\/span> (SET) was launched. SET’s <\/span>website<\/span> explains that it is a professional body for<\/span><\/p>\n

trainers, teachers, assessors, tutors, support staff, mentors, coaches and managers, working across the rich diversity of settings in education and training, including colleges, independent training providers, adult and community learning, employer\/providers, the voluntary sector, justice sector, and the armed services.<\/span><\/p>\n

SET has developed a <\/span>strategy statement<\/span> (6 pages) which spot up seven key areas of work. The strategy statement notes that professional development is at the heart of SET’s activities and that it will acquit this responsibility in five ways:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>access to quality development opportunities<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>access to valuable educational content, with support to apply it in practice<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>facilitating active face-to-face and online communities to share thoughts and experiences on addressing new policy or teaching practice<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>supporting members’ involvement in their own practitioner research to add to the wider knowledge base for the post-16 sector<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>building recognition for ongoing professional development through refreshed membership levels, enhancements to <\/span>Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills<\/span><\/p>\n

(QTLS is effectively the minimum requirement for teaching in the UK’s further education sector.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier in this post there was mention of a complicated background to SET’s establishment. That might need a bit of explanation. Until late 2014 the Institute for Learning (IfL) was the professional membership body for UK VET professionals. A key reason for its closure was that at the end it had attracted to its ranks only a small fraction of all VET professionals.<\/span><\/p>\n

The assets of the IfL were then transferred to the <\/span>Education and Training Foundation<\/span>(ETF) which is a standards setting body on governance, leadership and professionalism. ETF is owned by peak bodies in the UK training sector ¬– <\/span>the <\/span>Association of Colleges<\/span>,<\/span><\/u>Association of Employment and Learning Providers<\/span>, and the Association of Adult Education and Training Organisations.<\/span><\/p>\n

And the ETF assisted VET professionals to launch SET with ambitions to sign up a large proportion of their colleagues.<\/span><\/p>\n

COMPASS: DATTNER GRANT’S TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP PROGRAM FOR WOMEN<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VETCentre<\/b><\/span> on Friday, 11 September 2015 in <\/span><\/b>Workforce Development<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Compass is so much more than a workshop. Using the extensive leadership experience of Dattner Grant, this artfully designed program builds insight through dialogue, based on the premise that women shine when they work in collaboration with male leaders and each other. The workshop is designed to bring out the strengths and unique qualities of female leadership, and enhance and advance women’s leadership contribution.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a terrific program and all who have completed it have found it personally and professionally rewarding. As we know, succession planning and generational change are key management issues and critical for the ongoing renewal of the sector.<\/span><\/p>\n

To find out more information about the program click <\/span>here<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

SKILLAROOS WERE WONDERFUL AT WORLDSKILLS 2015<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VETCentre<\/b><\/span> on Thursday, 10 September 2015 in <\/span><\/b>VET<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Back in May we posted about the <\/span>25 Skillaroos selected to represent Australia<\/span> at the 43rd<\/span>International WorldSkills Competition<\/span> in Brazil. The event ran from 12-15 August and the Skillaroos did us proud. WorldSkills Australia has a bundle of photos from the fourth day of competition <\/span>on its Facebook page<\/span> – worth checking out.<\/span><\/p>\n

The gold, silver and bronze medallists for all 50 skills competitions are <\/span>listed on the WorldSkills website<\/span>. You might like to scroll down the page to spot up the Skillaroos who are bringing home a medal:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Samuel Spong ¬– Bricklaying, Bronze<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Dylan Di Martino – Plumbing and Heating, Bronze<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Jyothi Forman – Jewellery, Silver<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Harlan Wilton – Web Design, Silver<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Joseph Pauley – Industrial Mechanics Millwright, Silver.<\/span><\/p>\n

A word of congratulations to the WorldSkills Experts who plan in exquisite detail the Test Projects that competitors are asked to tackle during the competition. Their efforts are highlighted in the WorldSkills website <\/span>here<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

You might also be interested to read a little about what the benefits of WorldSkills Competitions are to individual competitors, to experts, to industry and to national training systems. <\/span>WorldSkills: Inspiring skills excellence<\/span> (12 pages) is a brochure that conveys in brief the findings from research conducted at the 2011 WorldSkills Competition in London. (The research partners were RMIT University, the University of Tampere in Finland, and Oxford University in the UK.)<\/span><\/p>\n

PROMOTING AUSTRALIA’S VET CAPABILITY IN ASIA<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VETCentre<\/b><\/span> on Tuesday, 08 September 2015 in <\/span><\/b>VET<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Australian VET providers have long engaged with Asia through providing onshore and offshore educational services. There is now an increasing emphasis in government policy and trade initiatives on expanding that engagement. As noted in a recent post in the VET Blog, the Victorian government is currently developing an international education strategy (see <\/span>Discussion papers and consultation on Victoria’s high potential growth industries<\/span>). Meanwhile the Commonwealth government is developing a <\/span>National Strategy for International Education<\/span> which is due for release later in 2015. Both are making lots of room for VET.<\/span><\/p>\n

A recent trip to China and Korea by Simon Birmingham, the Commonwealth government’sAssistant Minister for Education and Training, is a useful lens through which to see how the strengths of Australia’s VET system are now being promoted with greater focus. Senator Birmingham, along with a delegation of Australian VET leaders, had a very full itinerary from 13-18 July which included:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Hosting the Australia-China VET Strategic Policy Dialogue in Beijing<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Visiting Huawei’s headquarters in Beijing when Huawei announced the establishment of its first National Training and Development Centre for Australia, based in Sydney<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Signing in Beijing an agreement that will allow ASQA to conduct audits in China to ensure the quality of vocational education and training programs delivered there by Australian providers<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Attending a Roundtable on VET convened by the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Visiting the Shanghai Pharmaceutical School which has a decade long, very successful collaboration with Box Hill Institute<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Visiting Korea Polytechnic which has a close relationship with Sydney Institute of TAFE in VET teacher training.<\/span><\/p>\n

The range of activities that fill this itinerary, pieced together from Minister Birmingham’s media releases, highlight the potential for VET in our region. Recent free trade agreements (FTAs) between Australia and China, and Australia and Korea, have provided a framework for Australian VET providers to become more engaged with these nations. There is some contest around the upsides and downsides of these FTAs, but what’s interesting is that a framework is in the mix that would enable collaborations on defining occupational standards, mapping qualifications, developing a shared understanding of quality assurance, and improving labour mobility.<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s interesting to note that a similar framework is under development with the Asia-Pacific Economic Community (APEC) through a project called <\/span>Integrated Referencing Framework for Skills Recognition and Mobility<\/span>. Australia is leading this project, along with the Philippines and Taiwan.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just step back for a moment and consider the scale of VET demand in our region. As Minister Birmingham noted during his time in Beijing:<\/span><\/p>\n

Over 30 million students undertake formal VET in China, where the State Council has set the goal of increasing total VET student numbers to 38.3 million by 2020 to ensure a highly skilled workforce to support productivity and growth.<\/span><\/p>\n

At present, the Minister reported, there are ‘35,000 people enrolled with Australian VET providers in China, which represents 72 per cent of total offshore enrolment numbers.’<\/span><\/p>\n

Again borrowing the Minister’s statistics (this time from his from 28 July <\/span>his speech<\/span> to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia):<\/span><\/p>\n

Based on India’s updated skills strategy released on 15 July this year, their aim is to up-skill more than 400 million people. This includes more than 100 million in workforce entrance, in requirement of skills training and nearly 300 million existing workers needing skills training, reskilling and up-skilling.<\/span><\/p>\n

In relation to India, the Minister noted that Australia is<\/span><\/p>\n

… already working on transnational standards and benchmarking in consultation with industry. The Australian Government has funded a project to map 23 qualifications in the automotive information technology and telecommunication sectors to Indian occupational standards [which will] then form the basis for future transnational standards that will enhance the ability of Australian providers to deliver training in those areas as well as the mobility of labour between our two countries.<\/span><\/p>\n

A <\/span>Memorandum of Understanding between India and Australia<\/span> will soon be signed that opens the way for greater exchange between the VET systems in both nations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Watch the Asian space!<\/span><\/p>\n

BUSINESS PERSPECTIVES ON THE VICTORIAN VET FUNDING REVIEW<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VETCentre<\/b><\/span> on Monday, 07 September 2015 in <\/span><\/b>VET Reforms<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The Victorian Employers’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VECCI) established a Higher Education Taskforce to assess what changes were needed to Victoria’s VET system. The Taskforce’s report, <\/span>Reforming the Victorian Vocational Education and Training (VET) System<\/i><\/span> (44 pages), was exquisitely timed to catch the call for submissions to the Victorian VET Funding Review.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Taskforce was very direct in its criticisms of Victoria’s VET system, citing declines in recent years in quality and stability, and increases in confusion and complexity. With that assessment in mind, the report’s broad position was equally direct:<\/span><\/p>\n

VECCI considers a new VET funding model is needed to improve public training provider sustainability, restore government control over training priorities, improve training quality and provide greater training system flexibility in relation to industry and regional training needs.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Taskforce specified three business priorities for the VET sector:<\/span><\/p>\n

1.    <\/span>Match training delivery to the growing job opportunities in Victorian industries<\/span><\/p>\n

2.    <\/span>Ensure all government-subsidised training is high quality<\/span><\/p>\n

3.    <\/span>Build a strong and responsive public TAFE sector.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those priorities are reflected in the report’s nine recommendations, which included:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Reinstate core funding for the TAFE sector.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Introduce a new industry skills component in a revised VET funding model.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Link provider payments to performance and student retention.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Enhance the number and quality of audits of high-risk providers to ensure compliance. Reduce the level of regulation applying to compliant training providers.<\/span><\/p>\n

In chapter 8 of the report, the Taskforce set out a series of other business expectations about the VET system, including that rural and regional communities have ‘access to training that meets their local needs.’ Another expectation of business is that school to work pathways are improved. Among the Taskforce’s six suggestions for securing such improvements were:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Review funding models and resource support to expand VET in schools options.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Consider the re-introduction of funding for regional career development resources and Structured Learning and Workplace Co-ordinators in order to strengthen student transition pathway options.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>In conjunction with university providers of teacher qualifications, review existing delivery models to ensure graduates have appropriate teaching placement experience that improves overall teaching quality.<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s notable that <\/span>VECCI’s<\/span> Taskforce also underlined that:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Foundation skills must be recognised as vital to the successful transition to the workplace<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Improvements in language, literacy and numeracy skills must be a priority.<\/span><\/p>\n

VECCI’s submission to the Victorian VET Funding Review was based on the Taskforce report. The VET Blog has several posts about the Funding Review, and about the Victorian Quality Assurance Review:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Victoria’s VET Funding Review releases Issues Paper<\/span> (20 July 2015)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Outcomes from Victoria’s Review of VET Quality Assurance<\/span> (9 July 2015)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Victoria’s VET Funding Review<\/span> (17 February 2015).<\/span><\/p>\n

TECHNOLOGY CHANGE<\/b><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VETCentre<\/b><\/span> on Tuesday, 01 September 2015 in <\/span><\/b>E-Learning<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

In our final post in this ILeP series, we are looking at the change dynamics associated with technology itself. There is no denying that technology is the key driving force behind the change occurring in the education space. Of all the above mentioned lenses, the window of technological change provides a clear vantage point for the future of VET delivery. Veletsianos (2011) informs us that access to technology alone has limited impact on learning outcomes and is often used to support passive, teacher-centred, and didactic instruction (Herrington et al, 2009). More recent studies have alluded to the fact that more mature approaches to technology use in education meet high-level objectives and outcomes of improved learner identity, support for self-directed lifelong learning and user driven social media platforms as locales for informal professional development.<\/span><\/p>\n

Traditionally, the marriage of educational technology and instructional design has focused innovation as a tool for instruction – for example, linking web based content to courses. However, the work of Veletsianos, (2010) and Whitworth and Benson (2010), highlight the negotiated and symbiotic relationship between technology and pedagogy, noting that innovation in ‘technology sculpts education practice and educational practice moulds technology use’. Accordingly, technological change and innovation are critical factors in shaping the role of the practitioner in VET settings.   Technology affords the practitioner many instances to design opportunities for transformation of the learning experience. Noteworthy examples include:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Designing opportunities that allow engagement beyond course activities<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Design for lasting impressions<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Design for intrigue, risk-taking and challenge<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Design for engagement<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Design for reflection<\/span><\/p>\n

Another area of change observed in education settings occurs in the ways in which we physically interact with technology. Many educators are beginning to capitalise on the phenomenon fast becoming known as mLearning or Mobile Learning (Taggart, 2013). By using smart devices, educators are embracing technology to enhance their curricula, promoting many different kinds of online learning activities. Mobile devices enable dispersed learning to be synchronised and shared through collaborative and connective learning frameworks. According to research, digital natives have been instrumental in the shift towards technology-enabled learning, demanding digital tools be an integral part of the learning process (Cutler, 2014). It seems prudent to consider this current learner demographic in the future planning of VET designed courses.<\/span><\/p>\n

A final perspective on technological change is reflected in the way that we embrace and use technology for education. Learning is both social and experiential. Digital technology and its associated tools are transforming information and knowledge sharing in the learning space as learners engage with technology and establish strong personal learning networks. Learning incorporates intuitive (Barak & Zadok, 2009), social (Masie, 2006) and environmental (Truman, 2008) dynamics. Piaget [1896-1980] believed that social interaction was an essential component of cognitive development (Alexander, 2010). Digital natives are interacting more and more with ‘social networks’ of information via the WWW. They are intuitively seeking out and determining the value of information based on the quality of the social transaction that occurs within the online environment. Changes to the specification standards for learning technologies reflect this trend with the shift towards using the Tin Can API. This new standard enables easy recognition, communication, and recording of mobile learning, simulations, virtual worlds, serious games, real world activities, experiential learning, social learning, offline learning, and collaborative learning. It is important for VET practitioners to be considerate of this and to ensure that learners are given every opportunity to engage in socially rich learning experiences.<\/span><\/p>\n

VET PROVIDERS PLANNING TO DELIVER DEGREES: GOOD PRACTICE GUIDE<\/b><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VETCentre<\/b><\/span> on Monday, 31 August 2015 in <\/span><\/b>Research<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

In an <\/span>earlier post<\/span> we looked at a recent NCVER report, Lessons from VET providers delivering degrees<\/i> (44 pages). Drawing on the findings from that report, NCVER has also released a companion piece in the form of the <\/span>Good Practice Guide for VET providers planning to deliver degrees<\/i><\/span> (4 pages).<\/span><\/p>\n

Victor Callan and Kaye Bowman have condensed from their research six best practice principles for VET providers who are considering higher education delivery. The principles are:<\/span><\/p>\n

1.    <\/span>Build on existing skills and relationships<\/span><\/p>\n

2.    <\/span>Develop a business case<\/span><\/p>\n

3.    <\/span>Work up to delivering higher education in your own right<\/span><\/p>\n

4.    <\/span>Develop appropriate academic governance arrangements<\/span><\/p>\n

5.    <\/span>Promote scholarship<\/span><\/p>\n

6.    <\/span>Provide additional student support.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the Good Practice Guide<\/i> observes,<\/span><\/p>\n

… the first step for organisations planning to commence higher education provision is gaining experience in other VET-to-higher education arrangements. These experiences, either through partnerships with universities or other arrangements, develop the higher education knowledge and capability of staff.<\/span><\/p>\n

This first step has a footing in a number of the principles. For example, under the fifth principle, ‘Promote scholarship’, the Guide<\/i> suggests that:<\/span><\/p>\n

VET providers moving into the delivery of higher education qualifications need to develop their own appropriate model for scholarship. This model will underpin their higher education provision and should add value to teaching and learning in their institution. One strategy is to leverage off partnerships with local universities and other VET providers offering higher education, the aim being to access networks, communities of practice, forums and shared professional development opportunities for staff.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the matter of scholarship, we were pleased to see the Good Practice Guide<\/i> list as a useful reference the outcome of a research project managed by the VET Development Centre – Towards a culture of scholarly practice in mixed-sector institutions<\/i> (52 pages) is the report in question. You can <\/span>download it from this page on the Centre’s website<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Guide<\/i> also makes the point that industry relationships, an acknowledged VET strength, can be drawn on to differentiate the higher education qualifications of VET providers. Best practice, the Guide<\/i> suggests, involves<\/span><\/p>\n

… industry experts in the development of the business plan and in the design and delivery of higher education courses, as well as providing placements and industry projects for students once the degrees are in place.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the years the NCVER has produced a number of good practice guides which may be of interest. They include:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Bringing a social capital approach into the teaching of adult literacy and numeracy: Good practice guide<\/i><\/span> (2010, 6 pages)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>High quality traineeships: Identifying what works – Good practice guide<\/i><\/span> (2009, 6 pages)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>The need for intensive reading approaches in adult literacy: Good practice guide<\/i><\/span>(2008, 2 pages)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Literacy support for Indigenous VET students: Good practice guide<\/i><\/span> (2006, 2 pages).<\/span><\/p>\n

LESSONS FROM VET PROVIDERS DELIVERING DEGREES – NCVER REPORT<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VETCentre<\/b><\/span> on Wednesday, 26 August 2015 in <\/span><\/b>Research<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

In a post a few days ago, <\/span>Learners count (2) – better data on students in government funded training<\/span>, we riffled through a new NCVER report on students enrolled in government funded training. According to that report, there are 2,500 students enrolled with VET providers in government-funded bachelor degrees, and 500 enrolled in associate degrees. Not many years ago that number was zero.<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>National Centre for Vocational Education Research<\/span> (NCVER) thought it would be good to ask what leads VET providers to go down this path, and what lessons do they have to share with us? NCVER asked Victor Callan and Kaye Bowman to follow those questions up and they have provided a comprehensive set of answers in <\/span>Lessons from VET providers delivering degrees<\/i><\/span> (44 pages). The report draws on six case studies of providers that have begun to offer associate and bachelor degrees:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Canberra Institute of Technology<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Holmesglen Institute<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Polytechnic West<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>TAFE SA<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Tabor Adelaide<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Think Education<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you dip into NCVER reports by habit you’ll know that the key messages for each report are set out on a briefly and early, even before you get to the table of contents. There are four key messages in this report from this group of very diverse providers, which in part read as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>They chose to deliver degrees as pathways into higher education. They generally deliver these degrees in niche markets in which they have existing strengths. They see their competitive points of advantage as including the highly applied and field-based nature of their degrees and more personalised support for students than in traditional higher education providers.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>They highlighted the challenges in moving VET staff to teaching in higher education and with providing opportunities for scholarship for staff teaching in higher education.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>They suggest it’s important to involve industry in planning and implementing higher education degrees. Their strategy and positioning for delivery of degrees is constantly under review.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Changes in VET funding policies in some states, and the burden of having to report to two separate regulatory bodies, has led these VET providers to reduce the delivery of higher education qualifications.<\/span><\/p>\n

One primary focus for the report was to assess the challenges that the six providers confronted in building capability among staff and students. Among the challenges they face is defining what constitutes scholarship in a VET environment, and what kinds of structures and supports are necessary to develop and maintain a scholarly orientation. These are questions that the VET Development Centre has explored in a number of projects. You may be interested to revisit three of our research reports, <\/span>available for download from this page<\/span> of the Centre’s website:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Scholarly engagement – Building knowledge with industry and the community in mixed-sector institutions<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Towards a culture of scholarly practice in mixed-sector institutions<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Naming and claiming a research culture in TAFE.<\/span><\/p>\n

The NCVER report notes that each provider<\/span><\/p>\n

… highlighted the challenges associated with defining and providing access to ongoing scholarship, noting that their current interest in scholarship is still emerging and understandably is more related to its usefulness in supporting applied teaching and learning. Their position on scholarship is aligned with the applied and professional nature of their higher education programs.<\/span><\/p>\n

There were varying approaches to this task:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Holmesglen seeks ‘to develop a scholarly culture, one that values the critical role that research activity plays in the formation of knowledge. Examples of good practice in the more applied approaches to teaching and learning that have been developed include the simulated learning approaches in the nursing and early childhood education degrees, while the problem-based learning approaches and the use of industry connections provide authentic learning in the Faculty of Building Construction and Architectural Design.’<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>At Polytechnic West the ‘approach to scholarship in the light of its mixed-sector experience is to build a culture of scholarship rather than one of research across all of its areas of higher education teaching’<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>‘Think encourages all staff to focus upon scholarship, and similar to the other case studies (for example, Polytechnic West) there is a broader definition of scholarship than adopted by universities.’<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Tabor has ‘a workload model for higher education staff for research activity, which allocates annual hours for research and annual hours for scholarship. A number of staff publish in scholarly publications, including monographs, peer-reviewed journal articles and occasional papers. Some are engaged in national and international collaborative research programs, while there is a good level of support for attendance at short courses and conferences.’<\/span><\/p>\n

INNOVATION CHANGE<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VETCentre<\/b><\/span> on Wednesday, 26 August 2015 in <\/span><\/b>Research<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

This week we ask the question, “How do we Innovate education practice?” According to Valerie Hannon, Founding Director of Innovation Unit, UK, the ‘key characteristics of innovation include partnerships and collaboration at all levels, user-centredness, exploiting ICT’s potential, the importance of a highly interconnected approach, a focus on enhancing processes and the empowerment of users and communities’ (2007).<\/span><\/p>\n

There has been a growing and widespread interest in the understanding of innovation in learning. In addition, there is a growing distance between the research on learning that is currently being generated and the application of this new knowledge base in educational settings (MCEETYA, 2008). Innovation in using digital technology in education happen ‘top down’ and ‘bottom up’ and from ‘within out’. However, research suggests that most sustainable change is achieved by management-sponsored and supported initiatives that develop and deliver new or improved programs and products, have an agreed budget and timelines, have a designated project manager, and have and express commitment to modify processes and systems as needed to make the desired changes happen (Australian Innovation, 2010). Within the VET system, innovation should be encouraged and fostered through a culture of effective professional learning and adaptive practice that is seen as encompassing four contextual frameworks.<\/span><\/p>\n

1.    <\/span>Relevance – VET practitioners and RTO managers\/owners should find new solutions to issues they face including challenging their assumptions about their practice.<\/span><\/p>\n

2.    <\/span>Collaborative – New learning, including planning for and innovating practice, is constructed through social negotiation.<\/span><\/p>\n

3.    <\/span>Future focused – Practitioners should understand what practices work in different situations, and be equipped to deal with current and future challenges.<\/span><\/p>\n

4.    <\/span>Adaptive practice – to develop ‘adaptive expertise’, that is, an ability to apply deep learning knowledge and skills flexibly and creatively across a variety of contexts. This requires a willingness and agility to change core competencies, and a commitment to and professional interest in lifelong learning (AITSL).<\/span><\/p>\n

Most effective digital learning plans are driven by identifying and resourcing a small number of key innovation projects (or ‘success leaders’) that deliver specific benefits to clients and the organisation, and that further promote the uptake of digital learning culture.<\/span><\/p>\n

Innovation in VET practice using technology requires the genuine support of organisational culture. Without it, the best laid plans to innovate ‘just won’t happen’ (Coghlan, 2014). A key identifier of innovative change, the internationally recognised NMC Horizon Report: 2014 Higher Education Edition<\/i>, highlights emerging technologies or practices that are likely to enter mainstream use over the next five years. The report states that pedagogical practices should be positioned at the centre of all innovation, and pinpoints that changes needed in policy, leadership and practice are the driving forces behind educational innovation (Horizon Report – 2014 Higher Education Edition).  <\/span><\/p>\n

DISCUSSION PAPERS AND CONSULTATION ON VICTORIA’S HIGH POTENTIAL GROWTH INDUSTRIES<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VETCentre<\/b><\/span> on Tuesday, 25 August 2015 in <\/span><\/b>Industry<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The Victorian government has set aside $200m for its <\/span>Future Industries Fund<\/span>, the objective of which is to support ‘high growth, high value industries that are critical to securing Victoria’s future as a competitive, innovative and outward looking economy.’<\/span><\/p>\n

There is a consultation process underway on eight industry sectors that are the Fund’s areas of interest. A Discussion Paper on each sector is intended to seek stakeholder views about issues, prospects and challenges. It’s a rolling process, with some sector consultations already closed, some underway and some yet to come.<\/span><\/p>\n

The consultation is certainly inside the scope of VET practitioners. For starters, international education is one of the eight nominated sectors. But take a look at the Food and Fibre Discussion Paper and you can see how the consultations might well be of significance to VET providers. On pages 23-25 is a section titled ‘Attracting, retaining and building skills will help capture future opportunities’. Among other key points in this section are these:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Boosting skills from the boardroom to the factory floor can be a big challenge for businesses and thus the sector needs access to world class, lifelong education and training options. This includes vocational training and higher education.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>The Victorian Government is strengthening and rebuilding regional TAFEs through the TAFE Rescue Fund and the TAFE Back to Work Fund which will help institutions build partnerships with companies in the food and fibre sector, better align skills training to industry needs and improve the level of education attainment in the sector.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Some young farmers and manufacturers require encouragement and support to invest, develop skills and build rewarding careers. To this end a Young Farmers Ministerial Advisory Council will be assembled to advise the government and a new Young Farmers Scholarship Program will help young farmers build their skills.<\/span><\/p>\n

Consultation has closed on both the fibre and food, and international education discussion papers, but the quotes above give a sense that the discussion papers yet to come are going to bear on some of the opportunities that Victoria’s VET providers will have before them in coming years. The other industry sectors on the priority list are: medical technologies and pharmaceuticals; new energy technology; professional services; defence technology; construction technologies; and transport technologies.<\/span><\/p>\n

As you’d expect, the international education has lots to say about VET – just a sample:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Future opportunities are not just limited to the potential supply of inbound international students. The continued demand for offshore program delivery and customised training for global industry partners is also another area of significant demand.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Victoria is the national leader in delivering offshore Australian training qualifications. There are significant opportunities over the coming decade for TAFEs and high-quality private VET providers to increase provision of offshore training. In Asia alone, the key markets are estimated to be worth billions of dollars as countries realise the value of a skilled workforce to their economies and seek large-scale reform and investment in VET.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>For a number of years global higher education providers have packaged together short customised programs to meet very specific needs of industry clients and professional bodies. Given its industry focussed foundations, Victorian VET providers have the potential to replicate this approach and deliver quality, cost-effective products globally.<\/span><\/p>\n

The international education discussion paper posed 24 consultation questions, including:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>What are the specific market development opportunities for the various sub-sectors of international education (ie schools, English language, VET, undergraduate and postgraduate\/research)?<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Given the diverse range of higher education courses, delivery modes and student cohorts, what should the future mix of Victoria’s higher education exports look like?<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>In what training fields are VET providers predicting strong demand for onshore education?<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>How can the VET sector better participate in the growing transnational education market?<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>What is regional Victoria’s distinctive value proposition as a provider of international education and how can we market this better to prospective international students and offshore governments and industry?<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>How can we support growth in outbound students programs for Victoria’s secondary and tertiary students?<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>What are the opportunities for closer engagement with business and industry as partners in the sector’s growth and sustainability?<\/span><\/p>\n

The Victorian government’s priority for international education is apparent in the funding in the last state budget of the <\/span>International Student Welfare Grants<\/span> program which will support the delivery of a range of opportunities and services to post-secondary international students. And of course, Victoria is sensibly trading on its ranking as the<\/span>second best city in the world for students<\/span> – pipped by Paris and ahead of Sydney which is ranked fourth.<\/span><\/p>\n

VET clearly has a role in each of the industry sectors for which Discussion Papers are yet to come. You can visit the <\/span>consultation home page<\/span> for full details about how to contribute your views. At the time of writing this post the current status of consultation for each sector is as follows.<\/span><\/p>\n

Consultation on the following sectors closed on 17 August:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Food and fibre<\/span> – you can still read the <\/span>Food and Fibre Discussion Paper<\/span> (32 pages)<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>International Education<\/span> you can still read the <\/span>International Education Discussion Paper<\/span>(32 pages).<\/span><\/p>\n

Consultation on the following sector closes on 7 September:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>You can download the <\/span>Medical Technologies and Pharmaceuticals Discussion Paper<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Consultation on the following sectors has not commenced – when they become available you can download the Discussion Papers at these links:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>New energy technology<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Professional services<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Defence technology<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Construction technologies<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>Transport technologies<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

PEDAGOGY CHANGE<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VETCentre<\/b><\/span> on Wednesday, 19 August 2015 in <\/span><\/b>E-Learning<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

This week we focus on the most critical element of digital education in VET–pedagogy. Web 2.0 technologies have had a major impact on pedagogy by enabling the two-way flow of information and the sharing of experience via the World Wide Web (Mason & Rennie, 2010).<\/span><\/p>\n

There has been much discussion of how this change generates different ways of learning where the content is sourced by the learners or generated (constructed) by collaboration, rather than being provided and packaged by the teacher\/trainer\/RTO. The notion of student designed learning in VET in some ways is not new, but the power and convenience of the tools and the volume of material available has produced daunting demands and challenges (Miller, 2014).<\/span><\/p>\n

Competency\/Problem\/Project\/Inquiry based learning is replacing the push methodology of content delivery in the VET sector and across educational spectrums, from K-12 through to higher education (Johnson & Lamb, 2007). By changing the way content, assessment, and feedback are organised, and by putting learners at the centre of the educational experience, these pedagogies enable the development of critical analytical skills required for both specific subject matter and general lifelong learning (Gregorc, 2012). These pedagogies require teachers\/trainers\/RTOs to redesign delivery using a solution oriented approach. The literature informs us that teaching presence focuses on three major functions – design, facilitation and direction of the learning experience (Banner, 2014). This renewed look at teaching through the lens of digital learning pedagogies asks that practitioners build teaching presence by designing learning events that guide participants through learning materials, reinforce key concepts, foster critical thinking skills, provide opportunities for formative feedback and support and evaluate progress throughout the learning experience. It is important to note here that social and cognitive presence is also needed to support learning by cultivating engagement and fostering vibrant knowledge communities.<\/span><\/p>\n

These communities, supported by Web 2.0 technologies, facilitate group sharing as they enable ease of engagement, support a learner focus and develop lifelong and problem based learning skills (McLaughlin & Lee, 2008). The social aspects of learning are also considered as the networked group builds metacognition and is considerate of the psychosocial (building social skills and making social connections) and instrumental (developing professional, academic and communication skills) aspects of PD (Baron & Car, 2009).<\/span><\/p>\n

Web 2.0 is fast becoming an established norm within VET practice. There is clearly growth in using situational technologies, social media, ePortfolios, and online networks within qualifications, skill sets and non-accredited training. As technology advances and Web 3.0 technologies emerge (Spivac, 2014), the associated pedagogical change will further enhance ways of learning in VET.<\/span><\/p>\n

Instructional design plays a significant role in influencing educational design (Beach, 2014). VET practitioners are cautiously considering adopting new and innovative approaches to course design and delivery. Blended frameworks, mobile delivery, flipped classrooms, MOOCS and gamification are some of the potential platforms being moderated. Heichelbech (2014) states that ALL educators would be willing to incorporate technology into their teaching practice if they had time to properly plan for relevant execution. Part of this comes down to the need to create the opportunities for educators to do so. There are a number of instructional design theories used to explain the process of technology integration into teaching practice – the ADDIE model of instructional design (Branson et al, 1975), ARCS model of motivation (Keller, 1987) and the ASSURE model of embedding media and technology (Heinich et al, 2002) are three such models.<\/span><\/p>\n

The bedrock of educational design frameworks include Behaviourism, Cognitivism, Constructivism, Connectivism and online Collaborative learning (Bates, 2014). Support, understanding and opportunities to explore these development frameworks will better equip VET practitioners in advancing innovation in evidence based delivery practice.<\/span><\/p>\n

The future of VET pedagogy practice is on a precipice of change. Developments in digital pedagogies and Web 2.0 technologies are forcing changes in both teaching and learning. As the role of the teacher shifts from being informative to facilitative, and the classroom expands onto a global stage; as multisensory approaches to knowledge acquisition change the way that students construct understanding; it is important that we identify successful models of digital pedagogy integration at RTO, course and activity levels.<\/span><\/p>\n

LEARNERS COUNT – BLOG 2: BETTER DATA ON STUDENTS IN GOVERNMENT FUNDED TRAINING<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted<\/span><\/b> by <\/span><\/b>VETCentre<\/b><\/span> on Tuesday, 18 August 2015 in <\/span><\/b>VET<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

This is a halleluiah VET event. For the first time – ever – we know how many students were enrolled for government-funded training. The specific definition is all training activity ‘delivered government providers and government-funded activity delivered by community education and other registered providers’.<\/span><\/p>\n

That definition comes from a recent statistical publication of the <\/span>National Centre for Vocational Education Research<\/span> (NCVER). The publication is titled <\/span>Government-funded students and courses – January to March 2015<\/i><\/span> (16 Pages).<\/span><\/p>\n

The headline numbers are on the first page of the publication. They include:<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>There were 787,700 students enrolled in the government-funded VET system in the three months to March 31 2015<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>67% attended TAFE and other government providers<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>38.1% were aged 25 to 44 years<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>90.4% were enrolled in an Australian Qualifications Framework level program<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>36.9% were studying certificate III programs<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>18.7% were studying in management and commerce.<\/span><\/p>\n

·         <\/span>1565 training organisations delivered government-funded VET.<\/span><\/p>\n

As this is the first reporting of these data we don’t have any earlier figures to show rises and falls on any measure. But the dataset will grow and we can at last see what’s happening in the sector without a special research project or deciding how much faith to invest in anecdotal information.<\/span><\/p>\n