What is vocational excellence? Sure, it\u2019s about high-quality education and training, but it\u2019s also focused on work relevance and the attractiveness of educational programs to both learners and employers.<\/p>\n

We can also look at vocational excellence from a provider perspective and the vocational excellence providers should be fostering in their learners. Both are important.<\/p>\n

Fostering vocational excellence in learners<\/h2>\n

This is a potentially important mission for VET providers, so what does vocational excellence look like? A 2019 paper<\/a> on ResearchGate by Murari Suvedi and Ramjee Ghimire\u00a0 from Michigan State University in the US describes the attributes of vocational excellence in individuals. It\u2019s more than competence, though!<\/p>\n

As they point out:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is assumed that individuals with VE [vocational excellence] have all the attributes that competent individuals have. Having knowledge about the tasks, having skills to transform that knowledge into action, and having motivation to apply those skills in real life situations make individuals competent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vocational excellence requires more than technical skills, though. The so called \u2018soft skills\u2019 are really critical, this research suggests. Thus, vocational excellence requires excellence in both<\/u> technical and soft skills. So, what do learners need? The authors suggest the things that make people vocationally excellent include the \u201cability to articulate what they are doing and interpret or explain new things and difficulties to their clients and peers.\u201d They are communicators. They need to be able to diagnose and solve problems, be able to work in teams, and be adaptive and flexible. They can work under pressure and can \u201crecall, comprehend, apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information and knowledge.\u201d They are professional in their approach and learn from their own actions and from those around them and have a real zeal about doing this sort of stuff.<\/p>\n

Finally, the authors suggest that vocational excellence is not only for learning to \u2018know\u2019 and learning to \u2018do\u2019 but also for learning to \u2018be\u2019 and have a sense of their social responsibility. They are aspirational and self-initiators. \u201cThey are [also] enthusiastic about their work, enthusiastic to learn new things, and enthusiastic to fix problems. This takes things to a much higher level and is more all-embracing than CBT and training packages often allow, and:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn summary, individuals with vocational excellence strive to attain mastery by learning things as deeply as possible, and they possess high levels of technical and social skills and continually reflect on their entrepreneurial abilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

VET providers and their staff play the most important role in building individuals\u2019 vocational excellence.<\/p>\n

So, what does a provider building vocational excellence in its students look like?<\/h2>\n

There are a range of attributes VET providers need, which work by the Learning and Skills Council<\/a> on the implementation of Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVEs) the UK in the early 2000s identified. They suggest that the following factors are of key importance in delivering vocational excellence: a clear strategic vision for the institution and each area of learning, robust quality assurance systems right across the organisation coupled with comprehensive information systems; staff involvement in change at grass roots level and a strong commitment by teaching staff to excellence. Finally, providers need a staff development ethos and the capacity to provide continuous professional development coupled with a culture of partnering with employers.<\/p>\n

Much really depends on VET\u2019s teachers and how they design and deliver their teaching. Promoting vocational excellence in their learners is about the passion they display as teachers. They must also be prepared to experiment and innovate in their teaching and use teaching approaches that really foster those important soft skills we talked about above. Providers and teachers need to regularly evaluate their curricula and delivery approaches too. They need to get input from industry and teaching and learning experts, past graduates, students, and employers, and then update and redesign courses as needed. That process needs a team, if not \u2018the whole VET provider village\u2019.<\/p>\n

However, this whole process can be made difficult or relatively easier by factors outside providers\u2019 control. Policy makers, regulators, and funding approaches and contract management, as well as the quality of the building blocks teachers have to work with – notably training packages, can all affect how readily vocational excellence can be built in learners and providers alike.<\/p>\n

Of course, and to be fair, a lot also depends on the inherent quality of providers and their staff and the extent to which they are prepared to go that extra mile to develop vocational excellence in their learners. However, that\u2019s a lot easier if they are not distracted by things that, in the end, really adversely affect the quality of what the best providers and their staff would like to do. It would be good if VET did a better job of assessing and recognizing students\u2019 soft skills too.<\/p>\n

Getting to grips with vocational excellence: What\u2019s it mean?<\/a> | VDC<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is vocational excellence? Sure, it\u2019s about high-quality education and training, but it\u2019s also focused on work relevance and the attractiveness of educational programs to both learners and employers. We can also look at vocational excellence from a provider perspective and the vocational excellence providers should be fostering in their learners. Both are important. Fostering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-workplace-development"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/proactivetraining.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/proactivetraining.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/proactivetraining.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proactivetraining.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proactivetraining.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4946"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/proactivetraining.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4947,"href":"https:\/\/proactivetraining.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4946\/revisions\/4947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/proactivetraining.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proactivetraining.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proactivetraining.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}