It was no surprise that the event was a sell-out, with over 350 delegates as the conference had some pretty amazing speakers, so what I\u2019ll try to do is capture in summary what I got out of it. Later issues of VDC News will feature research and other work the conference threw up. In addition, the national World Skills<\/a> competition was running elsewhere in the venue. It impressively showcases the wide range and excellence of all that VET does to educate and train.<\/p>\n A range of consistent messages came from the presenters. What they suggested was that we need to:<\/p>\n Jacqui Cooper, a 5-time Olympian and world champion aerial skier, reminded us that commitment to what we are doing and belief in yourself leads to excellence. So too does using our failures as real learning opportunities. They can be more powerful than getting things right all the time because this does not lead to useable feedback to help us improve. Having a good mentor is really helpful too, she thinks.<\/p>\n Susan James Relly, the newly minted Professor and Head of the School of Education at Adelaide University specialising in vocational education, pointed to the need for robust occupational standards to guide the journey to excellence, and highlighted those developed by the World Skills movement<\/a>. She, like many others, highlighted the important role of VET\u2019s teaching workforce in the journey to excellence. However, she also pointed to some challenges, not the least of which are that VET is a time poor sector which also lacks adequate funding for proper delivery.<\/p>\n Nasir Sobhani, best known as the hairdresser to the homeless, told us a bit of his life story, including being a member of an overachieving family and his feeling that he did not live up to expectations. His messages were the importance of having a feeling of self-worth and recognising the skills you have but, even more importantly, doing what we do in a spirit of service to others. This is a tenet of his Bahai faith which emphasises the importance of self-exertion and service to humanity.<\/p>\n Aimee Stanton (alias the Lady Tradie) is a plumber and small house builder. When she was starting out she found it very hard to get someone to even take her on and talked about the trials and tribulations of her first days on the job as a roofing plumber. She too emphasised the importance of teachers both in school and VET in providing encouragement and support. But she also felt that it was important that students \u2018gave it a crack\u2019 and had the attitude that they could do anything. Finally, she pointed to the value of the pre-apprenticeship she did.<\/p>\n Finally, Louise Mahler reminded us of the importance of our communication and body language skills in getting our messages across more effectively. While it was one of those \u2018you had to be there to get the value\u2019 sessions, it reminded me that while we are professional educators we are not necessarily good professional communicators, maybe even amateurs? What she suggested we need was to study and know \u2018the tricks of the trade\u2019 in using our body, gestures and voice and then practice and use them until they become second nature.<\/p>\n Justin Brown, a researcher from ACER, described models for evaluating VET professional learning and development programs. He stressed the importance of having good data but, more importantly, pointed to the fact that in VET we can be \u2018happy sheet happy\u2019 in our evaluation approach (a \u2018reaction level\u2019 to assessing the value of professional learning) rather than asking more critical questions, such as how what has been learnt has impacted on our learners, how the professional learning is being is used in practice at work and how participants have changed and grown.<\/p>\n Anne Jones, an Emeritus Professor at Victoria University and board member of a large Victorian TAFE Institute, took a look at lifelong learning and the attributes of lifelong learners. The argument here is that giving our students the skills and desire to be lifelong learners is something that is quite important in VET\u2019s approach to teaching and learning. The key characteristics of lifelong learners she outlined are that they:<\/p>\n In essence, this summarises what we in VET have to do to empower and enable the ongoing success of our learners. Importantly, they are also the characteristics that VET practitioners need to be successful at what they do.<\/p>\n Andrew Shea, a VET CEO and education expert, described the range and usage of innovative learning technologies \u2013 including virtual reality. As he pointed out, these do not replace teachers, but rather can help improve efficiency and the depth and retention of learning. In short, it\u2019s about value adding to what VET teachers traditionally do. This is a line of argument the next speaker emphasised too.<\/p>\n Claire Field, an acknowledged VET and tertiary education expert, helped attendees think about the impact that Artificial Intelligence in its various forms \u2013 such as ChatGPT \u2013 would have on the sector and how we deliver programs, including to enable the delivery of personalised and adaptive learning. One of the initiatives she highlighted was Adaptemy<\/a>, which is in use in Singapore.<\/p>\n Three in fact:<\/p>\n We\u2019ll try to feature the messages from these in an article in the next edition.<\/p>\n First, there was a presentation by Liesel Fitzpatrick from the Copyright Agency in which discussed the issue RTOs face in \u2018Cracking the Copyright Code\u2019 and ensuring that they are meeting their obligations in the use of copyright materials.<\/p>\n Second, the research theme had two presentations from NCVER on what its research says about \u2018All things Quality,\u2019 and then \u2018The Use of Online Delivery in VET.\u2019 Rather than highlight these here have summarised the messages about online delivery in an earlier VDC News article and you can access the messages from this body of work here<\/a>. The messages from Joy de Leo\u2019s presentation entitled \u2018All Things Quality in VET: What the research says\u2019 drew on a range of NCVER work which we have highlighted in VDC News already. You can access the messages from this work in links here<\/a> and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n This was the final session and involved a panel made up of Dr Justin Brown, Claire Field, Martin Powell (CEO of the VDC), Dr Susan James Relly, Andrew Shea and Dr Louise Mahler. The key question for this session was: \u2018How Do We Move from Competence to Excellence\u2019?<\/p>\n In essence, these experts told the conference audience that, to move from competence to excellence what was needed was:<\/p>\n Finally, and if I also had to have a say, what is needed is to reconceptualise competence and what it means to be competent, so that it not only has a greater excellence focus, but also gives VET\u2019s students the sustained capabilities they need to be effective learners throughout their lives and careers.<\/p>\nThe bigger messages?<\/h2>\n
\n
Highlights from some of the keynote presenters<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/proactivetraining.com.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Edition-16-Image-3-A.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAnd in the research stream<\/h2>\n
\n
And in other presentations<\/h2>\n
There were workshops too!<\/h2>\n
\n
There were other really good things too!<\/h2>\n
Summarising how to move from competence to excellence<\/h2>\n
\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/proactivetraining.com.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Edition-16-Image-3-B.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSponsor Acknowledgement<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/proactivetraining.com.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Edition-16-Image-3-Sponsors.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n