tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca-fr/topics/tafe-reform-9316/articlesTAFE Reform – La Conversation2022-02-03T03:17:57Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1755232022-02-03T03:17:57Z2022-02-03T03:17:57ZWho’ll teach all the students promised extra TAFE places? 4 steps to end staff shortages<p>Under Labor’s proposed <a href="https://alp.org.au/policies/future-made-in-australia-skills-plan">Future Made in Australia Skills Plan</a>, Australians studying in an industry with a skills shortage will be supported through the provision of free TAFE places. This will include 45,000 new places. If Labor does that without expanding the present <a href="https://www.pmc.gov.au/resource-centre/domestic-policy/vet-review/strengthening-skills-expert-review-australias-vocational-education-and-training-system">depleted teaching workforce</a>, we’re likely to see more current teachers bailing out and corners cut in teaching practices.</p>
<p>Our 2021 <a href="https://www.ncver.edu.au/research-and-statistics/publications/all-publications/attracting-industry-experts-to-become-vet-practitioners-a-journey-not-a-destination">research</a> for the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (<a href="https://www.ncver.edu.au/about-ncver/about-us">NCVER</a>) found the shortages of VET teachers and trainers extend to virtually every industry. If these shortages are not overcome, the result will be an inadequately trained vocational workforce. This in turn will have an impact on the country’s skill levels and productivity.</p>
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<p>Not that the present federal government has much to be proud of in this regard. Although Vocational Education and Training (VET) significantly underpins the nation’s workforce development, it has limped along under recent national governments.</p>
<p>TAFE, the public provider, has remained a poor relation. <a href="https://www.afr.com/policy/health-and-education/vet-for-monday-20180321-h0xrib">Workforce shortages</a> have continued, made worse by retirements from the <a href="https://www.skillsreform.gov.au/images/documents/Consultation_draft_of_the_VET_Workforce%20Quality_Strategy.pdf">ageing VET workforce</a> and by the need to expand training to cater for new and emerging industries.</p>
<p>For our <a href="https://www.ncver.edu.au/research-and-statistics/publications/all-publications/attracting-industry-experts-to-become-vet-practitioners-a-journey-not-a-destination">research</a> we talked with key members of almost 30 registered training organisations (RTOs) across Australia about the shortage of trainers. We also surveyed over 300 practising teachers and trainers (VET practitioners) about their experiences of moving into VET.</p>
<p>The challenge in overcoming the shortage of VET practitioners is to encourage experienced workers from trades and the professions to move into VET.</p>
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<h2>What are the key issues?</h2>
<p>The difference in salaries between industry and VET is a significant issue. It’s too simplistic an explanation for the lack of applicants, however. </p>
<p>For example, one disincentive is the nature of employment in the sector. Just over half of VET practitioners are employed in ongoing full-time roles. As one said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“People at the top of their industry don’t leave for a temporary contract.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Private training organisations reported they sometimes provide permanent employment for trainers simply to keep them “on the books”. One RTO principal told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I can’t afford to put them off because we’ll never get them back.”</p>
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<p>A further stumbling block is the inflexibility of the basic educational qualification as a point of entry. Trainers generally need to complete a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment (Cert IV TAE) <em>before</em> they can teach. There is only minimum provision for supervised practice without it.</p>
<p>Training organisations reported prospective trainers are reluctant to acquire the full qualification before they’re allowed to teach. Tradespeople with significant practical experience but no formal education since their apprenticeship were also anxious about “returning to study”.</p>
<p>Paradoxically, there was pushback from university-educated professionals in senior positions against the need for a vocational qualification.</p>
<p>The value of the certificate itself as a training qualification has been an <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Erica-Smith-4/publication/337013372_The_Importance_of_VET_Teacher_Professionalism_An_Australian_Case_Study/links/5dc0c1244585151435e8c507/The-Importance-of-VET-Teacher-Professionalism-An-Australian-Case-Study.pdf">ongoing contentious issue</a>. One ex-tradie wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“They want teachers to have ten years of industry experience […] but expect a six-day course to be enough to be a good teacher.”</p>
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<p>It’s understood changes to the qualification are in the wind. Let’s hope these include ones that will make entry to VET teaching more flexible. </p>
<p>Training organisations and trainers alike argued for better recognition of prior learning among those who already have a training or mentoring role. </p>
<p>Even after they make the transition, new practitioners sometimes leave VET because their expectations don’t meet the reality. This is especially true if their employer doesn’t provide appropriate orientation and support. One trainer said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Day one I was given a USB with PowerPoint presentations on it and told to go into the classroom and deliver it.”</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Chart showing decline in apprenticeship and traineeship completions in Australia, 2010 to 2021" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443969/original/file-20220202-13-1hj0wgy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443969/original/file-20220202-13-1hj0wgy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443969/original/file-20220202-13-1hj0wgy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443969/original/file-20220202-13-1hj0wgy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443969/original/file-20220202-13-1hj0wgy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443969/original/file-20220202-13-1hj0wgy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443969/original/file-20220202-13-1hj0wgy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.ncver.edu.au/research-and-statistics/infographics/historical-time-series-of-apprenticeships-and-traineeships-in-australia-infographic-1963-to-2021">Data: NCVER</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What can be done to end the shortages?</h2>
<p>We identified several strategies to attract more VET practitioners.</p>
<p><strong>1. Exploit career points and individual passion for teaching and training.</strong></p>
<p>A national media campaign could target prospective VET professionals at potential “turning points” in their careers. That might be, for example, when they are looking to move into something different from their everyday job, when family or financial responsibilities have eased, or when they are seeking an alternative work-life balance. Sell these as benefits beyond salary. </p>
<p><strong>2. Smooth the entry path.</strong></p>
<p>Provide more options to “try before you buy”. These might include “bite-size” opportunities to experience teaching in VET before making a commitment. Industry specialists could be allowed to teach short-term with a particular training skill set, rather than the full qualification.</p>
<p>It’s also essential to ensure prospective practitioners understand in advance how expectations in VET are different from those in their former workplaces. When they get there, give them a soft landing, especially those new to training. Show them they’re valued.</p>
<p><strong>3. Involve industry more.</strong> </p>
<p>Encourage and enable movement in and out of VET – so-called “<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262220931_How_vocational_teachers_describe_their_vocational_teacher_identity/link/606352f1299bf173677da67a/download">boundary crossing</a>”. This will enable practitioners to maintain their links and their industry currency. </p>
<p>There is also scope and reason for industry to be more directly involved in promoting and fostering the VET practitioner career.</p>
<p><strong>4. Enhance the status of VET.</strong></p>
<p>This can be done by promoting the uniqueness of the “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0309877X.2011.590584">dual practitioner</a>”. Arguably even more than at university level, VET employs tradespeople and professionals who have developed expertise in one career and channels them into a second career. As a VET teacher or trainer, their initial expertise is highly valued.</p>
<p>Our research showed many people in VET are passionate about its potential but some despair about its future. Whichever party is in power, expanding and equipping the VET workforce is a vital step forward.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175523/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Darryl Dymock received research funding from NCVER. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Tyler received research funding from NCVER.</span></em></p>Federal Labor is promising to cover the cost of 465,000 TAFE places, including 45,000 new places. But there’s a chronic shortage of VET teachers and trainers, so that problem has to be fixed first.Darryl Dymock, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow in Education, Griffith UniversityMark Tyler, Senior Lecturer, School of Education and Professional Studies, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/803212017-07-03T05:53:56Z2017-07-03T05:53:56ZWhy exploitation and corruption continue to dog Australia’s VET sector<p>Victoria’s Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) is currently <a href="http://www.ibac.vic.gov.au/investigating-corruption/public-examinations/operation-lansdowne">investigating</a> allegations of serious corruption at TAFE institutes. This is the latest in a series of scandals involving Australia’s vocational education and training (VET) sector.</p>
<p>IBAC’s <a href="http://www.ibac.vic.gov.au/investigating-corruption/public-examinations/operation-lansdowne">Operation Lansdowne</a> is probing how TAFEs have become embroiled in corrupt schemes that misappropriated millions of public dollars for training that never occurred. However, this sum is relatively minor compared to other reports from the sector. </p>
<p>In recent history, the VET sector has been beset with money loss, stranded students, and organisations collapsing. <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/234_norton_submission_vet_senate_inquiry1.pdf">Analysis</a> from the Grattan Institute estimates that 40% of the <a href="http://www.mitchellinstitute.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/VET_funding_in_Australia_Background_trends_and_future_directions.pdf">A$3.1 billion in loans</a> paid to training organisations through the federal VET-FEE HELP scheme are likely never to be repaid. </p>
<p>Additionally, the $650 million collapse of the training organisation <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/pricewaterhousecoopers-accused-of-misleading-vocation-investors-20170329-gv8ywo.html">Vocation</a> is the subject of two separate class actions and numerous investigations, one of which involves a <a href="http://www.afr.com/brand/rear-window/vocations-john-dawkins-mark-hutchinson-file-defences-in-federal-court-20170403-gvcplu">former federal education minister</a>. </p>
<p>Reports of unethical practices have been widespread. <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/vocational-colleges-preying-on-retirees-in-trawl-for-government-cash-20150918-gjppgo.html">In one example</a>, nursing home residents signed up to what they thought was a free, four-day course on how to use Microsoft Word and email. Instead, the training organisation enrolled them in a technical course for IT professionals and received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the government. </p>
<h2>Why this is happening</h2>
<p>A <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Education_and_Employment/vocationaled/Final_Report">federal parliamentary inquiry</a> found poor regulation and inadequate oversight as major contributing factors to the ongoing issue of corruption in vocational training. However, there is a need to also consider the certification regime of Australia’s VET sector. </p>
<p>Certification regimes are how authorities ensure the outcomes of an education system is valuable to society. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0276562411000047">Research</a> shows that a proper functioning certification regime is critical to the validity and reliability of an education system. A certification regime can have a major effect on the cost of education and its ability to deliver <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributive_justice">distributive justice</a>. </p>
<p>The media’s use of words like “<a href="http://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/federal-budget/government-plans-to-overhaul-vocational-students-loans-system/news-story/0f5b647bd251bb178ac92b578b0a98ac">shonky</a>”, “<a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/stop-the-rorts-30-million-crackdown-looms-for-vocational-sectors-dodgy-training-providers-20150919-gjqbuk.html">rorts</a>”, “<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-29/victorian-government-launches-crackdown-on-dodgy-training/6580074">dodgy</a>” and “<a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/rorted-by-the-public-sector--the-vocational-education-lesson-20151202-gldi64.html">shysters</a>” are all indicative of a certification regime that is failing to establish trust in the integrity and validity of the education outcomes it produces.</p>
<h2>Understanding certification in Australia’s VET sector</h2>
<p>Australia’s VET sector is structured very differently from secondary and university education. It uses a competency-based system that emphasises outcomes.</p>
<p>This approach was introduced in the 1990s to make the VET system more flexible and responsive. Education inputs, such as the length of study, were viewed as a poor way of measuring the quality of education provision. The system was designed to focus on signalling the presence of knowledge and skills that can be used in the workplace. </p>
<p>In a competency-based system, education can be certified regardless of where it is delivered, how the program is taught, or what assessment is undertaken. This means someone studying for a diploma can take anywhere between one week and two years before receiving their certification. It can be legitimate to be awarded the diploma without submitting a single written assignment.</p>
<p>This is in contrast to a university bachelor degree, which takes a minimum of three years and the submission of assignments totalling tens of thousands of words.</p>
<p>To be an accredited training provider, it is also not mandatory to have a physical presence like a school or campus. This may help explain why one <a href="http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/careers/dodgy-college-gave-away-ipads-to-supercharge-exploitation-of-vulnerable-communities-court-finds/news-story/f1f48d6f1dbe76cd504fe75a82464df9">training company</a> claimed $57 million while operating out of a small office above Silly Willy’s $2 shop in Western Sydney.</p>
<h2>The promise of competition and devaluing the role of TAFEs</h2>
<p>Over the past decade, a series of funding reforms were introduced to the VET sector that stressed the value of competition. There has been significant criticism of these reforms. A <a href="http://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/training/providers/market/vtmrfull2015.pdf">review</a> completed for the Victorian government noted:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There has been too much emphasis on increasing both the number of providers and the intensity of the competition between them, and not enough care taken in ensuring they are delivering quality training.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The features of the market reforms, and the certification regime of the VET sector, meant organisations could set up with relatively little investment, provide training of dubious quality, and leave once they had made their money. </p>
<p>In any certification regime, institutions also play an important role in providing quality assurance. Under these reforms, however, TAFEs were particularly hard hit – and the IBAC investigations show just how <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-29/ibac-ex-tafe-executive-denies-wrongdoing-over-alleged-$1.8m-scam/8664812">compromised</a> they became. </p>
<p>Faced with job losses, campus closures and plummeting revenue, the TAFEs were forced to consider riskier arrangements like the ones currently being scrutinised by IBAC.</p>
<h2>Rethinking the certification regime of the VET sector</h2>
<p>This is not the first time questions have been raised about the quality of training in the VET sector. Almost a decade ago <a href="https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2010/november/1288836088/margaret-simons/exodus">the exploitation of international students</a> was under the microscope. <a href="http://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv%3A23882">Research</a> from Monash University questioned the VET sector’s ability to produce graduates that matched the competencies being certified.</p>
<p>The repeated scandals in the VET sector show that the certification regime of the VET sector can be vulnerable to unethical practices. <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-vet-system-needs-fundamental-change-heres-how-it-can-be-fixed-47701">Suggestions</a> have been made on how to increase the sector’s resilience. These are good places to start when looking at how to improve the system.</p>
<p>In any year, <a href="https://www.ncver.edu.au/__data/assets/file/0024/9393/socioeconomic-disadvantage-2612.pdf">26%</a> of 15-to-24-year-olds from lower socioeconomic backgrounds train in the VET sector. It is important to have a system that operates in their interests. Students need to be offered courses that are of high quality and beneficial to them. Government and industry need to have confidence that what is being certified is real and valuable. </p>
<p>A certification regime is based on trust. We need better ways to trust the value and legitimacy of what is being certified in our VET sector.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80321/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Hurley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>VET certification standards differ greatly from university. Students qualify for diplomas with no set course length, assignments, or campus contact.Peter Hurley, Postgraduate President and PhD Candidate in Education, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/541712016-02-05T01:11:15Z2016-02-05T01:11:15ZDeregulating TAFE is a big risk to the labour market<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110384/original/image-20160204-2993-6jbgh2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Deregulating TAFE would have serious impacts for the labour market.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/297710445/TAFE-document">leaked paper</a> outlining the government’s plans to deregulate TAFE would have a serious impact on large sections of the labour market.</p>
<p>The proposed policy not only highlights an ideological commitment to fee deregulation, prioritising industry consultation and austerity, but also fails some of the basic requirements of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/frozen-wages-insecure-jobs-struggling-youth-rising-inequality-shrinking-unions-join-the-dots-50981">active labour market policy</a> (ALMP). </p>
<p>High quality vocational training allows us to quickly retrain and find work in industries with skills shortages. When combined with adequate income subsidies and employment services, Vocational Education and Training (VET) can create an effective and efficient labour market. </p>
<p>When the formula is correct, ALMP can help to address structural unemployment. This is created when there is a mismatch in the skill demands of business and the availability of skilled workers. Effective reform also supports workers back into the labour market and allows firms to remain flexible. </p>
<p>However, this approach requires effective regulation and strong institutional protections. </p>
<p>Research <a href="https://www.ncver.edu.au/wps/portal/vetdataportal/restricted/publicationContent/!ut/p/a0/hY_JCsIwFAC_xUOP5b1uaXoUQdJeBKvQ5FKyqdHS3ap_L3oXjwMDw4CACkQrF3eWs-ta2XxYkDoPwg1jMRY7xgjm6fawL9kxwoAABy7SnwJLoAQBotfOANeJDY1MYv9ELfqxCamfZVT5VGEWGQy01AjFv2IF3F2HQaxB6K6d7XOGqtWLHevpIkdrPOzvqnH6uzB5GFIk0N-koq_H6g2HsqY4/">shows</a> that countries with strong regulatory frameworks and heavy costs for non-compliance typically have higher quality VET sectors.</p>
<p>This new policy proposal signals a step in the opposite direction. Chief areas for concern are the extension of funding arrangements to private providers, a lack of consultation outside of industry groups, and a renewed push to deregulate fees. This could in effect dilute regulatory control, increase cost to both consumer and taxpayer, and allow for predatory market practices in the VET sector.</p>
<h2>Value for money?</h2>
<p>There are approximately <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/FBC2FEEBF38C6DD6CA25773700169C92?opendocument">5,000 registered training providers</a> in Australia. While most students are recipients of government subsidies, almost 3,700 providers are private enterprises. </p>
<p>TAFE market share has <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/victorian-tafes-record-estimated-50-million-loss-20150416-1mm68v.html">fallen to a mere 25%</a> as a result of <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/tafe-forced-into-higher-ed-markets/news-story/48209bb1fd6e06c6be51ec8df1837c0e">deregulation and funding cuts</a>. By allowing private providers to flood the market with a low-cost, high-volume approach to course construction, the quality of training has become diluted.</p>
<p>The money used by private enterprises has often been used to <a href="http://www.nteu.org.au/defendourunis/article/Deregulation-of-Victorian-vocational-education%3A-A-case-study-in-policy-and-market-failure-16469">undercut the pay and conditions</a> of the public providers, which can have real impact on the quality of education. </p>
<p><a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=961144">Research shows</a> that wage increases had a direct effect on teacher quality. For every 1% increase in starting salary, there was an associated increase 0.6% in the aptitude of students entering teaching degrees. In other words, if you pay teachers more, you get better students wanting to become teachers.</p>
<p>Deregulation often reduces these regulatory mechanisms and strips away compliance costs for private providers, but as this <a href="http://reneweconomy.com.au/2015/how-australia-can-become-a-renewable-energy-superpower-35215">does not</a> always result in a reduction of cost to the consumer. Energy companies, despite experiencing a greatly deregulated market, have failed to substantially reduce consumer cost.</p>
<p>The energy deregulation story offers us another concerning and often unacknowledged risk. </p>
<p>Just last year, the chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) identified the east coast gas market as containing all the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/comment-and-analysis/east-coast-gas-market-has-all-the-hallmarks-of-a-cartel-20151011-gk6b4i.html">hallmarks of a cartel</a>.</p>
<h2>Competition, compliance and cartels</h2>
<p>Usually when we hear the word “cartel” it conjures up images of drug trafficking, racketeering and other illicit practices. We think of real world kingpin Pablo Escobar, or his fictional equivalents like Scarface’s Tony Montana or Breaking Bad’s Walter White. While less likely to inspire award-winning television series, economic cartels are a serious concern.</p>
<p>At their core, cartels are an agreement made between competing firms with significant market power. This agreement can take a number of forms, but in essence, cartels agree to set prices between themselves and let competition be damned.</p>
<p>Under the Competition and Consumer Act cartels are <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/caca2010265/s44zzrf.html">explicitly illegal</a>. However in the past ten years, the ACCC has <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/business/anti-competitive-behaviour/cartels/cartels-case-studies-legal-cases">investigated and prosecuted a number of cartels</a> in Australia. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, their capacity to investigate has been limited in recent years, as funding was frozen in 2014 and the <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/business/accc-bemoans-funding-levels-20141029-11e1jc.html">ACCC workforce has been cut by almost 13%</a>.</p>
<p>The ensuing legal proceedings take years and cost millions of tax dollars. While there is a legal deterrent to cartel formation in the VET sector, it is by no means a guarantee. </p>
<p>This may be an extreme scenario, but there are inherent risks wherever reform is proposed. However the risks posed by deregulation have immediate and serious impacts for large sections of the labour market, and the everyday lives of Australians.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54171/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shirley Jackson is affiliated with the Australian Labor Party and the Victorian Trades Hall Council. He works for the Young Workers Centre.</span></em></p>The risks posed by deregulating the vocational education and training sector have serious impacts for large sections of the labour market.Shirley Jackson, PhD Candidate in Political Economy, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/240702014-03-25T19:38:55Z2014-03-25T19:38:55ZRepurposing TAFE<p>Within a few months of coming to office the Abbott government established a Vocational and Education and Training (VET) Reform Taskforce. Over the past two years there have been <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/turbulent-times-on-the-horizon-for-tafe-20140323-35c1j.html">three separate parliamentary inquiries</a> into Australia’s Technical and Further Education system. Industry Minister Ian MacFarlane initiated the Abbott governments <a href="http://www.vetreform.industry.gov.au/node/291">VET Reform Taskforce</a> to examine the future shape of the VET sector. Describing the Australian skills and training system as a <a href="http://minister.innovation.gov.au/ministers/macfarlane/transcripts/interview-fran-kelly-abc-radio-national-breakfast-0">“convoluted mess”</a>, he continued:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The reality is that we have inherited a system in the skills and training area which is so close to broken that we have regular meetings now with people who say, ‘For God’s sake just fix this – it is so complicated, it is so heavily regulated, it is so over-audited we’re not getting the results that we need to get.‘</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The problems facing the VET sector</h2>
<p>Serious structural problems beset Australia’s skills and training system. Low-quality provision and over-regulation highlight the shortcomings of skills and training delivery in parts of the sector.</p>
<p>The creation of a national training market intensified competition between public and private providers. Marketising VET has placed different incentives and pressures on TAFE institutions and private VET providers. Compliance with national frameworks has been a heavy burden.</p>
<p>National industry qualification frameworks, which sought to make VET qualifications consistent across Australia, now operate as straitjackets. These frameworks, commonly referred to as “training packages”, are based on competencies related to particular jobs rather than skill sets relevant to work in related industries and useful for changing employment contexts. </p>
<p>By their very nature, these centrally planned and bureaucratised frameworks are inflexible and over-prescribe outcomes. They are reviewed on a three-year cycle, adding complexity to the audit processes providers are subjected to.</p>
<p>The national policy agenda holds TAFE providers and private providers captive, discouraging locally targeted outcomes, including local industry collaborations.</p>
<h2>An opportunity for reform</h2>
<p>The VET Reform Taskforce presents a key policy moment to establish conditions for TAFE institutions to renew their purpose. Ideally such a taskforce should support TAFE institutions and their owners, state and territory governments, in making necessary structural changes by articulating a national vision for skills and training and the types of key institutions that will make that happen.</p>
<p>The VET Reform Taskforce could clarify the purposes and remit of future providers of skills and training. While state and territory governments own and operate TAFE, the policy settings that created, sustained, changed and affected their education purposes and intentions have long been set at a national level.</p>
<p>TAFEs repurposed, for example, as either community colleges or polytechnics could accommodate young people who are not participating in secondary schooling. That would connect them to further education, pre-trade, trade and occupationally relevant diploma-level education opportunities. Such institutions could also offer further education, trade and post-trade education, retraining and higher-level skills and training through vocational degrees.</p>
<p>In an era when Australian businesses are dealing with global economic challenges, publicly backed robust skills and training institutions have a key role to play. </p>
<p>Private and public skills and training organisations equip people to participate in shifting labour markets. Minister MacFarlane has an opportunity to progress a vision for skills and training that fixes VET by remaking TAFE.</p>
<h2>Why is VET so important?</h2>
<p>Recent policy reforms of higher education set a goal of 40% of young people achieving an undergraduate bachelors qualification. But what about the other 60%? Not all people see their futures through university education, which is why VET is so important.</p>
<p>When the Coalition was last in office, the government initiated Australian Technical Colleges, to provide skills and training to secondary school students. The Rudd-Gillard ALP government abandoned this policy and set about funding and establishing <a href="http://education.gov.au/trade-training-centres-schools-program">Trade Training Centres</a> for clusters of secondary schools around the nation. The Abbott government is continuing this initiative, with a name change to <a href="http://education.gov.au/trade-training-centres-schools-program">Trade Skills Centres</a>.</p>
<p>Nationally it seems both sides of politics are committed to skills and training, in a technical and vocational sense, in secondary schooling. This expands the educational and social purposes of secondary schooling past a limited preoccupation with university admission. As this future for skills and training is being established, there is also a need to consider skills and training outside of and after secondary school.</p>
<p>TAFE institutions across Australia have a vast campus network that reaches into regional and urban centres. Servicing the training needs of industry, regions and local communities requires deliberate national policy action. TAFE and what it can become will play a key role in meeting future skill needs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/24070/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Pardy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Within a few months of coming to office the Abbott government established a Vocational and Education and Training (VET) Reform Taskforce. Over the past two years there have been three separate parliamentary…John Pardy, Education Lecturer and Researcher, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.