Research capability vital for changing VET sector

Australia is about to experience an explosion in the number and type of skilled workforce members it will need to achieve its economic goals over the next decade. The face of Australia’s workforce is set to change dramatically in the next 15-20 years, with government advisory body Skills Australia estimating that more than 9,000,000 job openings will occur nationally in that timeframe – around 5,000,000 triggered by economic growth and the remainder by replacing retiring workers. A particular feature of this changing workforce is a predicted average annual growth in employment of ‘university and vocational teachers’ of 2.3 per cent – the third highest rate of all occupations. These factors will significantly impact on the demand for VET and its workforce with Skills Australia estimating around 3.8 million additional VET and higher education qualifications will be needed as a result of retirements. Add into the equation the different skills required to care for an ageing population and the need for the VET sector to provide skilled labour for the booming resources and mining areas, and you have a whole new ball game for the sector. And not to be overlooked is the fact that education is Australia’s fourth largest export earner, with the VET sector making a growing contribution to this income ($4.8 billion in 2009). From 2005 to 2009 international student enrolments in Australian VET courses grew by 33 per cent. With this scenario in mind, the Federal Government in April this year commissioned the Productivity Commission to undertake a study of the VET sector, examining and identifying factors affecting the current and future demand for the VET workforce and the mix of skills and knowledge that the sector will have to have in its future armoury. Developing policy and infrastructure to grow the sector, developing and maintaining an appropriately trained cohort of practitioners, assessing what skills will be required – not only in terms of meeting industry needs, but also to enhance the teaching and management capabilities of VET practitioners – and how to best engender these skills, requires decision-making based on research undertaken both by outside experts and by the VET practitioners themselves. Over the past 20 years, the Australian VET sector has been massively restructured from what were disparate, state-controlled TAFE colleges into a national structure with credit transfer between states, with uniform qualifications across Australia, and with competencies designed and agreed by industry. Previously state-controlled, now VET is nationally market-driven, with public providers and industry playing important roles. It has increasingly shifted from a focus on the 17-25 year age group. It now retrains mature workers to re-enter the workforce; it has gravitated into the higher education area, so that much of what higher education does is vocational education; and it has also moved downward into schools. The National Centre for Vocational and Educational Research (NCVER) and the Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA) of which I’m president, have been critical in this dramatic restructure and its ongoing success. Their continual relevant research and critique have informed and assessed policy changes, both locally and internationally, to the point where NCVER is now one of the premier global VET research institutes, and the research and policy-making that has driven change in the Australian VET sector is the envy of many other nations. A feature of that 1980s-90s period of VET sector overhaul was the formation of multiple review and research committees populated by researchers who became the movers and shakers of the change process. From around 2000 onwards, many of them, after extended successful work in the sector and through natural attrition, have retired from the field. While this attrition has not yet precipitated a crisis in supply of VET sector researchers, a supply crisis will certainly arise if action isn’t taken now. And that’s what NCVER and AVETRA have done in innovative ways – taken action to ensure an ongoing research output from within, and for the benefit of, the sector. What has become increasingly apparent from both the operation of the restructured VET sector and its shrinking research population, is not only the necessity for undertaking quality research to underpin VET developments, but also the significant and long-term value of involving VET practitioners in sectoral research. AVETRA specifically has always provided a forum for integrating professional researchers with reflective practitioners. The positive spin-off of having both external academics researching VET issues and stimulating research in the sector by VET practitioners themselves has been to ensure that research is grounded in field issues and that its dissemination is not only directed at policy and decision makers, but continually impacts upon professionals in the field of practice. Many research communities are quite isolated. They consist of academics from universities who research a specific field and discuss that research amongst themselves. Dissemination is often a secondary consideration. The important difference with AVETRA’s approach has been creating a mix of university researchers and practitioners from TAFE, community colleges, industry and private training providers, all sharing knowledge and experience, working together on specific issues to develop specific solutions. I remember as a new researcher attending conferences, hovering around the edges hoping someone would talk to me. The approach we’ve taken at AVETRA is to make new VET researchers one of the main focuses of our conferences, to give them an established pathway into research in their profession, and to create significant opportunities for professional development and a greater understanding of the issues affecting the way they work and the sector they work in. A specific NCVER-funded initiative we have developed in conjunction with Victoria University, allows this professional progression for VET practitioners to continue through the Building Researcher Capacity Program (BRCP). AVETRA has coordinated the mentoring component of the program, linking fledgling VET practitioner/researchers with experienced academics to undertake a year-long research project of specific interest to them and of specific use to their employer. Their final research output is presented at an NCVER or AVETRA Conference. To date, more than 30 new researchers have participated. A cohort of more than 50 mentors has been developed to provide ongoing support to new practitioner/researchers as they emerge. This almost unique integration of researchers and reflective practitioners means that each year, research findings in the sector permeate VET workforce practice. This feeds into staff development in the sector, and continually raises manager and decision-maker awareness of the importance of providing an evidence base for policy-making in all areas of VET policy, especially in terms of informing policy about the VET workforce. The Productivity Commission’s review of the VET workforce is timely. Australia is about to experience an explosion in the number and type of skilled workforce members it will need to achieve its economic goals over the next decade. Previous investment has created infrastructure that has produced one of the leading national VET research communities and we need to capitalize on this capability for the continual development of the VET workforce. Continued VET research, both by traditional academics, and increasingly, by those “on the inside” – newly trained VET practitioner/researchers – will be the tactical fuel for subsequent years, enhancing the performance and development of practitioners and infusing the sector with new knowledge. I would like to encourage all those VET practitioners who reflect on the practices of their sector to consider taking the next step towards being a researcher in the sector. Dr Llandis Barratt-Pugh is president of the Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association and Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Business & Law, Edith Cowan University