Choosing where the VET billions go

It was fortuitous that while COAG was meeting to sign off on a new tranche of reforms for the tertiary sector, the Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association conference in Canberra was addressing issues around the value and voice of VET research. I think it would be a significant relief to many that governments around Australia agree on the importance of a major investment in the tertiary sector and the impact that this will have on better equipping the workforce to deal with the challenges it will face over the next five years. During the conference Robin Shreeve (Skills Australia) speculated on the future of the Australian workforce pointing out that while some parts are being impacted by the resource boom, it is possible that this may not last as other countries seek to compete by providing resources more efficiently and cheaply. There is also the potential for Australian companies to grasp the opportunity to move towards more knowledge rich enterprises, or potentially be faced with managing an economic downturn in the face of continued declines in the manufacturing sector. Each of these scenarios has significant implications for those of us concerned with sustaining the Australian workforce. The difficulty always is that the skills required now may not be the skills required in five years’ time. The challenge is how to get the most from these new reforms in order that the benefits of an increased investment in the skills of the workforce will yield dividends into this uncertain future. Craig Robertson (Industry Skills Divison at DIISRTE) was clear about an expected training shortfall of more than 250,000 skilled employees during the next five years. The package that has been agreed and announced by COAG will go some way to meet the expected market need. Tom Karmel (NCVER) provided an insightful analysis into how VET might translate into benefits for employees in some occupations but not for others. This sort of research is vital as it reminds us that VET has a social inclusion and equity agenda which needs to be tracked and understood so that the benefits of the reforms announced by COAG can benefit as many people as possible. The conference also highlighted that without research into the quality of VET delivery and assessment, the reforms could also founder. Training completion and certification may be valuable to individuals as an immediate achievement, but is only worthwhile in the longer term if employers view the skills attained by people completing VET qualifications positively. The qualifications have to provide graduates with the broad generic skills (such as numeracy, literacy and scientific literacy) which will serve them as employment prospects change and/or they seek to engage in higher level qualifications. In these circumstances VET graduates will gain a premium for their efforts. Dr Ann-Marie Bathmaker shared insights from research undertaken in the UK of the dangers of not attending to the quality of training and ensuring that trainee experiences wherever they might occur are simultaneously connected to industry contexts and learner needs and aspirations. Dr Salim Akoojee from South Africa drew on his experiences to illustrate how valueless VET is when it was poorly matched with job opportunities that do not lead to improved employment prospects. So while we discussed the issues of VET research, others were agreeing to supply the resources for the future. This is another significant turning point for the development of the more integrated tertiary sector in Australia, but the complexity of ensuring a match between skills expansion and work opportunities is a complex and continually shifting challenge. Furthermore, improving the quality of training delivery so that training produces the skills that industry is prepared to pay for, and that will make a productive difference to people's lives, is a continued challenge. There is a very rickety bridge between research and policy that changes practice, where timeliness is often critical. This is an important time for VET research. Statements of national investment have been made. The connections between what we have already learnt from the research conducted in the sector and what we will need to know in order to make judgments about the success (or otherwise) of these new reforms now need to be made. Adrian Marron (Canberra Institute of Technology) welcomed the conference by indicating how important it was to develop the capacity of the sector to critically reflect on its capability and outcomes. If this view is shared by other VET leaders in the field it may well be that industry will be better served by the many researchers, trainers, educators and managers trying to use their research to improve delivery and the value of their work in the sector. The good thing is we now know that there will be more in store for the tertiary sector in the future but the challenge is to ensure it is shaped by the voice of individuals, industry and our communities speaking with the authority that comes from engagement with high-quality research and its outcomes. Associate Professor Llandis Barratt-Pugh is president of the Australian Vocational and Training Research Association and acting associate dean, research and higher degrees at the school of management at Edith Cowan University.

Choosing where the VET billions go

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