Education leader praises Asia’s VET sector

I’m a little concerned at some of the confusion the article above appears to engender – not the least of which the discussion is not being led by TAFE which traditionally would be the home of VET. In fact if you look at web sites accessible to overseas students this difference is still noted but as well sites such as studies in australia point out that some Universities are now offering VETs and the term is including wider studies such as medicine. Increasingly, however, I note that VET language is entering mainstream dialog across university topics and is influencing if not replacing traditional views of critical thinking and research. So there appears to be increasing competition between traditionally disparate education providers (not ony TAFE and Universities). I do not believe this is necessarily the same driver in Hong Kong or Singapore. Nonetheless, these changes are evidently driven by a need to increase funding from overseas students and to do so to cater to what traditionally might have been offered by TAFE since the majority of these students are undertaking such studies for purely vocational aspirations – the statement that in those regions higher education is valued has to be qualified with the fact that it appears valued because of the perception of prestige coupled with VET access rather than academic and higher level aspiration. It is therefore no coincidence that TAFE seems to have gone more and more under the radar in this area coinciding with perhaps more pressure for Universities to move into this space, effectively blurring the education space and its motivations. This also needs to accommodate the fact that many overseas students are not suitably qualified for traditional degrees and the implications that has on the value of our degrees and our visa qualifications over time.