Opinion piece – Inertia: the enemy of Australian VET? – By Hugh Guthrie
Regular readers of VDC News and anyone else with a vital interest in Australia’s VET system could not fail to notice all that is currently happening in the name of VET and skills reform.
These are focused on strengthening the role of industry and employers in the VET system, improving VET qualifications, and better supporting high-quality training delivery. It includes a move to industry clusters, the development of a VET workforce strategy, exploring the possibility of some RTOs self-assuring their quality and reforming the quality standards that drive regulators’ activities.
Can the VET and higher education sectors be better integrated?
Yet another report from NCVER (yes, this issue of VDC News is also a bumper NCVER one!) explores whether aligning VET and higher education (HE) can be better aligned ‘to enable students to move between, and draw from, both sectors.’
As the title suggests, it’s about trying to ‘have the best of both worlds.’ The thought has been around for long time, but what would help make it a reality?
NCVER publishes a ‘research synthesis’ on the apprentice and traineeship system
The National Centre for Vocational Education and Research (NCVER) has just released a timely piece on post-school apprenticeships and traineeships. It suggests that completions and completion rates are still a concern, and that incentives play an important role in encouraging and supporting apprenticeships and traineeships, but these need to be carefully calibrated.
Are people making full use of the skills they have?
This is the essence of the question raised in a recent NCVER report. It notes that ‘while skills development has long been a focus of policy-makers, ensuring the use of those skills has received much less attention.’
Ensuring effective use is made of existing skills leads to ‘increased productivity, higher levels of staff satisfaction and retention, and maximising the return on investment in skills development,’ the report suggests.
Attracting industry experts into the VET fold
Regular readers will be aware that we foreshadowed this report entitled ‘VET practitioners: ‘Getting ‘em and keeping ‘em’ in an earlier article. The full report is out now, published by NCVER.
It points out that ‘becoming a VET practitioner is an ongoing journey, not a destination’. That journey involves vocational and educational preparation; a transition to VET; and continuing practice and updating of skills to maintain the dual professionalism that is required to train, assess and respond to the changing needs of industry.
It’s a wrap – VDC Virtual Teaching & Learning Conference
VDC continued the 15-year tradition of providing one of Australia’s leading Teaching and Learning Conferences for VET practitioners from public, private and community providers.
Running for two days, over the 18th and 19th of November, the theme for this year’s VDC conference spotlighted ‘Creativity, Connectivity, Productivity’.
Introducing ReadyTech: Gold Sponsor of the VDC Teaching & Learning Conference
Can you gift your students a lifelong learning mindset?
A passion for lifelong learning could be the greatest gift educators have to offer their students – while being great for the business bottom line.
Many education providers would argue instilling a lifelong learning mindset is the job of the K-12 education system, or even early education. By helping to ignite in younger students that natural hunger for learning we’re all born with, they should already be primed by the start of adulthood.
But our efforts shouldn’t stop there. As a learning culture, we still have a static view of where a tertiary VET or higher ed program will take us once we have the requisite knowledge and skills. We often paper over a volatile, changing reality with the promise of a steady job for our entire lives.
We aren’t getting real with students about work. Or encouraging the lifelong learning they’ll need.
Can we do better?
Introducing Velocity Legal: Gold Sponsor of the VDC Teaching & Learning Conference
Understanding your business
The education sector can be a complex place. We understand that offering an excellent education service and providing a quality student experience amongst the myriad of legislation and regulation can be challenging. Velocity Legal provides speciality legal solutions for RTOs to help business owners navigate the complex process of legal compliance.
From understanding complicated funding agreements, managing the risks of engaging with third parties, or assisting RTOs that find themselves facing an adverse regulatory decision, we can help.
Emerging issues with the TAE
A new issues register has been developed by Skills for Australia and is available on their website. This register is a living, breathing document that will be updated every month or so. There is also an associated feedback survey on the issues raised in the register or other issues that might occur to VDC News readers about the TAE.
Happy 40th birthday NCVER!
On 2 November 2021, the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) turned 40!
It started life in 1981 as the TAFE National Centre for Research and Development, with an initial staff of around 11 and a focus on research and development, including the development of national core curricula.
