One of the presentations at the recent VET National Teaching & Learning Conference was by Craig Robertson, the Chair of the VET Qualifications Reform Design Group and CEO of the Victorian Skills Authority. His presentation provided some background to the present moves to reform VET qualifications. We highlighted the work of this Group before in an article in March this year.
Improving flexibility and rationalising present approaches is the name of the game. New expectations for the sector and the ways it works are being guided by raft of activities at present arising from the Employment White Paper, National Skills Agreement, the Universities Accord and the AQF Review, amongst others.
The VET system starts in upper secondary and with a range of foci: pre-VET, initial VET and continuing VET, giving rise to a range of accredited and non-accredited courses. But we also need to think about a range of new approaches to things Craig’s presentation suggested, including having qualifications that:
- Are high-performing, easy to navigate, and meet the needs of employers and learners now and into the future
- Support innovation and excellence in training delivery and assessment
- Deliver an adaptable skilled workforce resilient to structural changes, and
- Support more employers to use nationally recognised training.
Three broad purposes for qualifications have been identified: one (Purpose 1) is concerned with occupational preparation which provides learning opportunities for well-defined jobs with springboard to career progression (this is more or less the current and very vocationally oriented approach). The second (Purpose 2) is industry focused, aimed at providing learning for a range of related occupations with capacity to transfer across industry which also offers an opportunity to rationalise or consolidate existing qualifications. The final purpose, Purpose 3, focuses on vocational learning, and targets cross-industry skills and knowledge and the opportunities for further learning. It’s suggested that it also offers additional opportunities for innovation not possible in the current system.
Case studying the Cert II quals in Automotive
Craig highlighted the Purpose 2 qualifications in particular and ‘case studied’ automotive ones, noting that there were presently 9 qualifications in automotive technology at the Certificate II level with a Purpose 2 focus. These have a total of 349 units of competency across the qualifications, with generally small core numbers against a much larger number of possible electives. Further, he noted that, of the 9 qualifications highlighted:
- 82% of enrolments were in only 2 qualifications
- 5 qualifications had under 100 enrolments, and
- 1 qualification had zero enrolments.
And, of the 194 unique units contained in these qualifications:
- Only 20 units had 500 or more enrolments
- Only 40 units had 200 or more enrolments
- 98 of the listed units had zero enrolments.
It was suggested that the structure of these qualifications demonstrates how the current system logic has broken down, resulting in fragmentation, duplication and inconsistency. And maybe this is also a case of overdesign!
What is needed in this case, it’s believed, are a set of qualifications that begin with identifying the core skills and knowledge needed across the automotive industry. Thus, developing a Purpose 2 qualification would involve prioritisation of units based on usage, and redesign to maximise their value to learners and industry.
And, by the way, it should not be assumed that the issues highlighted here are unique to automotive!
