On behalf of the Board and Team at VDC, I’d like to extend our thanks to the VDC News ghostwriter Hugh Guthrie for his invaluable contribution to this newsletter. It has been a privilege to have someone with Hugh’s reputation, experience and standing deliver ever consistent observations, opinions and insights into the VET research and policy settings around Australia and internationally over the past 7 years. I’d also like to thank Hugh for his passion and support for the endeavours of the VET Development Centre in providing quality and accessible professional learning for VET educators and practitioners.
Martin Powell, CEO VDC.
After having written articles for VDC News since early 2018, I’ve decided it’s time to put down the pen, or at least stop searching the internet and other information sources and let another take up the mantle of trying to tell you what’s going on in VET in Australia and internationally. I think seven years is enough for anyone, and I always believed that I should give up before I thought I had got too stale. After all, the number of articles I have written over the period totals about 550! The upside, though, is that doing this work has kept me in touch with the VET sector and what those within it, managing it and regulating or using it, are thinking.
It’s interesting to reflect on the topics covered over these years and their consistency and persistence. In short, I think not a lot actually changes. I once talked about this as the inherent inertia of the sector, which I thought might have seen as an ‘enemy’ to it because there was actually a need to drive “sustained change and improvement processes without getting distracted by immediate issues which seem to be of consequence at the time but really don’t help win the main, long game.”
The ‘easy’ writing jobs in this work for me, though, has been to summarise the various reports and reviews conducted that VDC News readers needed to know about: Joyce, Braithwaite, Macklin and a host of others – including reviews of the AQF and ASQA and a number of VET and TAFE systems at state and territory level. I often looked at federal and state/territory budgets and what was covered in them in relation to funding TAFE and the VET sector more broadly. I also kept an eye on what research and other work told us about provider types, and I tried to make sure I covered what was being said about TAFEs, private and community education providers in particular.
Other articles over the years highlighted issues papers and other work released under the auspices of the key VET stakeholders like the Business Council of Australia, ACCI, AiG. The L H Martin Institute based at Melbourne University and other centres in the university sector with an interest in VET and researching it were also a rich source of insights and perspectives. In addition, I kept an eye out for commissioned reports produced by consultancy firms such as the NOUS Group, KPMG and Price Waterhouse Coopers.
Highlighting NCVER’s many reports and other publications has naturally been a key feature, notably NCVER’s regular research reports on a wide variety of topics as well as their statistical publications covering VET student and employer data, apprenticeships and survey findings. Various VET conferences have also featured from time to time, including AVETRA, the VDC National Teaching & Learning Conference (of course), NCVER’s No frills and ACDEVEG (a conference devoted to VET teacher education and training), amongst others.
I really tried hard not to ignore overseas work and their key reports and publications too: principally from the UK and Europe, but also from bodies like the OECD. This is because their work often dragged us out of our Australian ‘comfort zone’ and helps us look at alternative approaches to doing things that – maybe – we should consider and adopt here.
The VET sector in Australia, being as rich and wide-ranging as it is, means that a host of topics and issues that I feel I have had to cover, including: the future of VET and TAFE; emerging industry, employer and learner needs; emerging AI and digital skills, how to best support those with disability and disadvantage and VET’s role in providing that; apprenticeships and higher apprenticeships; VET in schools; learner pathways and issues with their transitions – including school to work, VET and HE, VET to HE and transitions the other way (HE to VET); VET study for international students both on and offshore; the role of tertiary education and parity of esteem and other issues that exist between VET and HE and, finally, approaches to developing Training Packages and associated qualifications and programs of study – including skill sets and micro credentials.
One of the other consistent topics of note has been VET teacher preparation and development (including whether HE qualifications should be the mandated requirement) as well as research into, and critique of, the TAE Training Package – and particularly the Certificate IV. Induction processes as well as issues with vocational currency and in teacher recruitment and retention also often got a mention.
Another key theme has been the quality of VET and its programs and offerings, including the importance of good practice in VET teaching, learning and assessment – as well as the significance of alternative approaches to delivery – including online, flexible and blended approaches. TAFEs Centres of Excellence have been another and recent focus. Learner support is also an important topic because many of VET’s students need support (including around LLN and in other areas) to achieve success.
For me personally, however, all this work has really kept me closely connected to a sector that I have been privileged to work in since 1981 when I was first employed as the Research Officer in the Education Unit of what was then RMIT, then through 25 years at NCVER, sometime at Victoria University and finally consultancy work on my own and with a range of amazing colleagues. The earliest work I did had a TAFE and curriculum/teaching and learning focus, fortunately, and enabled me to develop a love a great respect of VET, its staff and all that it does as the range of its roles has broadened and deepened over time.
All in all, it’s been a joy! Over the years I have met and worked with a wide range of wonderful and committed people, but it is time to hand the batten to others, and I know that you will all pick it up and run with it!
