Supporting VET providers in building capability for the future
CONSORTIUM UPDATE | Liz Agars, TAFE NSW ICVET
What makes one Registered Training Organisation (RTO) survive and thrive in the whirlwind of the changing VET scene while others struggle to keep up? This is the focus of a large, two year project currently being funded by Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) and managed by National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER).
The project Supporting VET providers in building capability for the future was commissioned last year and will be completed by the end of this year. It uses a consortium of high profile researchers drawn from a number of institutions such as CREEW, CURVE and OVAL – including John Mitchell, Clive Chappell, Berwyn Clayton, Andy Smith and others.
The project aims to:
- develop a clearer understanding of the dynamics of the VET workplace and the capacity of VET providers to respond to the increasingly complex and changing demands of clients.
- critically analyse key management, leadership, human resources and industrial relations practices and their applicability for VET providers.
- investigate cutting edge practices in VET that support increased quality, agility and responsiveness.
- examine the inter-relationships between the development of people, practices and cultures and their impact on the capability of VET providers.
- generate a diverse range of products and services that can be both disseminated widely and used to conduct workforce development workshops at the local level in order to promote individual and organisational capability.
The Nine Research Activities
The nine areas being researched in this study of vocational education and training are wide ranging. But they all help build a picture of how RTO’s survive and thrive in an environment of pressure for enterprises to adapt to the global marketplace. How do they meet the challenges of including new technologies, fast paced changes to the VET workforce and the need for the sector to address skills shortages? How do they adapt their capability to suit not only today’s needs, but tomorrow’s as well?
This research focuses on:
- visions and options
- career pathways
- teaching, learning and assessment
- cultures and structures
- decision-making
- learning through work
- human resources practices
- educational leadership
- insights and opportunities
Emerging insights and reflections
While the project is still underway, a number of insights and reflections have begun to emerge from the research work which were shared at the recent AVETRA Conference.
- Consortium Director, Professor Roger Harris described the consortium’s research as defining the elusive concept of capability. Up until now there was no accepted definition and a paucity of research, despite this being a concept central to organisational performance, competition and advantage.
- Professor Victor Callan spoke about his research into approaches for sustaining and building educational leadership. In looking at the overlapping activities of management and leadership, he found that Australian leaders were considered to be strong on hard skills, but weaker on emotional intelligence skills. In short, Australian organisations were over-managed but under-led. In looking at the development of leaders and managers in VET he noted a move away from a control and compliance approach towards the use of capability frameworks, planning and forecasting.
- Dr Michele Simons spoke about understanding career pathways for VET staff - not only for teachers and trainers. This had uncovered changing ideas of career, and a move of focus in professional development from learning ‘about’ to learning ‘how to’.
- Dr John Mitchell identified the main issue emerging from his research into critical issues in teaching, learning and assessment – the demand for quality in teaching, learning and assessment that leads to benefits for individuals, enterprises and the nation. This also relies on other critical issues such as the need for providers to be increasingly flexible and responsive in meeting the many demands of industry clients and individual students. 15 case studies of good practice in VET together with a study of networks in Australian VET confirmed this.
More to come…
Major implications for RTOs will continue to emerge with the final project activity still to be completed. A wealth of information about the project is available on the Consortium website (see the link below) and findings will also be disseminated in conferences and/or forums throughout Australia and through various publications such as Campus Review.
We will also continue to highlight and explore some of the outputs and ideas emerging from this important project in this eZine.
See also
National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER)
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