Discussions continue following the Minister of Education's announcements last week as to the outcomes of RoVE.
Yesterday, the Minister, Chris Hipkins, gave a short keynote which was broadcasted live via the Tertiary Education Union's facebook site. He was at a 'voices of the sector 19' hui (meeting). The presentation was short and time was set aside for questions, with answers providing more detail. The advantages of RoVE were reiterated, especially the return of students and educators to have representatives on the 'one entity' council; guarantees of provision in the regions; and the longer transition period to ensure the shift of workplace learning support from the ITOs to the 'one entity' does not disadvantage current apprentices / trainees, their employers and industries.
This morning, I caught up with two op eds written by Roger Smyth and published on the Education Central site.
The first, summarises the outcomes as announced and overviews the ways work-based education are supported in NZ presently and what will happen next. There is discussion on Workforce Development Councils and weights up the pros and cons of returning the support of work-based training back into the polytechic system.
The second, details the significant challenges and risks in bringing all the polytechnics into one large entity. There will be economies of scale but this will come with a great deal of complexity. Both Southern Institute of Technology and Otago Polytechnic are mentioned as examples of viable polytechics who have been innovative. However, they have developed work cultures and systems to support their diverse portfolio. How to balance diversity and niche provisions for VET with a system seeking to consolidate into common systems will be a major challenge.
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