Day two begins with a keynote from Dr. Liz Allen who is a demographer and social researcher at the Australian National University Centre for Social Research and Methods. She presents on 'Education: A passport to life'. The presentation draws on Liz's personal story which exemplifies the power of education to contribute to transformative change in the lives of many. Her book 'The future of us: Demography gets a makeover' provides an overview of her scholarly work.
Education and training determine the jobs we are able to undertake, income, health, wellbeing, life expectancy etc. This is not only for individuals, but also for the dependents of individuals. Australia likes to think of itself as 'classless' and this may actually make it more difficult to recognise that life is not equitable.
Things that help are: to ensure education is a public good; accessible to all; education must be empowering and equalising; support the 'superheroes' who uphold and enable education.
A series of concurrent sessions follows.
First up, Renee Hindmarch from South Australia Skills Commision with 'hitting the bullseye: future skills requirements'. Overviewed the function of tbe SASC in supporting vocational education and skills formation in the state. VET sector needs to understand and respond to the emergent context of future skills. Confirm what future skills are rerquired. Determine competency-based training and assessments to fit the future skills development and stay focused on these objectives. At the moment, there is a mismatch between what is availed in VET/qualifications and the top skills/occupations required.
Next up, Allison Miller from Digital Capability on 'an entrepreneurial innovative and VET applied research-based economic recovery'. Details the Innovation and Capability Framework developed for training organisations to help enable the value creation required to support the Australian economy. Especially important now given the experiences from last year and the need for capabilty building to ensure future disruptions can be coped with better. Recommends checking LInder, J. (2020) Entrepreneurial learning for TVET: A practical guide published by UNESCO to check where an organisation is with regards to moving more innovatively into the future. Entrepreneurship is a mindset with some recommended processes and methods (i.e. evidence/research based). Also the follow up UNESCO/UNEVOC (2020) report on innovative training models. Also reviewed the VET applied research framework and how this can be used by organisations to be more innovative.
There is then a live Q & A featuring Kaye Bowman and Michael Hartman on zoom. The conversation revolved around engaging employers. A market driven VET market without a rigorous quality system has turned some employers off engagement with VET providers. Long tern relationship needs to be build with employers. Discussion then turned to how competencies should be deployed and how the reform process in Australia is proceeding. At the moment, the training packages are too specialised. Employers do not understand about generalisable skills and how although context may be different, some skills are 'transferable'. Discussion followed on the role of competency and how it can be described. This is entered into the training packages but these have become unmanageable.
Last session of the day with Dr. Mark Tyler and Dr. Darryl Dymock from Griffith University on 'recruiting and retaining VET practitioners: an exploratory study'. Presented on the preliminary findings from a project exploring how VET practitioners are recruited, what attracts people into VET teaching and how to retain them once they are employed. There is shortage of VET practitioners across Australia hence the need for the study. The presentation focused on interviews with training organisations. Most employed full-time staff with private providers employing more full time staff than public funded providers. Themes reported include renumneration, work conditions, the Cert IV teacher training, currency and credentials, factors encouraging a move into VET, mustering interest in the work, and retention of industry experts. Some congruence with findings from OECD 2020 report on VET teachers and leaders. Final report will be published by NCVER in August.
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