Day Three continues around the theme of 'digital learning' and begins with a plenary session on 'evaluating and enhancing digital readiness of Australia's vocational education and training products' with Erin Knudsen (Australian Industry Standards), Dr. Claire Mason (Data61 - CSIRO) and Michael Wyndham (Department of Employment and Workplace Relations). Began with the project background and rationale. The project is one response to the 2019 Australian Industry and Skills Committee to establish the Digital Transformation Expert panel. The report from this - the learning country - has recommendations for the development of a VET specific digital capability farmework, strategic review of training packages given digital transformation and to support VET practitioners' knowledge of digital technologies. Structure of the project was described including how the framework was reviewed as consultation etc. progressed. The accompanying review and modification of the existing digital capability frameworks in the existing training package now completed. Various complementarity of existing frameworks and taxonomies was undertaken. Five focus groups identified - info and data literacy, communication and collaboration, digital content creation, protection and safety. Each has digital focus area definitions and digital capabilities included. Proficiency levels of foundation, intermediate, advanced and specialised were adopted and explained. Alignment of this framework into other frameworks was also undertaken.
Advantages of having a framework creates a common language, collaborate to implement digital skills into VET reform, and affords cross-sector, cross-region and cross-country comparisons. Shared the digital occupation profile (DOP) covers the mapping of digital framework to the tasks, responsibilities etc. of the job.
Digital capabilities review of training packages carried using 'natural language processing' methods. Digital capability and unit of competencies/ performance indicators commonalities are identified and matched. 700,000 performance indicators covered AI and human input deployed across the process. Able to sieve through and find out the digital capabilities that are well covered and those that are not. Managing info and data is high but re-using digital content was low. Qualifications that cover all the 21 capabilities include graphic design, business, info tech etc. but some had zero or none (baking for example!)
Described the process of prototyping a dynamic online companion volume to support the application of the digital capabilities framework. Used a visualisation of demand and supply of digital capabilities by comparing the qualifications and digital skills mentioned in job ads. to identify capabilities not included in a training package. Potential for a crowdsourcing DOP to be used to continually up-to-date skill needs. Next steps were shared to progress the ideas presented.
Then Professors Sarojni Choy, Stephen Billett and Leah Le on 'bridging life transitions: role of VET in supporting lifelong learning'. Began with a summary of the historical evolution of vocational education across working life. Then looked at why lifelong VET is important, the transitions across working lives and implications. The reasons for lifelong VET has become even more important given the rapid change and shifts caused by technology, changing job markets etc. Forms of purposes of VET include initial VET which is the main focus. However, continuing VET is now just as important to help people transition into new occupations or careers. This needs to include workplace based learning where people attain much learning but still neglected for accreditation.
Summarised the project - Practices and policies for sustaining employability through work-life learning (Billett, Salling-Olesen and Filliattez)
The work life history of 59 (older workers above 30) in Australia reported in this presentation. Identified 6 transitions. Maturation / life development, change of employment status, change in occupation (change in focus, change in skills or capacities, change through restructuring etc.), change in location, physical and psychological health challenges (personal or family), change in personal lifestyle choices.
The profiles of the participants summarised. Access to VET included entry into employment (the majority of the participants), upskilling and reskilling. Shared examples for VET providing entry to further education, change of occupation, for work life as work opportunities change. Ways that VET support lifelong education include accessible affordable and flexible (online/blended) course, retraining when occupations have to shift, courses aligned to different life stages, job preparation for working age people, guidance and counselling, processed to engage learners in development of courses and programmes, and employability support during transitions.
Featured speakers include:
Hugh Guthrie on 'delivering on quality VET delivery' from his recent NCVER project completed with Melinda Waters. Summarised the project aims - defininitions and measure of quality, describe high-quality delivery, use of quality measures, perceived barriers to quality and how they could be supported to do better.
What does good delivery look for? to prepare students for work and life and sometimes preparing for life is important; develop occupational identities, meets needs and expectations of employers, results in employment or other outcomes, support personal growth and continually adapts to changing circumstances. The main messages - a definition of delivery quality was context specific; - their purpose, goals, student profile, courses programmes etc. type of training organisation, size, cultures breadth of profile, persons role in quality and the difficulties of sustaining high quality deliver in the current circumstances.
Enablers of the quality of delivery include quality policies, frameworks and strategies, quality leadership and administration, quality teaching of learning experiences, and quality programmes and resources. Provided details of each of these enablers. Barriers include funding, compliance-driven regulation - leads to ticking boxes and not actual improvement, quality of training packages and the effort and cost of their updates. difficulty recruiting, retaining and development teachers, and limitations of quality metrics. Improvements suggested include a national VET to promote and support quality delivery (e.g. Centres of VET excellence (CoVEs) in Aotearoa), funding models to support and incentivise, trust and investment in professional judgement of teachers.
Dr. Damian Oliver and Nicky Wonder from the National Skills Commission on 'pathways from VET courses: insights from the VET National data asset'. Outlined the mapping of VET pathways as there is not a neat match between qualifications and occupations - but this does not mean an unsuitable labour market outcome. VET equips for more than the outcomes of a qualification. Summarised the data sources - intended occupations data from training.gov.au; occupational post-training from NCVER student outcome survey; and occupational and education mix from the census. The VET national data asset (VNDA) helps to bring these data streams together for analysis. Detailed the methodology for pathways analysis.
The results for the 2017-2018 data for the 2019 survey was then presented. Used a case studies to provide show how the data sources were integrated and then analysed. Includes Certificate in Plumbing (high alignment); Cert 111 in Individual support (mid level alignment) and Certificate III in Business (with low alignment and is dispersed and less matched). Shared reflections on the process thus far and future plans.
I then present an update on Aotearoa NZ VET with 'Aoteaora NZ reform of VET: Te Pukenga's progress on meeting its aspirations'. This updates from the previous presentation in October 2021 at the AVETRA OctoberVET. There has been much progress but also much to be done. The operational model / structure is due to be open for consultation in a couple of weeks will provide greater clarity. Transitional industry trainining organisations (ITOs) and polytechnics (ITPs) are all transitioned into Te Pūkenga by January 2023. The Work Development Councils (WDCs) are forming and settling into developing their operational structures and plans. The Regional Skills Leadership Groups (RSLG) are in place and reporting to and working in collaborations with stakeholders and the WDCs and Te Pūkenga. The outcomes of the reform of VET (RoVE) are almost in place. So things are all starting up and forming but not quite all ready to go yet.
Then a presentation from Kelly Milner, Yvette Vos from North Metropolitan TAFE and Dr. Charn Nang from Edith Cowan University on 'building bridges between allied health assistant and the allied health professional to meet workforce shortages: a university and TAFE partnership in WA'. Introduced the team and set the scene with how the project started - through work with allied health assistants in speech-language pathology. There was very little realisation of the role of health assistants in this discipline.
Followed on with a definition for Allied health professionals (AHP - speech, occupational therapist, nutritional specialists etc. ) and Allied health assistants (AHA). There is high demand for both AHP and AHAs. AHA training is usually 6 months long and their role includes working with clients to work through the interventions developed by the AHP.
Key areas of concern include the AHA role not being well-defined and not widely recognised. Work needs to be undertaken to formalise the role through training and recruitment, collaboration with relevant communities and industry to improve standards of training and employment outcomes. Interprofessional collaboration may be one avenue to help students understand the range of possibilities. Students in speech pathology and AHA students could then see how the work could be undertaken. Survey of students indicated the usefulness of the session. Then shared plans for the future in particular to expand to other AHP programmes.
Closing keynote is with Simon Walker from the NCVER on 'data's role in transforming the future'. Covers what big data is in the context of VET; big data and NCVER, applications in VET and the future of big data. Big data is now important to help understand the complex challenges and to respond and adapt to meet these challenges. Big data includes large amounts of complex data from multiple sources that can be assessed, stored, analysed, and reported - volume, veracity, value, velocity and variety.
Summarised the benefits is to provide an accurate and complete picture of a situation. Able to gain insights more readily, especially using AI. May be useful to predict future needs, target rapid interventions, assist businesses to understand their markets and clients and has potential efficiencies in time and cost. An example is how OECD uses to emphasise the important role of well-being and health.
In Australia, there is data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, National Skills Commision, VET National Data Asset, Australian Skills Classification etc. Strict protocols cover the ethical use of this data. Shared examples from NCVER current projects as to how big data is used. New data directions include predictive analytics, longitudinal data, data linkages and data-driven user interface to access secure data products. Current projects on completion rates, pre-apprenticeship behaviours, indigenous learners, longitudinal TVA dataset and datahub to provide access to NCVER data. Detailed the VET data streamlining project seeks to update and enable real-time VET activity data.
Future of big data to work towards include real-time data, cloud platforms and storage, predictive analytics, data sharing and context-rich analysis.
Overall, another good range of presentations. The platform used is rather didactic. Videos are recorded and played back for each session. This means that reference to and connection to the keynotes or other presentations is not possible. Slides in standard mode often difficult to see and expanding the video causes the live chat to disappear. It is difficult to participate in the chat, when watching the presentation and taking notes. Having to move to the next presentation without a break means little interaction actually occurs in the chat. The advantage is that the recordings are not live which minimises technology issues and other glitches. The recordings are archived for 3 months for viewing and later follow up.
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