The report, out of 7 workstreams. most relevant to my current situation, is the one providing recommendations on 'educational services and online learning'. This report combines two of the workstreams into one report and is of relevance to the day to day teaching and learning activities for NZIST.
The report takes a future focused view. In particular, the impacts of the future of work on vocational education. There is an emphasis on both ensuring outcomes for learners, especially Maori and Pacific; and meeting the current and future skill needs of employers and industries.
Therefore, there is the provision of learner support at NZIST envisioned as 24/7 learner support services and the formation of a learner digital home. The employer interface is more inter-relational in the form of an employer digital support service and the connection to a network of applied research that can be drawn on to support industry innovation.
On the teaching and learning front, there will be the formation of a distributed (but with centralised oversight?) network for Learning design and development. This will be underpinned by the learning library or repository of learning objects/resources. Teaching staff and academic leaders/management will be supported by a network-wide staff training and development service.
In the technology front, there will be an amalgation of all the usual services supporting education including student management and learning management systems including learning analytics.
Overall, the plan makes sense. The scale of integration and the complexities cannot be taken for granted as each of the current 16 subsideries (i.e. existing ITPs) have been independent entities since their inception. As such, it is often not so much the mechanics and strategic solutions which are the barrier, but the 'hearts and minds' of the people who will be operationalising the many proposed items.
Common 'ways of doing' need to be tempered by the flexibility to encourage and maintain innovation and 'thinking out of the box' solutions. As NZIST is essentially a monopoly, there will also need to be care taken to ensure that complacency does not set in, muting forward thinking and progressive developments to meet the challenges posed by the future of work.
The pandemic has shown the way forward for teams to work in a distributed network. This sets up good learnings going forward. There are many advantages in having common curriculum, shared resources, 'master qualifications', standardised processes and academic regulations and collaboration across the sector to support teaching and learning, curriculum development and research. The challenge will be the size of the undertaking. Smaller institutions will perhaps be most likely to feel their individuality is lost us various practices are subsumed into the standards of the large entity. It is important to not wrap processes into to many layers of red tape. All this does is stifle inventive and timely responses to local learner needs.
We now watch with interest how the recommendation encapsulated through the various working stream reports are intepretated. Submissions are invited and close on 15th June. The final strategic documents for NZIST will then be formulated. From experience, much of what is in the current reports will go forward unless there is a large volume of feedback to shift the direction and intent. On the whole, the direction makes sense. However, they do recommend centralised 'top-down' approaches. Management and leadership are essential to ensure the NZIST formation runs well. There will be challenges, especially given the current global and national impacts wrought by the pandemic. So, it will be a 'watch this space' scenario as the NZIST establishes governance, systems and management to meet the vocational education needs of NZ.
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