Standing Committee on Employment, Education
and Workplace Relations
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Submission 73
TAFE SA Institute Council
GPO Box 1872
Adelaide SA 5001
Ph (08) 8207 8249
Fax (08) 8207 8249
Submission by the Council of the Adelaide Institute of TAFE
to the Select Committee on the Role of TAFE Institutes
ROLE OF TAFE INSTITUTES
This paper is written in response to a request from the
House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education. It introduces
general issues concerning the role of TAFE Institutes. The intention is
to provoke discussion and stimulate interest in the issues so that the
Standing Committee issues an invitation to meet with the enquiry team.
TAFE Institutes - A National Asset
Australia has a unique asset in its TAFE Institutes which should be preserved;
It is through the TAFE Institutes that Vocational Training became
an identifiable education sector and Vocational Training became
regarded as important;
The Institutes comprise a valuable infrastructure which has been developed
over a long period of time through Government and community investment;
TAFE Institutes are the public providers of vocational education within
the Vocational Education and Training (VET) system.
The role of the public providers has not been spelt out
in national policy development since the inception of the ANTA arrangements.
Far too often it appears that national policy is predicated on the assumption
that a training market can only be contrived by restraining or damaging
the public provider, in the belief that it will always be the largest
element of the sector and always be available in the event of market failure.
TAFE is a huge national asset and TAFE Institutes have
extremely good records at getting students into employment. They are also
very highly rated in terms of student satisfaction and in recent years
have become well regarded as a provider of post secondary education. Current
policies place these achievements at risk.
Lack of Research
Noted VET commentator Des Fooks has pointed out how major
developments affecting TAFE Institutes and the VET sector generally have
been introduced without a research base and without sufficient prior analysis,
including analysis of costs. A prime example is the New Apprenticeship
Scheme and associated User Choice arrangements, where at one point 20
separate consultancies were operating concurrently to fill the enormous
gap between policy determination and actual implementation.
Research into vocational education tends to be narrow and looks at details
after policy has been implemented. There has been no research into
the importance of the public provider.
In line with the theory that government departments will
become more efficient, policies have been developed in an attempt to force
the public provider of VET to compete for public funds alongside the private
provider. This was based on ideology, not research.
The case for the competitive training market has still
to be made. A likely outcome of research and experience is that the
sector should provide a mix of market based and public service provision,
as with Universities. No research has been conducted on how such a system
would work or on the pivotal role TAFE Institutes might play.
One major area of research deficiency is the need to examine TAFE Institutes
governance in a competitive market environment.
The Training Provider of last resort
The purchaser provider model can drive TAFE Institutes into becoming
the training provider of last resort.
If all else falls - if the private provider goes out of business; if
students are disadvantaged in some way; if they have specific learning
difficulties - will TAFE Institutes have to pick up the pieces?
Will the Government be left with the expensive pieces?
"Equity" said a national representative of private providers
at the NCVER Conference in Adelaide this year, "is not an issue for
the private provider".
Once a fully market based system is implemented and if no public service
role is articulated and funded by Government for TAFE Institutes, autonomous
TAFE Institutes cannot be relied on to pick up the
pieces left behind by market failure.
Some areas of training will simply not be provided. Government will either
have to re-invent a TAFE system for these areas or rely on immigration
to provide the missing skills.
Deregulation of the training market
Deregulation of the training market is meant to increase
the opportunities for choice by clients, enhance flexibility, and meet
the needs of industry, communities and economic development priorities.
Statistics indicate that enrolment in VET has remained static, that apprenticeships
and traineeships have not increased significantly while numbers at Universities
have continued to grow.
Australia has developed an extremely unbalanced tertiary education
system where most enrolments at VET level are for short programs and
career training courses in VET attract far fewer students than university
courses.
This does not correspond to labour market realities. It suggests that
the reforms in the training sector are not producing the expected results
by providing the numbers of skilled individuals required by the workforce.
Links with enterprises
In order to provide a skilled and productive work force,
TAFE Institutes provide uniquely flexible and diverse training opportunities
for business, industry and individuals developed in cooperation with enterprises.
TAFE Institutes, through their Councils, have
a direct link into industrial and commercial enterprises.
At Governmental level, Industry Training Advisory Boards provide
a formal linkage with organisations that represent industry. Both of these
provide pathways which are valuable in translating the training needs
of industry and commerce into relevant training programs.
Increasingly, Institutes are providing training in-house,
directly to the employees, or by way of on-line delivery. TAFE Institutes,
through their Councils, advisory structures and day to day integration
with the work of enterprises represent a far closer link with industry
than the supposedly 'industry led' arrangements at national level, which
rely on the interplay of the Federal training bureaucracy with national
employer associations and Union bodies - several layers removed from the
shopfloor.
Improving productivity
On a comparative basis, TAFE Institutes produce curriculum
hours at a much lower cost than either senior secondary schools or Universities
The debate within the Institutes has been about balancing
demands for increased quality of training and expanded training opportunities
but for a lower cost. Institutes have sought to increase productivity
by adopting more flexible means of delivefing programs and these include
the use of modern technology to deliver courses available on-line, via
video-conference and via audio-conference technology as three examples.
Creative environments
As well as providing students who have skills required
by particular enterprises, TAFE Institutes are concerned to educate
students to have a set of broad generic competencies which
will enable them to adjust to a changing world of work.
As employment demands change, students will have the ability to
continue in the development of new skills in order to remain relevant
- Life-Long Learning.
Student satisfaction in TAFE Institutes is markedly higher
than that in Universities. Statistics indicate that the number of students
moving from University into TAFE is higher than the number moving in the
opposite direction. In 1997, approximately 3000 university graduates were
enrolled in TAFE Institutes.
A fully market based system will not provide student
learning support services or student amenities. It will also not allow
Institutes to teach general educational competencies which will provide
the student with whole-of-life flexible skills rather than merely immediately
employable skills.
TAFE Institutes currently provide a rich learning environment.
As a result of investment by the Governments and the community over many
years, their students have access to excellent Learning Resource Centres,
complex Information Technology resources and experienced student support
centres and in many Institutes, facilities for student recreation.
Creative professional development
VET requires creative staff to produce a creative teaching environment.
Realistically, the major educational developments in vocational education
must be expected to occur in TAFE Institutes. Developments such
as in curriculum, flexible delivery and teaching resources occur in an
educational environment with thinking professionals.
Australian TAFE Institutes are recognised internationally for their contributions
to vocational education and training.
Links with Higher Education
Linkages with Universities are important. Arrangements
should be in place to enable students to articulate and carry credit into
courses offered by Universities. This should be part of a national framework
and not have to be negotiated, sometimes painfully, on an institution
to institution basis.
It has been suggested that TAFE Institutes should merge
with Universities. This requires research to see if the benefits outweigh
the costs. Some Universities are hidebound within long established structures
and a culture which does not predispose them to flexible delivery options.
There is also a perception of superiority amongst some Universities
that TAFE courses are of a lower status. In this environment, the
TAFE sections included in Universities could rapidly lose their vitality,
their ability to react, their relevancy and their levels of productivity.
Links with Schools
Links with the secondary education system are most
important if the public is to be persuaded that young people
do not have to enter Universities to gain access to worthwhile employment.
However, it is equally important that whatever training occurs in the
secondary sector has credibility with business and industry.
Links with private providers
As with schools and Universities, students should be
able to articulate and carry credit from private providers into TAFE Institutes
and to other providers as part of a national framework. Students need
to have confidence that the studies they have undertaken will be of sufficient
quality to enable them to move into higher level programs.
Research and analysis needs to be undertaken to
examine the benefits of public/private provider collaboration in some
circumstances, rather than assuming that optimum benefits will inevitably
flow from market-based policies, in an environment which contains few
qf the conditions required for a liable market.
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