Inquiry into the Role of Institutes of TAFE
Submissions

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Submission 28

WESTERN AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF PERFORMING ARTS

Edith Cowan University

re: Inquiry into the Appropriate Roles of Institutes of Technical and Further Education

I would like to respond to your inquiry regarding

• the appropriate roles of institutes of technical and further education; and
• the extent to which those roles should overlap with universities.

The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts is a provider of both TAFE-level and higher education programmes. It is one of the very few institutions within Australia that has managed to achieve a seamless integration between the two educational sectors. Students at the Academy are taught according to their skill level and the educational demands of the curriculum. Where the curriculum allows, students from both sectors attend the same classes, particularly in performance.

The Academy's position is that

(a) the seamless integration of educational programmes provides a better education and training environment, promotes networking and allows for more efficient delivery; [Figure I: Educational Integration Model not reproduced]

(b) the educational sectors can develop their collaborative and cooperative efforts further to promote a better training environment for students whilst at the same time maintaining the distinctive differences which are fundamental to the orientation and values of each sector;

(c) the obstacles to collaboration and cooperative delivery models are

• the perception which has been created by the Australian Qualifications Framework that the sectors provide programmes on a single continuum - this thinking is fundamentally flawed and creates an "elitist" philosophy rather than an "appropriate training" model
• the divide which is created through discrete funding of each sector.

The integrated training model which has been developed by the Academy is a healthy model which promotes movement and cooperation between the sectors. The quality of outcome which has been achieved by the Academy's programmes in both the VET and the higher education sectors is validation of the training environment which has been created. Students with a performance orientation emerge from the Academy's VET Diploma. programmes into a successful professional career in the arts and entertainment industry. Students with more of an academic orientation benefit from the performance environment which is created and emerge also into the profession, but with opportunity to develop their careers at some later stage into other areas which can be extended by their own efforts or further study.

I am grateful for the opportunity to comment on these models for your inquiry, as I believe there are many disturbing trends emerging within the education sector which are motivated more by issues of self-preservation and separatism than by educational philosophy and values.

Yours sincerely,

Geoffrey G Gibbs

DIRECTOR

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