Standing Committee on Employment, Education
and Workplace Relations
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Submission 27
SUBMISSION From Professor Sandra Humphrey Executive Chair Central West
Area Consultative Committee
The most significant role that institutes of technical and further education
should play is that of offering universal education. Significant numbers
of any given community have the ability to access institutes of technical
and further education to satisfy a range of educational requirements.
Included in this is the provision of literacy classes offered to students
unable to read and write, migrants, and those students who undertake further
education courses. As the House of Representatives Standing Committee
on Employment, Education and Training would be aware, literacy poses one
of the greatest significant obstacles to employment, across all age groups.
Accessibility of literacy classes must be a major focus of institutes
of technical and further education because of the belief that such institutes
are community based.
Further to this such organisations should be at the forefront of vocational
education. The scope of vocational education is extensive, and includes:
- trade based learning;
- apprenticeship and traineeship learning;
- school to work transition pathways, ie, JSST;
- para professional studies - marketing: accounting, HR, business services,
administration etc; and
- Information technology.
Institutes of technical and further education must also continue to offer
'steppingstone' learning to the community. Included here is retraining/reskilling
opportunities, preparatory courses for entering/reentering the workforce,
second chance education/training and matriculation opportunities. It has
been widely suggested that students who have undertaken matriculation
studies for the purposes of university entrance are very well equipped
to successfully complete university study.
Their research skills, time management and organisational skills are
of a high standard and they are well grounded in 'learning mode'.
A specific focus should also include, skills/training and work ethic
development for the unemployed. Institutes of technical and further education
are well resourced to offer this service because of the wide range of
other -services they provide and because of their community focus.
Issues of access and equity have also been addressed by institutes of
technical and further education and this is why it is imperative that
their role continues to focus on a whole of community approach.
It is necessary for technical and further education institutes to become
more industry responsive and to do this they must continually seek advice
and guidance from industry. The information super highway demands this,
if these institutes are to succeed in the training provider market they
must be Industry responsive.
It is also crucial that institutes of technical and further education
become regionally responsive, most notably so for rural Australian. Regionally
based institutes need to develop strategies that include mobile training
units. With the Government's New Apprenticeship policy institutes of technical
and further education, if they desire to be at the forefront of apprenticeship
training, will need to respond in an innovative way. As quoted in the
New Apprenticeships Local Area Marketing Kit, 'New Apprenticeships are
about developing a simpler, more relevant training system that is responsive
to the needs of users and improves the bottom line profitabIlity of business',
(Section 2, page 3). Flexible delivery of courses should also remain a
priority.
Technical and further education institutes must also play a significant
role in school to work transition programs. Policies on RPL and accreditation
must be finely tuned, relevant, responsive and up-to-date. A continued
focus on vocational guidance and careers advice should also be a priority
and resourced adequately.
The extent to which those roles should ovei1ap with Universities
With reference to this, resource-sharing policies should be developed
so that resources such as staff, facilities, equipment, technology and
co-campus establishment can be shared. With the advent of accreditation
the distinction between institutes of technical and further education
and universities is becoming less defined. This needs to continue so that
'stepping-stone' learning and career pathway development can be further
enhanced.
With the introduction of HECS and now up front university fees, institutes
of technical and further education must reassess their roles so that they
are able to continue to offer current services and services that will
respond to the move towards further full fee paying university courses.
As a community based service provider, institutes of technical and further
education need to retain their equity and access policies in regards to
universality of learning.
There are a number of issues I would like to raise which I believe need
to be addressed in the provision of TAFE:
a) The interface programs between TAFEs and universities where TAFE students
pay minimal fees and university students incur significant HECs charges.
One must question, in an era of facilitated credit transfer, why TAFE
students are exempted from HECs. Also, income differentials between TAFE
and university graduates is narrowing.
b) The movement away from curriculum to training packages in the TAFE
sector does offer flexibility but is this at the expense of structured
learning and skills development? Mature age students with prior post secondary
educational experience can cope better than those with little or no experience
or those with undetected learning difficulties.
The effectiveness of training packages should be carefully monitored.
c) Self-regulated accreditation and provider registration does facilitate
quick response, but without adequate monitoring can compromise quality.
Many private providers believe the monitoring by regulatory authorities
is inadequate. Because TAFE has accreditation processes (which could be
streamlined), it is often labelled unresponsive. The need for balance
to ensure quality and relevant programs is still a challenge for TAFE.
d) TAFE also needs to consider its responsibilities to rural and regional
Australia. There is a tendency by TAFE to abandon training in small centres
and require students/employers to fit into the TAFE mould. This is proving
cost prohibitive, especially with travel costs and absences from employment.
TAFE needs to be more innovative in the delivery of apprenticeship/traineeship
and other skills programs in remote and regional areas. Better information
sharing between TAFE's on innovations and best practice may assist. The
result is that many small regional centres have a shortage of skilled
workers, especially in the trades and industry is inhibited from locating
and/or expanding in rural centres. Bartters Chickens in the Riverina and
Changeurs Wool Processors at Wagga Wagga are examples of businesses that
have grate difficulty getting training relevant to their operations. This
means local unemployed do not got work opportunities because they are
not skilled.
e) TAFE also faces unfair competition through curriculum development.
It generally bears from its budgets the costs for developing accredited
curriculum and training packages. Private providers, I understand, get
access to these packages on a without cost basis. In an increasingly competitive
market, the questions of intellectual property and copyright need to be
addressed. If it is considered reasonable that public funds be used to
develop such packages and these be freely available to providers, either
public or private, then the funding of such should be separated
from TAFE budgets and overheads. Also, employment conditions and remuneration
of TAFE staff reduce its competitiveness with the private sector or even
the Community Colleges and Group Training Companies.
f) The Central West ACC has found that TAFE is the major resource for
training in the region. The Community College and Central West Group Apprentices
also provide a valuable role. Private provider provision is still small
and given the dispersed population, will not be a significant player in
the near future. The Director of the Western Institute of TAFE is a member
of the ACC and does get feedback. However, the dependency on TAFE in rural
Australia does mean that it needs to be adequately resourced and in turn,
demonstrate its preparedness to respond to employer and communlty needs.
The ongoing state of restructuring in NSW has inhibited TAFE's effectiveness
and has seen instability in staffing and its mission. This had reduced
its profile and ability to outreach to its communities.
I would be pleased to expand further.
Professor Sandra Humphrey
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