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- Reforms in VET over the past ten years have had a significant effect
on the work of its staff. They now operate in more competitive markets
and face increased demands for higher quality and more relevant programs
from their various clients. Understanding and keeping up with the
changes and working in new and more flexible ways have been major
challenges for the VET workforce.
- Senior managers in public VET providers have become more strategic
and focus more intensively on the external environment and building
stronger links with clients.Their philosophy and personal style have
been found to strongly influence their organisation’s culture
and response to change.
- Front-line managers in public VET providers focus intensely on internal
business and work practices to enable staff to make necessary changes
to meet new client demands.
- The core capabilities required of VET leaders and managers have
been identified. Business, change management and educational leadership
skills need to be enhanced, with professional development linked more
strategically to organisational needs and capability.
- VET teachers’ work has expanded and diversified.They work
in an increasing range of contexts, including classrooms, workplaces
and online.They tend to facilitate learning rather than teach, which
requires a more diverse range of knowledge and capabilities. Teachers
also work increasingly as part of cross-organisational and multi-disciplinary
teams, and with non-teaching staff.
- Significant professional development has facilitated new work practices.
However, this has not met all individual or organisational needs.
Current VET industrial awards, performance indicators and funding
models do not prohibit new approaches to work but they do make it
more difficult because they have not kept pace with the new ways practitioners
are working, particularly in public VET providers. Identified problems
with job design, workload and performance management need to be urgently
tackled. Effective solutions to a number of these issues are in use
at the local level.These need to be examined and shared more widely
to inform better practice.
- Critical knowledge will be lost in the near future as qualified
and experienced staff either retire or resign.Thus succession planning
has also been identified as an increasingly important consideration.
- The overall lesson from the reform process is that VET providers
need to be more actively involved in it.The professionalism of VET
practitioners needs to be better recognised and their educational
leadership encouraged to help reduce resistance to change and enhance
their job satisfaction.
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