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Between the years 2001 and 2003 there was an overall decline in the
number and proportion of Indigenous staff in the public vocational education
and training (VET) system. The decline is contrary to the intentions
of policies across the Australian VET sector, whereby an increase in
Indigenous employment was required.
- If employment targets for Indigenous staffing in VET were set according
to the proportion of Indigenous students in VET (whose participation
rate in VET is generally high across states and territories), then
substantially higher numbers of Indigenous employees would be needed
than current targets
indicate, especially by providers serving outer-regional, remote
and very remote areas.
- At present, uncertainties about funding affect all aspects of the
employment cycle for Indigenous employees, from position identification
to succession
planning, to the relations between VET providers and Indigenous communities.
- As previous studies have shown, data collection on Indigenous employment
in VET is currently inadequate. In particular, the current data do
not reflect critical differences in the proportions of Indigenous people
in urban, inner- and outer-regional, remote and very remote areas.
Strategic
workforce planning for Indigenous staff at system and provider levels
depends on the availability of such data.
- Competition between providers for qualified Indigenous staff is likely
to become extremely intense in the coming years. VET employers will
need to be more proactive and more effective in attracting, recruiting,
developing
and retaining Indigenous staff. This study identifies a range of models
of effective practice in each of these areas. VET employers must adopt
proactive approaches to the development of community networks to ensure
identification of potential Indigenous staff, professional and career
development for existing staff, and succession planning that will ensure
the long-term sustainability of training in and for their communities.
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