Towards a new approach to mid-level qualifications

This report is part of a wider three-year program of research, Vocations: the link between post-compulsory education and the labour market, which is investigating the educational and occupational paths that people take and how their study relates to their work. Previously the authors identified three main roles for mid-level qualifications, as a labour market qualification (entry or upgrade), a transition to a higher-level qualification, and to widen access to higher-level qualifications. They also proposed a new approach to qualifications based on vocational streams and productive capabilities, which would strengthen educational pathways and occupational outcomes.

In the final year of the research, the authors tested this new approach through consultations with stakeholders in four industry areas: agriculture; engineering; finance; and health and community services. This report focuses on the outcomes of those consultations and also suggests how the new approach can be progressed.

Key messages

• Support for vocational streams and productive capabilities varied by industry, with finance showing the highest overall support. Agriculture showed the least support due to a general reluctance by employers to invest in education and training.
• In order to progress the new approach to qualifications, it is suggested that the following should be implemented:
  • Tertiary education curriculum needs to emphasise the different roles of qualifications by moving from being focused on specific workplace tasks and roles to a capabilities approach, which develops a person’s theoretical knowledge, technical skills and attributes in a broad field of practice along with the skills for a particular occupation.
  • All the social partners — education, industry and government — need greater involvement in the development of curriculum and qualifications. They should also have equal participation in the membership of qualification and approval bodies to enable there to be a focus on both the educational and occupational purposes of qualifications.
  • Educators and researchers need to learn more about the operation and structure of the different labour markets in which their graduates enter and progress. They should also be involved in further work to explicate and operationalise the concept of productive capabilities.
     

Dr Craig Fowler
Managing Director, NCVER

This report sets out the findings of the final year from Strand 2 of the three-year project entitled Vocations: the link between post-compulsory education and the labour market. The project investigated the potential to improve pathways and flows within and between education and work. It consisted of three strands: Strand 1 researched education and work outcomes from VET in Schools; Strand 2 researched the role of educational institutions in fostering educational and occupational pathways; and Strand 3 researched how to improve occupational pathways within the labour market. Each strand investigated four industries and conducted case studies in each. The industries examined were: agriculture, engineering, financial services, and health and community services.

Aim

In previous work the Strand 2 team found that the links between mid-level tertiary education qualifications are very variable. While some fields of education have high numbers of students undertaking subsequent qualifications in the same field, others have very few. The team further found that the links between tertiary education and work are also very variable. In some fields of education most graduates work in occupations associated with their qualification, while very few do so in other fields. The team particularly identified the ‘hollowing out’ of the middle of the skill distribution in the labour market as a key factor that inhibited the development of both the occupational pathways that link lower- and higher-skilled occupations and the educational pathways designed to support those occupational pathways. These findings led the team to develop a possible new approach to qualifications, especially mid-level qualifications, one that would strengthen educational pathways and occupational outcomes (Moodie et al. 2013). The aim of the work reported here was to test this new approach. The team’s broad research questions were:

• How cogent does the new approach seem to the social partners?
• What would be needed to progress the new approach?
• How feasible is the new approach?

New approach to qualifications

The new approach to qualifications has the following components:

• four types of qualifications
• three roles of qualifications
• vocational streams
• ‘productive capabilities’.

Four types of qualifications

The team identified four types of qualifications, each of which is defined by the different types of relationships that exist between the qualifications within fields of education and the occupations associated with them in the labour market.

Type 1 qualifications have strong links to education but weak links to work and are exemplified by the field of business. High numbers of students undertake a subsequent qualification within the same field of education, but the fit between qualifications and occupations is very loose, and most graduates don’t work in the occupation associated with their qualification. Type 1 qualifications prepare graduates for unregulated occupations, whereby employers use qualifications to screen employees for potential and provide enterprise and industry-specific training and development as part of their employment. Consequently, diploma and bachelor graduates compete with each other for similar jobs in type 1 occupations and diploma graduates often undertake degrees to get better jobs.

Type 2 qualifications have strong links to education and strong links to work and are exemplified by nursing. Many students undertake a subsequent qualification within the same field of education and most graduates work in the occupation associated with their qualification. These qualifications prepare graduates for regulated occupations with strong occupational pathways, which are replicated in strong educational pathways. Type 2 occupations usually have long training times and the educational programs have high input from occupational and registering bodies. Qualifications are used to broadly specify the knowledge, skills and attributes required for practice in that field.

Type 3 qualifications have weak links to education and strong links to work and are exemplified by engineering. While most students work in the occupation associated with their qualification, few undertake higher-level studies within the same field of education. Strong occupational pathways from lower- to higher-level occupations are less common (for example, from electrician to engineer). Type 3 qualifications prepare graduates for occupations that tend to be highly segmented by regulation, occupational association or less formally. Like type 2 qualifications, type 3 qualifications are used to broadly specify the knowledge, skills and attributes required for practice in that field.

Type 4 qualifications have weak links to education and weak links to work and are exemplified by the pure disciplines or the liberal arts and sciences. Very few students end up working in occupations associated with their qualification, and when they undertake further studies, it is often in a different field of education. These qualifications introduce graduates to a field of knowledge or practice without strong intrinsic links to other fields of knowledge or practice. Pathways from vocational education and training (VET) to higher education are particularly weak, because the pure disciplines are not offered in the VET sector. Like type 1 qualifications, employers use type 4 qualifications to screen employees for potential.

Three roles of qualifications

All qualifications have three roles, but they differ in the emphasis they place on each role, depending on the qualification type (as outlined above) and its links to occupations and further studies:

• as a labour market qualification — entry or upgrade
• as a transition to a higher-level qualification
• as a mechanism to widen access to higher-level qualifications.

Vocational streams

The third element of the new approach to qualifications is to base qualifications on vocational streams. A vocational stream links occupations that share common practices, knowledge, skills and personal attributes. Vocational streams increase horizontal flexibility and transferability at work by linking occupations in a broad field of practice and increase vertical flexibility by supporting education and occupational progression in a broad field of practice.

Productive capabilities

The fourth element of the new approach is a role for qualifications to develop productive capabilities. Productive capabilities develop the person in the context of their vocational stream with the broad knowledge, skills and attributes that individuals need to be productive at work, to progress in their careers, and to participate in decision-making about work and the arrangement of work. Productive capabilities also encompass the required resources and arrangements at work to enable people to use their knowledge, skills and attributes effectively. Productive capabilities thus focus on how knowledge, skills and attributes are developed through education and how they are deployed at work.

How cogent does the new approach seem to social partners?

The team answered its first broad question by preparing a different discussion paper for participants in each industry case study and an additional discussion paper for public officials; these were then used as the basis of interviews and consultations. Responses to the new approach varied by industry and among public officials, reflecting the different roles that mid-level qualifications played in occupations in each industry. Moreover, the team found that there was varying potential for vocational streams and that they would need to be constructed in different ways, again reflecting industry differences. While there is broad interest in and receptiveness to qualifications developing productive capabilities, the concept is not well understood and would have to be developed extensively and differently for each industry.

What would be needed to progress the new approach?

In answering the second broad question, the team found that taking the new approach further has implications for tertiary education policy, qualifications and approval bodies, tertiary education institutions and educators and researchers. Tertiary education policy needs to take a more differentiated approach to the purpose and design of qualifications to accommodate the different ways by which qualifications are used in the various segments of the labour market. The implications for qualifications and approval bodies are that they need to be more flexible in recognising all qualifications serve three related but distinct roles — labour market entry or progression, access to higher-level studies and widened participation for disadvantaged students — while the curricular implications are that qualifications need to support both educational and occupational progression. Tertiary education institutions would differentiate between different types of qualifications in curriculum and design, developing pathways to support educational and occupational progression that reflect the different relationships between qualifications and the labour market. Qualifications whose main role is preparing graduates for further study should emphasise educational development, while qualifications with a primary role of preparing graduates for an occupation should concentrate on broad occupational outcomes. The main new work for educators and researchers is to explicate and operationalise the concept of productive capabilities, and explore in greater depth the relationships between qualifications and the labour market. Some descriptions of the capabilities approach read like holistic statements of worker attributes, in contrast to the atomised statements of job tasks of competency-based training. But productive capabilities are not merely alternatives to competencies: they are a different way of conceptualising the relations between the worker and work. This report has suggested some principles, but these need to be elaborated and stated in terms that may be implemented in different types of qualifications.

How feasible is the new approach?

In response to its final broad question, the team found that some of the changes proposed could be adopted readily by individuals, groups and institutions, largely on their own initiative, if they agreed to do so. Other changes would be more difficult because they require the agreement and participation of different groups, while yet other changes would require a substantial reorientation of tertiary education policy, financing or qualifications and thus would require extensive development and discussion. This report seeks to launch such a discussion.