Building capability in vocational education and training providers: The TAFE cut

By Hugh Guthrie, Berwyn Clayton Research report 11 February 2010 ISBN 978 1 921413 74 2 print; 978 1 921413 73 5 web

Description

This paper focuses on issues which affect the capability of TAFE providers to meet their clients' and stakeholders' needs and draws extensively on the reports of the consortium research program which examined ways to help build vocational education and training (VET) provider and workforce capability. The paper puts this research, most of which was completed in 2006 and 2007, into a contemporary framework. It suggests that TAFE providers need to be free of unnecessary central constraints to help them meet their strategic business needs. This includes more direct control of human resources matters and industrial relations.

Summary

About the research

This paper focuses on issues which affect the capability of technical and further education (TAFE) providers. It draws extensively on the reports of seven research activities conducted during a two-and-a-half-year program of research. The program examined a diverse range of issues: career pathways for VET provider staff, teaching and learning, organisational cultures and structures, learning through work, human resource development, leadership and workforce development. Publications from this research program can be found at < http://www.ncver.edu.au/research/projects/10345.html>.

Key messages

  • There is a gap between the ‘rhetoric’ of policy and the ‘reality’ of the operational constraints within which TAFE providers operate. TAFE providers need to be free of unnecessary central constraints to manage their human resources in ways which best meet their strategic business needs. This includes having more direct control of industrial relations.
  • The professional nature of the work TAFE practitioners do is not sufficiently well understood or appreciated. More attention and resources need to be devoted to work design and workforce development.

Tom Karmel
Managing Director, NCVER

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