Description
This project focuses on the interpersonal networking processes, or non-market mechanisms, through which training needs are signalled to VET providers in a rural region. A detailed single case-study approach shows that VET users also consider interpersonal relationships, based on trust, when selecting programs for participation.
Summary
About the research
The industry-led nature of the Australian vocational education and training (VET) system requires it to be responsive to employers’ immediate and emerging skill needs. To be attuned to these needs, VET providers must be able to communicate effectively with industry and their communities and to gather market intelligence from available statistics. They must also be able to tap into sources of local knowledge.
This report examines the ways in which VET providers gather intelligence about training needs in their regions. The study examines the methods of communication between VET providers, industry and communities. Formal communication methods include client partnerships and advice from industries bodies, while informal methods include friendships and networks between employers, communities and VET providers.
Using an in-depth case study of the Riverina Region, the research shows that, while formal methods of communicating training needs are important, local networks can be just as useful.
Key messages
- Regular consultation between VET providers and both large and small enterprises is likely to improve information transfer between them.
- VET providers make limited use of available statistics on local training demand. Making better use of these data could help providers to build profiles of program demand.
- Formal partnerships with relevant organisations, such as chambers of commerce and regional development boards, can provide effective forums for discussing course demand and supply issues.
- Informal relationships between VET providers play an important role in the creation and supply of VET programs.
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Executive summary
Project purpose
An essential part of a vocational education and training (VET) provider’s business is assessing the demand for training in their particular area. For regional VET providers, accurately matching training demand with program supply requires engaging with the local communities. There are a variety of formal and informal ways in which VET providers can engage with their local communities to determine training needs.
This project examines the mechanisms used by training providers in the Riverina Region of southern New South Wales to assess the demand for training in their area. The research particularly focuses on the informal mechanisms, such as friendships and networks, that help training providers understand local training demand.
Methodology
This research uses an in-depth case study approach. Because of the researchers’ detailed knowledge of the area and their formal and informal membership of regional vocational and community networks, the Riverina Region was selected for study. In addition, the region’s diverse offering of agricultural produce, its array of educational institutions and government services, and small, medium and large enterprises make it a rich and rewarding research site.
As the operation of non-market or informal mechanisms and reaction to need and demand issues in this region appear ‘typical’, they are potentially applicable to similar interactions in other contexts, particularly rural areas.
The researchers undertook a range of focus groups and semi-structured individual and group interviews with VET providers, employers, community groups and VET clients. These were supplemented by examining descriptive demographic, industry and training participation statistics.
The researchers’ findings are summarised below. They are grouped according to the five key questions that guided the research.
Findings
How is information about training needs (demand) transmitted to VET providers in rural and regional environments?
Formal VET provider and client partnerships and the communication networks established within them are effective processes for raising course demand and supply issues. Institutional membership of regional and local organisations, such as chambers of commerce and regional development boards, also provides forums for the informal and formal sharing of VET program demand and supply issues and challenges.
VET providers use training requests from small, medium and large employers to inform current and anticipated course development. Individual inquiries from potential students also signal course demand to providers and the aggregated data from these enquiries are used to develop program responses.
Program supply choices can also be informed by informal interpersonal communication based on long-standing and trustworthy professional relationships between particular education and enterprise staff members.
The researchers note that training decisions by providers are often based on traditional course supply and considerations about existing staff and equipment, rather than on researched need or responses to demand. VET providers are shown to make limited use of regional statistical data, and making better use of these data could help providers to build profiles of program demand and supply.
What is the role of regional and community groups in transmitting training needs to VET providers and in transmitting information about VET supply back to their communities?
Regional and community groups, such as city or town council business advisory committees and chambers of commerce, play an important role in advising training providers about new industries moving into the region and their potential demand for training programs.
These groups also provide existing industries, and new industries moving into the region, with training contacts and details of local training programs.
How accurate is the information about training need and how effective is the communication process?
The researchers consider local and regional advisory groups to be well connected and well placed to receive and communicate accurate and appropriate information about training needs to VET providers. However, due to the mix of formal and informal mechanisms in place, the researchers note that some data communicated from regional and community groups remain anecdotal.
The research suggests that further formal opportunities for interorganisational cooperation would lead to more detailed and accurate exchange of information about training needs.
How well are different sectors of the VET system integrated into their communities?
The sound integration of private and public VET providers into their local communities is demonstrated through institutional partnerships, individual membership of community groups, effective marketing strategies and other strategies such as open days and trade days.
What are the concrete arrangements that would improve information transfer between VET clients and the VET system in regional communities?
Information transfer between VET clients and the VET system could be improved by regular consultation between VET providers and large and small enterprises. Consultations between these groups could take the form of ‘industry’, ‘employer’ or ‘trade’ days or enterprise site visits that encourage provider and client interaction.
Information transfer could also be improved by VET providers, in consultation with local, state and federal government departments, by bringing together and distributing to local VET users, the best available statistics on local training demand. This distribution could take the form of regular seminars, purpose-built websites or local newsletters.
The establishment of VET provider reference groups that assess the local relevance of courses may also assist in information transfer. These reference groups could consist of large and small employers, employer groups, Indigenous groups, VET students and local government.