Meeting the demand: The needs of VET clients

The provision of vocational education and training (VET) is currently being focused upon demand-side needs in order to enhance relevance, quality and efficiency. Until recently, the demand-side was seen to comprise 'industry', the bi-partite spokespersons for enterprises and workers. Now enterprises have become the focus of demand-side needs. However, individual and regional interests also comprise the demand-side and have legitimate needs and interests.

Reconciling the needs of industry, enterprises, regions and individuals as key client groups is unlikely to be easy but it is essential since they all have legitimate needs and claims in demand-side reform. The research found some areas of commonality among all clients, areas of commonality between two groups and areas of difference.

Proposed here is a model for determining the need for and the implementation of VET that seeks to reconcile differences and achieve mutuality of interests. The model proposes a means for VET provision that is centred upon the concept of occupations and are de-centralised in terms of regional planning and the negotiation, determination and refinement of curriculum goals and content. In doing so, it seeks to secure elements of national uniformity at the occupational level while permitting important local provision of VET decision-making.

The findings point to broader roles for vocational educators and issues about the balance between competition and collaboration. In addition, strong evidence of the utility of TAFE provisions is advanced.

Key findings

Shift to an enterprise focus

A shift to an enterprise focus may be responsive to the needs of enterprises, particularly large enterprises, but has the potential to result in highly localised skill development rather than achievement of longer-term industry and individual goals.

In more detail, it was found that a shift to a focus on enterprise needs had happened or was occurring. This was more evident in the food processing sector than in the clerical sector.

Enterprises wanted this shift to:

• go further
• involve more negotiation with providers
• be enterprise driven
• retain national certification

Industry representatives were concerned about the:

• erosion of portable qualifications and industry goals
• specificity of course content and goals
• danger of fragmented curriculum
• potential for securing long-term goals of skilfulness

There is no evidence that simply placing an emphasis on enterprises will enhance the amount of and quality of VET provisions.

The evidence provided here suggests that an enterprise-focused approach may result in:

• low levels of course completion
• enterprise-specific curricula
• some individuals' career aspirations being frustrated
• few strategic concerns associated with a skilled workforce being met

Facilitation and support, as much as market-based provisions are likely to be required to assist enterprises with participation in VET and to establish a capacity to develop the skilfulness of workers in their workplaces.

Regional needs and planning

Meeting the uniqueness of regional needs will be best realised through regional planning.

In more detail, regional factors that have consequences for VET were identified, highlighting the uniqueness of each region's needs. These factors included:

• type of industries
• employment opportunities
• educational provisions
• demographic factors
• goals/needs and structures/identity

Each of these variables has particular consequences for vocational education.

The co-ordination of VET provisions was commonly seen by demand-side interests as a means to plan for and reconcile the needs of clients at the regional level.

Diverse values and goals for vocational education

The goals and values of the four client groups comprising the 'demand-side' of VET — industry, enterprises, regions and individuals — are diverse and will need to be reconciled in fulfilling the claims for VET to be addressing a demand-focused VET system.

In response to views about community service obligations (CSO), the balance between these and the market, and lifelong learning, it was evident that a diversity of values existed across the client groups. Assumptions about VET as a CSO were challenged, as was the belief about lifelong learning being associated with an individual's personal development. Instead, many responses referred to associations between CSOs and economic development and between lifelong learning and individuals' need to maintain their skill currency. Across the four client groups, diverse and sometimes contradictory values were evident. Moreover, some values suggested that assumptions about the rationale for vocational education might have changed in the need to meet economic imperatives.

Enterprise negotiation with VET providers

Enterprises wanted direct negotiation with VET providers. However, these negotiations would be largely founded on enterprise specific goals and not on establishing collaborative or strategic relationships with providers.

Most enterprises proposed direct negotiations with providers as being the best way to address their short-term and long-term VET needs. The purpose of these negotiations would be for providers to develop an intimate knowledge of enterprise needs in order to customise curriculum. There was little recognition from enterprises of the value of reciprocal arrangements that seek to understand constraints on providers. Despite calls for flexibility, enterprise needs of VET processes and outcomes were quite rigid; with calls to suit specific enterprise needs.

Additional enterprise expenditure on training

Additional expenditure by enterprises is most likely to be premised on organisational and legislative changes and evidence of a return on investment.

Changes to products or services were not frequently given as reasons for enhancing expenditure on training and up-skilling was held to be only required for wholesale change. Most enterprises reported little strategic planning in the development of their workforce. Those most likely to report strategic planning were in developmental phases of some kind.

Identifying client groups' needs

Client groups' needs exhibited both areas of commonality and difference.

Commonality across all groups was associated with:

• flexibility, relevance and currency of courses
• competence of teachers
• need for nationally accredited courses

Commonality between/among groups comprised:

• the need for appropriate infrastructure (industry and individuals)
• meeting individuals' needs (enterprises, regions and individuals)
• wider enterprise participation in VET and in particular by small business (industry and regions)
• improving business outcomes (enterprises and regions)
• realising individuals' employment and career goals (regions and individuals)

Differences included:

• Enterprises wanted outcomes tightly aligned to their activities and goals.
• Individuals wanted outcomes associated with employment, but not so specific as to inhibit career advancement or access to higher levels of education.
• Industry wanted outcomes associated with adherence to national core curriculum documentation and improvements in the amount of and quality of VET provisions.
• Regions wanted outcomes associated with the development of enterprises and individuals

Towards a model reconciling client groups' needs

A model reconciling the needs of the client groups is advanced which comprises decision-making that is both centred and de-centred. A key change is to conceptualise national focus within VET provisions upon 'occupations' rather than 'industry' (see section 4).

It is proposed that the basis for national coherence of vocational education provisions should change from a focus on 'industry' to one on occupations. Four reasons for considering this option are:

• separating curriculum practices from adversarial industrial relations
• environments providing coherence through vocations which reflect skilfulness (vocational knowledge), individuals' aspirations (career pathways within a vocation) and enterprises (access to relevant vocations)
• enhancing opportunities for collaborative and voluntary arrangements and associations premised on vocational activities
• providing flexibility for employment through vocational recognition

The change advanced here is to shift vocational education from an industrial to a professional focus of concern.

What follows outlines the four sets of client group interests as levels of input into curriculum deliberations.

Occupational level

From the above, it is proposed that occupations be used as an organising principle to reconcile VET clients' needs through the contributions of:

• an occupational basis for organising vocational education curricula stranding, negotiated at national and regional levels
• identification of broad educational intent (goals and aims)
• identification of recommended content
• identifying career pathways for and options within vocational education

Enterprise level

Enterprises want VET programs, which specifically meet their needs through:

• provision of vocationally-based courses, customised to approximate vocational activities within enterprises
• the negotiation/refinement of both content and outcomes
• support and facilitation to participate in VET and/or develop a capacity to provide quality 'in-house VET programs'

Regional level

Each region has different VET needs as well as furnishing contributions to curriculum planning and development. For regions, needs include:

• local planning
• local facilitation of courses to address the needs of local enterprises, groups of enterprises, and local VET providers
• tailoring of provisions to enterprise needs
• negotiation of content and refinement of outcomes

Individual level

Most individuals reported engaging in vocational education for employment-related reasons. However, these were usually more than just gaining employment. Often, they identified clear strategic goals for their participation in vocational education. From the findings, these individuals want:

• access to courses which retain national certification
• career pathways identified
• provisions which address local enterprise needs
• accessible and supportive teachers who address individual students' needs
• information about courses

The curriculum development process which aims to address and reconcile these needs comprises, at the national level, the identification of broad statements of intent (aims and goals) and recommended content. The statements of intent are refined further in the form of objectives at the local level where the suitability of content is also negotiated, as are considerations about how best this content can be taught and learnt. At this level, compensatory measures in either the educational institution or the workplace can be implemented to enrich experiences that would otherwise be inadequate. Equally, at this level the knowledge that is required but is difficult to learn can be identified and appropriate strategies can be adopted for learners to secure this knowledge.

Broader role for vocational educators

All client groups in addressing their needs advocated a broader set of roles for vocational educators.

These roles are:

• developer/consultant
• curriculum developer
• instructor
• advocate and supporter of learners
• policy developer

Vocational educators are required to play a wider, more diverse and complex role in meeting and reconciling the needs of the four client groups. This role should place teachers at the forefront of curriculum decision-making and leadership and will present novel challenges about the nature of professional practice. The preparedness of vocational educators is fundamental to the quality of vocational education provisions.

Competition or collaboration

It seems the market-based approach may address the needs of large enterprises and metropolitan communities, but little else. This seems particularly the case when 'thin markets' are in place, yet even rich markets may be uninterested in the needs of small enterprises. Regional initiatives that emphasise mutuality of needs between clusters of small enterprises engaged in the same vocational practice is and may further be a basis for meeting the needs of small and remote enterprises in a market-based system.

TAFE as the key provider

An unintended finding of this investigation was evidence from all four client groups praising the quality of TAFE provisions. The findings suggest that rather than seeking to place more pressure on TAFE provisions they should play an enhanced and more valued role in vocational education. TAFE seemed central to the maintenance and development of VET in non-metropolitan regions in particular.