The quest for a working blueprint: Vocational education and training in Australian secondary schools

Introduction

This report is a response to an ambitious project commissioned by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) to describe the recent growth and practice of vocational education and training (VET) in Australian secondary schools. The brief included directions to consider, among other things:

• resourcing practices at schools and central agencies
• organisational options for delivery including cross sectoral and partnership arrangements
• program delivery arrangements
• curriculum, assessment and qualifications
• access and equity regarding youth participation
• linkages between schools, student employment and further education outcomes
• measures of satisfaction
• gaps, omissions or areas of improvement identified by the various stakeholders
• overseas developments, particularly in the USA and the UK

The report has been organised into two parts. The first part establishes the context and background for the report, provides an overview of the research project and its outcomes and recommendations, and a literature review. Part 2 of the report, which can be found on the web, elaborates on the major findings and issues presented in part 1 of the report. The material presented in this second part provides the underpinning detail and research upon which the findings and recommendations of part 1 are based.

Part 1 - Overview and findings

Framework for integration

A conceptual framework for school-based vocational education is introduced in the overview chapter based on a US-developed model (Benson 1992). This framework leads to the consideration that vocational education has a range of purposes wider than that of merely equipping young people with skills demanded by industry and post-school vocational institutions. This complexity of purpose for school-based vocational education is reflected in international experiences and is condensed into four broad goals. These are:

• to stand as an alternative to the traditional restricted entry programs of university preparation
• to provide an integrated form of instruction so that more students, through applied learning acquire more academic knowledge and thus meet the requirements for university entrance by alternative means and at the same time gain skills to directly enter the workforce
• to provide more people with the opportunity to attain well paid and satisfying work
• to relieve the economy of the 'enormous cost of students milling around in secondary school, community college, and low skill, temporary jobs'

The conceptual model then argues that, in order to achieve these objectives, three structural reforms are required. These are:

• the integration of vocational and academic studies
• the integration of secondary and post-secondary education
• the integration of education and work

In Australia the application of such a framework can only be understood by identifying the four major stakeholder groups that have traditionally influenced the provision of vocational education and training in secondary schools. These are:

• federal governments and their agencies and advisory structures (Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs [DETYA], Australian National Training Authority [ANTA], Australian Student Traineeship Foundation [ASTF])
• State and Territory governments and their agencies (departments of education, training, employment and youth affairs variously configured, and curriculum and certification agencies)
• individual schools which include student and parent interests
• clusters of community interest bringing together employers, unions, service agencies such as Rotary, local government, other training providers and third-party enabling agencies such as area consultative committees and regional employment and youth agencies

The continual interplay between these stakeholders within a federalist framework has ensured that, in Australia, the development of vocational education has not been even and has been contested, even when national goals have been apparently agreed. Much of the struggle has occurred because dominant policy goals have often been developed and imposed by hierarchical systems of the federal government and State governments without proper consideration and knowledge of practice at school or communities.

Major features determining vocational provision in schools

Global themes

In the 1990s in Australia, as in other countries, vocational education became increasingly used by governments as an economic and social policy tool to ensure skilled workforces; it was also used to keep young people attached to education for a longer duration.

The inclusion of VET into secondary schools for 15-19 year olds meant changes in curricula, organisational structures and partnerships. In many countries provision of vocational education occurred through partnerships with other educational institutions, community groups and employers and through the provision of simulated work environments in schools. Alongside these changes has been a move to locate some responsibility for vocational education provision away from central agency control.

Australian themes

Three factors impact on the provision of VET in schools in Australia:

• a British heritage with an industrial training system based on social and industrial values and structures different from those in other western countries
• a federalist model that placed responsibility for education with the States
• a national view that Australian labour and capital needs to be competitive within an increasing global economy

Because the presence of vocational education within secondary schools since Federation predates the 1976 birth of the national post-school system of VET, many of the values enshrined within each system differ markedly, a situation which was to impact significantly upon the 1990s developments in vocational education and training in secondary schools.

The three phases in the growth in VET in Australian secondary schools since the 1990s are described to demonstrate that, by the end of the 1990s, the growing number of enrolments and participating schools was taken to be a measure of success and indication of the need for this type of program. However, the unevenness in growth and distribution were masked by the overall increases.

Furthermore, the policy and funding processes used to generate growth deflected critical review away from prevailing structures and goals. Now that VET in Australian secondary schools has achieved significant mass, it is timely-particularly since Commonwealth-sourced seed funds are drawing to a close-that the concept of vocational education and training in schools and its implementation are critically reviewed and assessed. Crucial to this process is an evaluation of the differing expectations of the various stakeholders in school-based vocational education and training.

Also important in this process is an examination of the future directions of the VET-in-Schools model, particularly adjustments to accommodate entry-level training as provided by secondary schools. A debate about the appropriate specification of the National Training Framework (NTF) as it applies to entry-level training for school students is necessary to recognise the long-standing activities and skills of school-based delivery in this area.

Vocational education and training in Australian secondary schools today

Strengths

• a recognised national agenda establishing vocational education in senior secondary schools in Australia and linked to national qualification and skill frameworks
• a national commitment to school-based education evidenced by a rising level of student, school and employer participation, bilateral policy agreements between governments, including joint State/Commonwealth policy and guideline development, and allocation of specific-purpose funding to schools and school agencies
• significant organisational changes including the establishment of a VET in Schools taskforce by the Ministerial Council on Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) and ASTF (since 2001 known as Enterprise and Career Education Foundation [ECEF])
• new delivery arrangements in schools; for example, widespread implementation of structured workplace learning, combination of part-time work with part-time school attendance, a variety of co-operative models to maximise locational opportunities or community or industry involvements.

Weaknesses

• multiple objectives, the most obvious being the spread of objectives and expectations imposed on the vocational education platform and the control of the forward agenda by separated central agencies. Much of this complexity can be attributed to traditional separations between the Commonwealth Government and the State and Territory governments-education, training, employment and youth agencies-and between schools, TAFE institutes and other providers of VET
• problematic application of quality and benchmark concepts whereby evidence on links between changes to inputs, processes and structures of various forms of VET are not provided. Many benchmark indicators set conditions without demonstrating how they affect quality or quantity of student outcomes
• limited entry-level vocational concepts and qualifications, whereby most secondary schools have had to adopt the post-secondary school competency model of vocationalism and embed it within a general education framework
• participation and retention issues, whereby the reported growth in VET-in-Schools enrolments (from 1996 with 60 000 to 1999 with approximately 130 000) disguises issues requiring further investigation, issues such as lack of change in Year 1012 retention rates and age-specific participation rates
• ongoing funding and resourcing responsibilities for VET in schools, which, since 1993, have remained unresolved, with issues such as the additional costs of structured workplace learning, the purchase of instructional hours from publicly funded TAFE institutes at market rates and the cost of training school teaching staff to meet NTF requirements for teaching and assessment being crucial to the resourcing debate
• lack of flexibility by central policy authorities, whereby change and innovation from the field are rejected because they don't comply with current guidelines or practice
• lack of appropriate performance measures, whereby prevailing school performance measures tend not to identify as a successful outcome, the placement of a student into a full-time job before completing Year 12
• employer participation, which is relatively low and varies between regions and schools
• maintenance of supply of vocational teachers, whereby concerns have been evinced about program continuity when experienced vocational teachers in schools retire

Towards a blueprint for integration

General observations

The success of the model of the new vocationalism cannot be achieved unless structural reforms are implemented to integrate the traditional organisation of secondary education, with post-school education and training, vocational education and academic education, and education and work.

From the recent Australian experience with school-based vocational education it would appear that the principles of integration have been adopted. However, that this is a difficult and complex process that progresses unevenly over time has been amply demonstrated.

The concept of integration has been adopted as a major policy platform by many countries and while varying in detail, many countries now pursue integration through:

• academic and vocational education, often through the introduction of key or basic competencies concepts to the system
• upper secondary school and post-school education and training through the development of multiple pathways and locations for the delivery of, and certification of vocational and academic learning outcomes
• education and work through a variety of mechanisms including joint industry advisory structures involving employers, trade unions and governments, establishment of regional and employment and training groups to provide advice on local market needs, the promotion of workplace learning as part of the social contract of employers to schools and colleges within their community, the provision of simulated workspaces and workshops to schools and colleges and the transfer of some elements of internal labour market training to a shared domain between publicly funded education and training institutions and enterprises

Australian integration

Australia has progressed down the path of integration using many of the above mechanisms. Other aspects of integration in Australia are exemplified by the following:

• connecting vocational models: an expanded model of general education incorporating significant elements of vocational learning into an overall school framework has been agreed through ministers of education and, while the post-school sector has provided national qualifications and training frameworks now used by vocational programs in schools, significant conceptual and practical differences need to be resolved before integration can be claimed
• pathways: the establishment of the pathways concept in Australian secondary education is important in that it now includes the provision by schools of vocational courses and certificates once the exclusive domain of the post-school sector
• education and work: the integration of education and work has occurred at two levels. One is associated with the development of industry-based curricula and standards through the NTF and the other has occurred largely through the funding initiatives of the ASTF whereby schoolindustry programs were established
• policy development: a consistent pattern of policy development has emerged since the late 1980s promoting integration between the world of work and education. Policy initiatives since this period have sought to reform existing systems in that they seek to integrate into the schools environment new activities connecting them with the workplace and post-school vocational education institutions through shared delivery of national vocational qualifications

VET in Australian secondary schools-recommendations for the future

The challenge now facing vocational education provision in secondary schools is how to build upon the advances already achieved without extending the unevenness in provision already evident. The following are identified as being essential to this process.

• There is a need to clarify and prioritise the objectives and expectations for vocational education overall and for each level of activity. The growing set of economic, social and education objectives associated with the provision of vocational education are not coherently connected or prioritised.
• Accompanying this strategic specification of vocational education should be the development of appropriate outcome measures that reflect the move towards integrated provision of youth education, training and employment services. Unless a realistic strategic implementation and outcomes framework is established with clear role and responsibility statements for the various stakeholders, then a range of institutionally led outcomes could be pursued at the expense of youth needs.
• To maintain a national framework approach and to co-ordinate a review of objectives there is a need for the Commonwealth Government to commit itself to providing long-term support for vocational education provision. This commitment would include a leadership role in policy development, the commissioning of research and evaluation, and an ongoing responsibility for the development and maintenance of new structural reforms or those additional to traditional State and Territory activities.
• States and Territories should continually examine the basis of curriculum and accreditation for schools as they have done in the past, and constantly adjust the structural provisions to best meet their needs. States and Territories should maintain review processes. There is a need within these review functions to pay attention to the ongoing evaluation of the structures and procedures used by practitioners as well as to aggregated studies on the distribution of vocational enrolments and program provision.
• There is a need to rationalise and adequately fund the resource requirements of the various forms of vocational provision offered through schools. Some basic vocational provisions can be funded from already existing school-based resources. Other vocational outcomes that require access to equipment, work processes and expertise, and are also tied to other objectives such as the establishment of community learning and employment networks, will require additional funding. A guideline for resourcing these new activities might be that agencies or governments with long-standing responsibilities in either education, training or employment should continue to resource those responsibilities in an integrated structure. This might lead to additional funds from new sources and redirected funds from existing agencies with interests in youth outcomes.
• A national entry-level vocational qualification needs to be developed in conjunction with the States, employers and trade unions that will have the status of a school leaving certificate and provide holders with a set of generic competencies acceptable to employers: this should be developed as an alternative to the end-of-school certificates offered by each of the States and Territories and be broadly based to provide pathways for entry into a range of specific vocational qualifications. It should also cover all of the basic or key competencies to designated levels and be designed so that schools, TAFE institutes or other institutions can deliver it without incurring many of the costs presently associated with delivering occupationally specific outcomes of training packages
• A co-ordinated and sustained program to increase employer participation in the various forms of vocational education is required. This participation could range from creating structured workplace learning positions within an enterprise, becoming a member of a management committee for either a school or regional/industry vocational program, or contacting vocational networks as a first step in any recruitment processes for young people.

In progressing each of these priority areas, mechanisms should be developed that are inclusive of each level of significant stakeholder. Having already established a working framework for vocational education, the next period of change will require adjustments to those frameworks and the development of different organisational forms not yet widely experienced in Australia. There are already two signs of this occurring. The first is the clustering of schools on a co-operative basis, when in the past they acted as autonomous and sometimes competitive units, and for government schools, within a hierarchy of centralised funding, curriculum and certification. The other is the formation of regional co-ordinated learning and employment networks. For this third period of development the focus should be on new and flexible administrative forms based on co-operative funding and delivery, guided by measures of need, and evaluated on measures of youth and employer outcomes.

Part 2 - VET in Australian secondary schools

Part 2 of this report elaborates on the major themes and issues identified in part 1, beginning with a broad historical review of the purposes and origin of vocational education, considering in detail its development in the United Kingdom because of its influence on the formation of Australian values and institutions, and in the United States because it is a federated nation with a strong state structure that has maintained an ongoing commitment by central federal governments to providing policy leadership and resourcing for school-based vocational education since 1917.

The following chapter examines in detail recent policy and program influences at State, Territory and federal levels of government on the provision of vocational education and training in schools. In this chapter the long history of secondary school engagement in vocational education provision and its later disengagement from the general education model adopted by most secondary school systems is identified. The post-1992 resurgence of vocational education in secondary schools is associated initially with labour market concerns about young people with work-related skills, the emergence of a national change agency promoting schoolindustry partnerships and the creation of a national post-school training authority. This sets the scene for the subsequent accommodation of two overlapping forms of vocational education and training within secondary schools and identifies the policy entities that emerge to represent the various stakeholder interests in school-based vocational education and training.

The available statistical and research data on vocational education in schools are presented in the next chapter. The VET-in-Schools initiative is traced from its early origins in 1996 through to 1999 with student growth trends being identified by State and Territory, fields of study, school sector type, gender and age. Questions are raised about the declining rates of growth and the access of lower socioeconomic groups to vocational programs. The impact of VET programs on age participation rates and apparent retention rates is examined.

The implementation of vocational programs is subsequently considered through an examination of specific policy initiatives and their models of delivery at the school and cluster level. The concept of best practice in a continuing formative period is questioned as the wide variation and rapid development of vocational programs at the school level presents a problematic benchmarking scene. Examples of apparently successful programs are presented but questions are raised as to whether the conditions producing them can be replicated.

The final chapter progresses the consideration of models of implementation by examining cost and resource issues associated with VET programs. Issues of curriculum choice and subject substitution by schools are identified as having some influence on the cost of provision, as are issues of scale in relation to student enrolments and numbers of vocational subjects offered. The most significant contribution to the cost of delivery of a vocational program occurs when the program is designed to include structured workplace learning and the purchase of instruction from TAFE institutes. This type of vocational program raises questions about the appropriateness of prevailing funding models to government secondary schools.