Australia's innovation capacity is, in part, reliant on its teaching workforce - to teach and promote new technologies to industry. This pilot study examines how vocational education and training (VET) teachers, in particular TAFE teachers, maintain the currency of their skills and knowledge base. It also explores their role in the development and diffusion of innovative practices and new technologies in the manufacturing sector. Despite the lack of recognition of TAFE teachers in national innovation policies and programs, they do provide a technology diffusion function. However, there are impediments to maintaining the currency of teacher skills and equipment, including inadequate capital expenditure on equipment, an aging teaching workforce and reduced access to professional development and return-to-industry programs.
Australia's competitive success with innovation-based products and services is an influential factor to its long-term prosperity. This study examines the role of vocational education and training (VET) and occupations in innovative industries and firms. The authors find VET is vital to developing knowledge and practical skills across a broad range of occupations, and people in vocational occupations are among principal sources of ideas for technological innovation. Further, innovative firms reported a high level of satisfaction with public and private training, which the authors conclude is due to the high level of consultation between firms and TAFE. However, firms identified the need for employees to develop generic skills, such as working in teams and developing problem-solving and communication skills, as an opportunity for the VET sector to meet unmet demand.