A TAFE Perspective on the New Improved Tertiary Education

1
A TAFE Perspective on the New Improved Tertiary
Education

• Comparing apples with apples?
• Ray Griffiths
• CEO
• Kangan Batman TAFE

2
The Revolution

• Global Drivers
• International competition
• Knowledge explosion
• Technological change
• Global movement of capital, trade and skills
• Global warming
• GFC (at least for now)

3
The Revolution

• Australian drivers
• Low productivity growth
• Demographics
• OECD comparative educational outcomes
• Countercyclical skills investment/recession
• Industry re-structure (incl. low carbon)
• Need for competitive workforce
• Economic success social cohesion

4
Targets

• Year 12 completions 90
• Degree holders from 32 to 40
• Low SES up 5
• Double VET Diploma qualifications
• Halve number of workers below Cert III
• No upside in future for being an unskilled
  Australian

5
Policy

• Access - near universal participation
• Different but equal missions co-ordination
• Equity
• Capital investment
• Programmatic funding
• Market design
• Uncapped places for entitled learners
• Administrative and governance change

6
Commentary

• Clear a path for life long learning
• Training system flawed if half of the national
  training spend is in non-AQF enterprise
  discretionary spending?

7
Commentary

• Supply side reform - what training packages?
• Quality barriers to entry required
• Demystify education and include workplace
  learning and tacit knowledge
• New workplace link to AQF and new work place
  training guarantee needed

8
Methodology

• Non controversial
• More capital
• More places
• Better research funding
• More controversial
• Trade centres in schools sub-optimal process?
• Market design contestability
• Outcomes based funding

9
Methodology

• Single MINCO
• AQF Council
• Skills Australia advice on employer needs
• Tertiary education Quality and Standards Agency
• Transparent data on performance
• Uni performance targets (until 2012)

10
Now to the fruits of reform

• VET - apples, oranges and lemons?
• Common language, administration and advisory
  system complicated
• National co-ordination v states rights
• Commonwealth control wild card
• VET complex and as yet inadequately defined
• Not all part of new tertiary sector?
• Private provision

11
Mandarin(e)s?

• Mixed messages from VCs
• Some fanciful and flamboyant notions
• Regional university
• Mega-networks
• Economies/diseconomies of scale in education
• University response to role of VET underdeveloped

12
The 2020 University?

• Micro-economic reform to meet customer/client
  needs who is the customer?
• Articulation a national shambles role for
  government to facilitate change by pulling levers
• Bradleys diversity differentiation even more
  preciousness about degrees more difficulty in
  formal national system?

13
Seamless, integrated?

• Matter to be resolved in favour of the learner
• Elitism, mutual disrespect and misunderstanding
  to be addressed
• Universities must change failure to plan, act
  measure and report progress to seamlessness
  will be a snub to Rudd government policy

14
2020 TAFE

• Large comprehensive TAFE and Dual sectors model
  for times?
• Need for governance autonomy for TAFE competitive
  neutrality
• Systems like VET fee Help need reform to support
  not impair contemporary delivery
• Value chain from technical secondary to degree
  and beyond to workplace

15
2020 TAFE

• New model of engagement including full time
  path to trades
• Convergence to professional services
  consultancy
• No safety net for lemmings
• Education workers need new post-industrial age
  models to define work and value

16
Conclusion

• We are working for the future generations of
  learners and public TAFE workers relevance
• More to be done around the workplace training
  packages and the AQF
• When it comes to the life-long learning journey
  of Australians institutions are either all in
  or all out
• It is not just a matter of degrees, and we are
  not comparing apples with apples