Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Workplace Relations

Inquiry into the Role of Institutes of TAFE
Submissions

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Submission 83

Tea Tree Gully Campus
100 Smart Road
Modbury 5092
South Australia

28 November 1997

Ph (08) 8207 8000

Fax (08) 8207 8008

TORRENS VALLEY INSTITUTE OF TAFE COUNCIL

SUBMISSION

To the House of Representatives Standing Committee

on Employment, Education and Training

November 1997

ISSUE A THE APPROPRIATE ROLES OF INSTITUTES OF TECHNICAL AND FURTHER EDUCATION

The Torrens Valley Institute welcomes the opportunity to respond to the House of Representative Standing Committee Inquiry into the "Appropriate Roles of Institutes of Technical and Further Education".

Given the speed and magnitude of change in the workplace and in society the institute inquiry team is keen to discuss the role of institutes not in terms of what that role is today but what it should be within the next 5 to 1 0 years.

In doing so it draws heavily on an in-house report prepared by the director of the Torrens Valley Institute in December 1995 entitled, "A Vision of the Preferred Future for TAFE SA". This report which continues to be a strong guiding force has contributed significantly to the Institute gaining a national and international reputation for being a progressive and innovative provider of vocational education and training (VET).

The submission will consider the role of Institutes of TAFE under three headings viz:

• As catalysts for economic and social development
• To give direction to the information and telecommunication revolution
• To be the major public providers of VET.

Where appropriate the submission will provide examples from the experience of the Torrens Valley Institute. This is not to suggest that similar examples are not to be found in other Institutes.

ROLE 1 AS CATALYSTS FOR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Emerging Industries Institutes will continue to provide for the skilled workforce of traditional industries. However, increasingly institutes will need to direct their efforts to developing the knowledge and skills base required by people who will work in, and will relate to, the emerging industries around which the nation will build its future.

These emerging industries include Information and Telecommunication, Advanced Engineering and Electronics, Waste Management, Aquaculture, Viticulture and a wide range of service industries (eg health, education, hospitality, training).

Generic Skills Institutes will continue to produce graduates possessing immediately employable, enterprise-specific knowledge and skills. However, in addition and as importantly, they will need to provide those same graduates with a range of generic skills and attributes which are in line with what the Americans call, "essential work skills" and the Mayer Report refers to as, "the key competencies".

On-the-job training To date the education and training provided by institutes has been largely campus based. The changed nature of business and industry will require a significant shift to on-the-job training. Institutes will play an important role in facilitating that shift by assisting individual enterprises in developing the necessary courseware, by training their trainers and by helping to monitor standards.

Employment Outcomes Until recently institutes have considered their role to be completed at the time of presenting their graduates with a parchment. However, in the future, the success of institutes will increasingly be measured by the number of their graduates who gain and maintain meaningful employment. As a result institutes may choose to follow the highly successful employment placement model piloted by Torrens Valley. Students at Torrens Valley are encouraged to register with the in house Employment Service which assists them in preparing their curriculum vitaes, provides them with interviewing skills and matches them to the requirements of the employment needs of some 3,600 participating enterprises. The Institute's Employment Service has placed over 1,000 students in 1997 alone.

An important feature of the Employment Placement Scheme is the provision of feedback from the employers about the skill levels of the graduates to the relevant faculties. The faculties are then able to adjust the content of their courses and/or their methodologies. This feedback provides the perfect mechanism for bringing about continuous improvement of the Institute's product (graduates) and as such completes the quality enhancement loop.

Flexible Delivery In spite of the rhetoric most vocational education and training is still offered in classrooms by specialist lecturers, using a teacher-centred lock-step approach. Institutes, as change agents, have a key role to play in making learner-centred, flexible delivery the norm. Such a change will result in students having a greater choice about what they learn, how they learn, when they learn and where they learn. For example, flexible delivery, with its associated learning guides, will enable learning to occur in places other than the classroom (i.e. at home, on-the-job and in learning centres). It will also enable learning to be managed by facilitators rather than subject specialists.

Management Skills We are told that one of the chief impediments to economic development is the shortage of appropriately qualified managers. Institutes of TAFE have a pivotal role to play in providing education programs aimed at addressing this shortage. Institutes themselves will be led by a new breed of executives/managers who will have benefited from the sort of leadership development programs being advocated in the Karpin Report.

International Education To date institutes have had a relatively limited involvement in the international education and training arena. However, over the past five years TAFE products have become increasingly known and valued in South East Asia and Pacific Rim Countries. TAFE SA Institutes have formed an international education consortium through which they are making a major contribution to the establishment of economic, technological and cultural links between Australia and its Asian neighbours. The experience of the Torrens Valley Institute's Centre for International Education and Training suggests that there are opportunities to significantly increase the two way flow of students and fellowship holders. There is also scope to set up learning centres in Asia which will serve as platforms from which to deliver TAFE programs as well as forming bases for Australian students to learn the language and be immersed in the culture of our major trading partners.

ROLE 2 TO GIVE DIRECTION TO THE INFORMATION AND TELECOMMUNICATION REVOLUTION.

Utilising the communication and information technology Over the next five years the communication and information technology will become sufficiently powerful and user friendly to enable access by an increasing proportion of the population to global information networks (eg Internet and World Wide Web). These global networks will be the vehicles for education programs which are interactive, which utilise a range of media and which are capable of providing graduates with internationally recognised awards.

TAFE Institutes have a key role in providing leadership in the utilisation of this technology by:

• developing interactive, multi media courseware in a number of selected programs to be offered internationally on one or more of the global information networks.
• acting as a broker for "value for money" courses which will be available on the global networks and by providing students with the necessary support services.
• providing their own staff with the necessary knowledge, skills and understanding of this technology so as to enable them to contribute to the development of courseware and to change their roles from being lecturers to becoming facilitators and managers of learning.

Developing a technologically enabled workforce In addition to being a leader in the use of information and telecommunication technology for the development of multi-media courseware and for the delivery of education programs TAFE institutes will play a pivotal role in providing a technologically enabled workforce and a technologically sophisticated society. They will do this by:

• identifying the labour market needs of the newly emerging information and telecommunication industries
• upskilling the existing workforce so as to enable enterprises to take advantage of the new technology
• providing the general public with the knowledge and skills to operate effectively in the new information society.

ROLE 3 TO BE THE MAJOR PUBLIC PROVIDERS OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING. (VET)

Institutes as effective and efficient providers of VET With the advent of the open training market TAFE Institutes have set new benchmarks for being responsive to their chief client groups, namely enterprises and individual students. They have also set new benchmarks in efficiency by providing quality education in a most cost effective manner.

Yet at the same time as they are becoming more effective and efficient Institutes, as public providers, are called upon to perform functions which, while meeting the Government's community service obligations, they would not be undertaking if, like private providers, they were operating on a purely commercial basis. For example, the Torrens Valley Institute's productivity (measured in $'s per credit hour) is adversely affected as a consequence its commitment to catering for the special educational needs of students with physical and intellectual impairment. It so happens that one of the institute's campuses is located adjacent to a mental health centre and adjacent to the Royal Institute for the Blind.

Case for Public provision of VET The case for a strong and vibrant public VET sector operating through Institutes of TAFE is based on the premise that Governments will wish to:

• have a direct influence on shaping the States/Nations economy and society
• be able to meet their community service obligations
• promote diversity and provide a viable alternative to private sector monopolies

Public Sector Reform In their drive to become more efficient and effective Institutes have embraced the principles embodied in the Public Sector Reform Movement. These include moving from being supply to demand driven; adopting quality management systems and pursuing the notion of continuous improvement. Furthermore they have brought their organisational structures into line with contemporary management practices by:

• reducing their levels of management
• introducing self managing teams which operate within negotiated performance agreements
• exposing their non core activities to competition

Collaborative competition Whilst appearing to be a paradox the concept of collaborative competition (which is being increasingly adopted by TAFE institutes in terms of their interface with other public and private providers) promises to benefit both providers and the recipients or clients of their service. Quite simply it means that on matters such as courseware development, marketing, facility use and research and development there need not be extravagant duplication.

ISSUE B   &nbspTHE EXTENT TO WHICH THE ROLE OF INSTITUTES SHOULD OVERLAP
                  WITH UNIVERSITIES

Different but Complementary In responding to this question it is appropriate to acknowledge that universities and institutes play different but complementary roles in providing the nation with a skilled workforce.

The Universities do so by educating and training professionals (eg lawyers, dentists, doctors, scientists) while the Institutes of TAFE by and large provide for the paraprofessional support (eg clerical support for lawyers, dental technicians, laboratory assistants). In addition both sectors have a range of other functions which are less clearly related (eg research at universities and apprenticeship training by institutes).

However, while universities and institutes have different functions there is no reason why the roles should not overlap. It is the view of the Torrens Valley Institute Inquiry Team that boundaries between institutes and universities have been too rigid in the past and that it would be of great benefit to the Nation if there were to be greater integration of curriculum, more systematic articulation and easier credit transfer arrangements (negotiated at systems level).

Over the past three years the Torrens Valley Institute has entered into a number of joint ventures with different universities which have proved to be most beneficial for students, for Government and for the respective institutions.

Examples of overlapping roles While the following examples relate to the Torrens Valley institute, similar intersectorial relationships exist between other institutes and universities:

• The Para Dental Faculty of the Torrens Valley Institute and the School of Dentistry of the University of Adelaide have been moving towards a more integrated approach to the delivery of education and training in terms of curriculum, the sharing of their physical and human resources and in terms of providing credit transfer. There is currently a joint proposal before the Government for the establishment of an Australian Centre of Oral Health which will incorporate the University of Adelaide and the Torrens Valley Institute.
• The Urrbrae Agriculture Education Centre currently under construction is a further example of locating an institute campus adjacent to a university campus, (in this case the Waite Campus of the University of Adelaide). This co-location assists with the sharing of facilities, the sharing of staff and with the offering of educational programs which relate to common industry needs. It will also facilitate articulation between those programs.

Increased Student Mobility It is of interest to note the increasing number of students who, according to an NCVER survey, are transferring from university programs to Institutes of TAFE. The reasons given by students include some or all of the following:

• improved chances of getting a job
• prefer the less academic and more relevant approach
• prefer the greater degree of flexibility in the approaches to learning
• prefer the friendlier learning environment.

Should Institutes offer degrees? It is the view of the Torrens Valley Institute Inquiry Team that, with the advent of the open training market, institutes should relinquish much of their lower level training (eg AQF Levels 1,2 & 3) and direct their efforts to the provision of more advanced level training (eg AQF Levels 3,4, Diploma, Advanced Diploma and Degree). Much of the entry level education and training can be provided on-the-job or by other providers (schools, skill centres and private providers). However, institutes should only offer degrees in those areas where there is a clearly established need which universities are not able to satisfy (eg performing arts, hospitality, digital design).

Should there be mergers? In response to the suggestion that universities and institutes should merge, the Torrens Valley Institute Inquiry Team is of the view that there is insufficient evidence to justify the cost and disruption associated with such a move. Furthermore it believes that many of the innovations implemented by institutes over recent years (eg flexible delivery, on-the-job training, student-centred methodologies) could be put at risk by the sheer size and power of universities.

Instead the Torrens Valley Inquiry Team suggests that the energy be directed at continuing to break down the barriers between institutes and universities thus enhancing articulation and facilitating collaboration as well as allowing for integration where that is in the interests of the students and the stakeholders. At the same time the team believes that it is important to maintain the respective identity of universities and institutes and to value the differences in their cultures, their traditions, their philosophies, their functions and their methodologies.

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