Newsletter

Last week I invoked the notion of TAFE institutional capacity as the bedrock of technology transfer – the economic objective of vocational education systems around the world – but sorely missing in the Australian narrative.

Authorities are investigating the disappearance of the toilet seats from the Central Police Station of New York. Police have nothing to go on (boom boom)! A weird warning for Australian VET. Let me explain, using universities as a reference point.

The first six months of semester one, 2020 has certainly been a memorable one for everyone. Almost overnight, COVID-19 transformed how we live, how we work, and how we learn. Consequently, we have all had to think differently about our operations and find new, more agile ways of working and delivering training.

Admittedly in this COVID environment it’s difficult to get clean air for government announcements, but I couldn’t resist linking the Prime Minister’s very good news of $1 billion for vocational education and training with the one the next day of $400 million for the Australian film industry.

AFL fanatics in Melbourne and Adelaide with a few years behind them will recall Waverly Park built on the old market gardens of Mulgrave and Football Park in West Lakes in Adelaide. They were wide expansive playing fields away from the city. Public transport was poor and sweeping cold winds chilled the spectators who, in the best of seating, felt distant from the action on the field.

Even though NAIDOC week (which was due to start yesterday) has been postponed till November we’ve decided to examine the role TAFEs play in lifting the life choices and chances for the descendants of the original inhabitants of our land.

The most apocryphal story of King Solomon comes from two women claiming motherhood of a boy child. Coming to the wise king for a judgement to overcome the stalemate Solomon commanded soldiers to cut the boy in half – one half for each. One consented but the other offered the child to the other to save his life. It was the latter to whom Solomon gave the child – the love for (her) child outweighed the property motive of the other (one can only assume the dispute was over earning capacity the boy would bring to the household at some

Across the country, TAFEs have mounted an extraordinary response to the COVID pandemic in order to deliver training and meet the needs of students, staff and the industries that rely on them.

I’ve never done very well at those colour eyesight tests where you need to discern a number from among the dots. You search for a glimmer of shape for the brain to fill out the rest. Our capacity to discern both fine and major patterns will be the key for tertiary education as Australia contemplates shifts in the shape of the labour market from the coronavirus.

Most of us were too caught up in COVID to celebrate the 50th Anniversary on April 17 of the safe return to earth of the damaged Apollo 13.

A short column from me this week as I want you to take the time to reflect on the stories in the remainder of the newsletter. In various ways they forecast fundamental change to vocational education.

Triangulation involves measurement from two separate points to pinpoint a location. Recent research released by the Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE) plus OECD data is enough to pinpoint the challenge facing tertiary education coming out of the COVID hibernation.

By design or luck –the Morrison Government’s focus on careers development is well timed. As we contemplate coming out of COVID-19 the carnage in the labour market is difficult to ignore.

Wilfully throwing yourself over a cliff with only the safety of a rope tethered to something solid. That’s how I’d describe abseiling. I am hearing from TAFE leaders about staff venturing into new ways of teaching and training as the necessary response to social distancing forced to beat COVID-19. At first, they were apprehensive, fearing the unknown of teaching away from the relative comfort of the classroom.

I have been continually blown away by the sheer volume of work that TAFEs across the country have put in to ensure they continue to deliver for their students, communities, and partners. TAFEs are truly Open for Business, it’s just that they are now different to how they were before.

The Prime Minister last week raised the prospect of the other side. He was not proselytising his faith but more the task facing Australia in recovering from the massive economic impact from the COVID-19 hibernation strategy.

The virus reveals the fault lines in the economy in the same way earthquakes show the weak spots of buildings, roads and bridges. This was the advice last week from Adam Triggs of the ANU’s Crawford School of Public Policy, about rebuilding the economy after COVID-19.

TAFEs are in the throes of preparing for a new future. As one CEO said at a board meeting of TDA this past week, VET and TAFEs are unlikely to be the same after this event.