Season’s greeting to all of you from the staff at TAFE Directors Australia, the board and our TAFE leaders across the country. After a tumultuous 2019 we look to 2020 for substantive change, as that is our mission.
This is our last newsletter for 2019. We will return on Tuesday 28 January after the Australia Day public holiday.
As many in our country face an uncertain 2020 we take this break to gird ourselves for the year ahead, based on the knowledge that genuine vocational education delivered through committed teachers changes lives.
Over two thousand years ago the Eastern (Christmas) Star signalled to tribes of the middle east that a new way of life was being born, according to the current Christian tradition. For the Jewish nation at that time it was the liberation from an occupying force. It was a chance for that people group to make their way in a new life. No matter our traditions in regards to Christmas I trust the story offers you hope for new beginnings. We offer a similar hope through the power of vocational, further and higher education, and this is more important than ever.
For those enduring the most cruel of droughts and fighting the wild flames of bush fires, our thoughts and prayers are with you.
My family will be staying home in Canberra over this break. In fact, I’m under strict instructions to clean up the mess I have created with books and gifts I have received while doing this wonderful job.
What a privilege it is to advocate for that which is good and positive in life. I trust you feel the same.
For some fun, I have reflected on 2019 in the form of the Jingle Bells Christmas Carol. It’s at the end of the newsletter so you read the other news on the way! I hope you enjoy it and forgive the English which has been mangled for the sake of the tune, and the tune that is sacrificed for the sake of the message!
Season’s greeting and a happy new year.
The number of apprentice commencements fell almost 20% in the June quarter, compared with the same quarter last year, according to the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER).
One of the more alarming aspects was a drop of almost 40% for construction trades in the June quarter, compared with the corresponding quarter in 2018.
Non-trade commencements increased by 9.3% over the same period, with the biggest increases for carers and aides, up 19.1%, and sales assistants and salespersons, up 16.8%.
There were 272,920 apprentices and trainees in-training at the end of June, a fall of 1.4% from the previous year.
Quarterly trade commencements 2014-2019
It’s time to ‘save the date’ for the next TDA Convention which will be held 12 – 14 August 2020 in Perth.
More information will be coming soon!
The reinstatement of the University College (UC) as a category in Australia’s tertiary education provider framework affords an opportunity to internationalise the university system, improve student access and success, and create course and institutional diversity, according to VET expert Bruce MacKenzie (pictured).
The Minister for Education Dan Tehan last week accepted all ten recommendations from the Review of Australia’s Higher Education Provider Category Standards by Emeritus Professor Peter Coaldrake.
It will see a new category for high performing non-university providers, to be called “University College”, rather than “National Institute of Higher Education”, as recommended.
Mr MacKenzie, head of the MacKenzie Research Institute, said well-designed university colleges would create a system better able to meet the demands of a heterogeneous range of students and respond to key labour market shortages.
“High performing economies in the OECD have ensured that the status of VET as a partner in tertiary education is maintained. To achieve this, they have diversified the university sector to provide unimpeded access to applied education within a university,” he says in an article for TDA.
“In the previous Higher Education Provider framework, the UC category, with its cumbersome and unnecessary transition arrangements and its preoccupation with research university status, was all but redundant. It simply reinforced the status quo,” he said.
A revised model, he argues, should not emphasise research as a priority but embrace technical vocational applied education in fields such as manufacturing, technology, teaching, human resources, business, construction and health.
“Reimagining the UC model and focusing on applied education and pathways provides reforming governments at both the state and Commonwealth levels with an opportunity to consider structural arrangements at the tertiary level as well as revitalise upper secondary education.”
See Re-imagining the University college: a game changer for equity and access by Bruce Mackenzie, MacKenzie Research Institute.
The overall level of satisfaction with skills training has remained at a reasonably high level, according to the latest National Student Outcomes Survey, compiled by the NCVER.
The survey provides a summary of the outcomes of students who completed nationally recognised VET during 2018.
Among graduates, 88.1% were satisfied with the overall quality of training, up 1.3 percentage points from the previous survey.
Almost 66% had improved their employment status after training.
Of those employed before training, 18% were employed at a higher skill level after training, up 1.5 percentage points from the previous year.
Of those not employed before training, 46.8% were employed after training, down 1.6 percentage points.
The federal government has accepted all the recommendations of the review of the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF), pending discussions with the states and territories regarding specific reforms to the VET sector.
The review, headed by Professor Peter Noonan, recommended closer alignment between the higher education and VET sectors. Key recommendations include:
The government has accepted all recommendations in relation to higher education and accepted the “aims of recommendations” in relation to VET, contingent on further discussions with state and territory governments.
The Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business Michaelia Cash said the government would continue to work closely with the sector and state and territory skills ministers.
“We will fully consider the recommendations in the context of our broader reform agenda, including the COAG VET Roadmap already underway,” Senator Cash said.
See the latest edition of Dispatch, the newsletter of the World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics (WFCP).
Articles include the implementation of the Technical-Professional Qualifications Framework in Chile, how to apply for the WFCP Awards of Excellence, a recap of the European Vocational Skills Week in Helsinki, a look at undergraduate research experiences across STEM, and why big US franchises are offering education benefits to their employees.
Next year’s National Skills Week will include a one-day event, bringing together leaders and innovators in VET and skills training.
An “Orchestra of Ideas” will be held on August 24 at Sydney’s International Convention Centre and is aimed at VET and skills educators, career advisers, transition officers, senior pathways and tertiary practitioners. It is part of the 2020 National Skills Week that will run 24 – 30 August.
You can register your interest for further information and updates at info@nationalskillsweek.com.au or contact Anne Cazar, Project Manager, National Skills Week on 0438 8088 848
(to the tune Jingle Bells)
Happy VET, Snappy VET
Vocation has its day!
Who can fault the plan she has
Mich-ael-i-a all the way.
Dashing through our VET
Like a tradie’s ‘lectric ute
The Joyce plan is set
Everything is beaut
Ca-sh sells the dream
Irons gives a hand
Giving us a brand-new scheme
Come join the merry band
The PM had a plan
Kiwi through and through
Details in the can
Off to Cairns he flew
Showed it to his mates
Waiting for a clap
Oh, it failed to work for states
So now we have a map
Happy VET, Snappy VET
Vocation has its day!
Who can fault the plan she has
Mich-ael-i-a all the way.
Gladys and Scott opine
Post school we’re sector blind
VET is just as fine
As uni you will find
Don’t treat us as naive
Just get on with the job
What joy, what bliss, if we receive
Cash like that uni mob
Holding cash so tight
All the numbers in free-fall
PC please review
Who has dropped the ball
Look and you will see
Feds are funding frigs
No new funds and it will be
Like lipstick on a pig
Happy VET, poor-old VET
New funding, no delay
How can we believe your plan
When we all get to pay
Reviewed the A Q F
So the levels can relate
Decision oh so deft
Levels 10 to 8
But they will all be hid
types is all we’ll see
ask we must why we have slid
from eight to ten plus three!
VET seems up for grabs
In reviews through and through
We’ve seen it all before
All action, nothing new
Let’s change things at the core
Learning is the key
I’ve said this many times before
The sector’s all at sea
Happy VET, aging VET
Chasing something new
One thing you’d expect I’d say
The Packages hold the clue
Tri-part-ite is the key
But industry is king
Better done in threes
Cause union power can sting
Me and Troy can feud
Who makes the biggest claim
Time to change the mood
Be-cause our progress is the aim
Happy VET, slappy VET
A sector all at sea
Come and give us all a say
together is the key
Soon our year is done
Grip-ing at an end
Time to be as one
Can we turn the bend?
Australia needs us hummin
Just like a big mack rig
That corner still is comin’
So-o excuse my one last dig
TAFE is VET, trusted VET
The best is what I say!
Believe me Mr Morris-on
Our TAFEs are here to stay
TAFE is VET, trusted VET
The best is what I say!
Believe me Mr Morris-on
Our TAFEs are here to stay
Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho.
#poweroftafe
Youth Futures Summit
20 – 21 April 2020
Melbourne Cricket Ground
More information
AVETRA Conference
20/20 vision for VET: Research at the centre of future policy and practice
23 – 24 April 2020
Melbourne
More information
VDC 2020 Teaching & Learning Conference
14 – 15 May 2020
RACV Torquay Resort, Great Ocean Road, Victoria
Registrations opening soon
2020 VET CEO Conference
Velg Training
15 May 2020
QT Gold Coast Hotel, Surfers Paradise, Queensland
More Information
‘No Frills’ 2020, 29th National VET Research Conference
NCVER co-hosted with TAFE WA, North Metropolitan TAFE
8 – 10 July 2020
Perth, Western Australia
More information
TAFE Directors Australia Convention
12 – 14 August 2020
Perth
More information coming soon
National Skills Week
24 – 30 August 2020
Various locations
More information
2020 National VET Conference
Velg Training
17 – 18 September 2020
Gold Coast Convention and Exhitbiton Centre, Broadbeach, Queensland
More Information
World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics
2020 World Congress
14 – 16 October 2020
Donostia – San Sebastian, Spain
More information
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