Nostra Robertson – comment by CEO Craig Robertson

Is it possible to look to a VET future-state?
Yes, if trends of the world we triangulate

Skills are in big data if we infiltrate
Regardless of the country they originate

The vehicle is new micro-credentials
Stripped back to learning fundamentals

VET around the globe collaborating
New learning and skills authenticating

Fair enough, I’m not too good at verse
But it is the future we must traverse

What do you think are the chances there will soon be global skills standards and universal recognition?

Three separate events this past week point in that direction. Big data, combined with global collaboration and micro-credentials, may supercharge the process, let alone the many aspects of production and service processes that are already close to universalised.

On Thursday in the first of TAFETalks, the National Skills Commissioner, Adam Boyton, outlined the potential of big data to guide VET in Australia. I have written previously about the Australian Skills Classification (ASC). The results from long-term and robust analysis of skill components of jobs in the US, referred to as O-NET, have been complemented with Australian data and contextualised to Australian conditions. The beta version has identified 1,925 specialist tasks, many of which are transferable across occupations. As Adam highlighted the NSC wants feedback to further contextualise the ASC to Australian conditions. Regardless, it identifies skills first and foremost and then how they are assembled by employers, employees and entrepreneurs into productive work.

Erasmus+ is just one example of emerging global cooperation. The European Union has committed AUS $41 billion over 2021-27 to promote exchange across and outside of the Union with particular focus on students and colleges. Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVE) is the flagship for uplift in TVET for Europe and it is atypical compared to the narrow interpretation of TVET rife across the world. Excellence the European way is the strategic alignment of TVET interventions to local economic and social priorities based on respectful partnerships with social partners (industry, unions and communities) with vocational learning and applied research the key input to success.

In the spirit of that collaboration, funding of up to Euro$4 million is available per centre but must be based on collaboration with local partners and industry but, importantly, globally. The expectation is the exchange of ideas and building capabilities.

An Online information session will take place on Friday 30 April from 9h30 to 12h30 (CET) – 5.30-8.30pm on the Eastern seaboard of Australia. As a live cast there is no need to register.

TDA’s sister organisation in Canada, CICan, released a report on the roll-out of micro-credentials across colleges and polytechnics. It is consistent with definitions and commentary here in Australia and the rest of the world so why does it portent to globalism? Whether we like it or not, elements of learning or acquiring skills are going to be packaged up in new ways. Policy makers may claim it’s flexibility they are offering but the more likely cause is education supply breaking out from the strictures of accreditation and regulation. In the competitive world of learning and staying ahead of the game, regular and new providers are seeking to attract new candidates for learning through more attractive and consumable products.

How does this come together? If Australia can align with the skill components of US jobs it is not too difficult to assume many other countries call on the same skills.

While many countries, including ours, fiercely protecting accredited learning and the qualifications they issue, micro-credentials from any point in the globe may well make that protectionism redundant. You might argue that accreditation and regulation assure quality and relevance but that is from the view of governments, not the consumer and ultimately a business which utilises talent which may have other views. We’ve seen the slow march of global platforms in many aspects of our lives – Microsoft and Apple being the most prominent – so it’s not too hard to see it coming for learning. Where it ends is anyone’s guess, but it’s fair to say the journey of globalisation of skills has likely already begun.

All is not lost. An internationalist perspective can free the sector. There are already many global standards that dictate business processes and they haven’t killed industries in countries. They have allowed countries with capable workers to seize opportunities across the globe but importantly for the industry to operate at a global standard. An open approach to the ASC along with global collaboration such as through Erasmus+ can be the means of developing that capability and bring authenticity to what we do.

This issue is clearly on the Government’s mind. As part of the development of the new Strategy for International Education a webinar is being held this week on the significance of qualifications recognition as an essential enabler of student, graduate, worker, academic and institutional mobility.

Nostra Robertson may be too much to claim.