Openness – comment by CEO Craig Robertson

Relax – breathe deep, loosen every muscle, sink into your inner soul. Roam in your mind for those thoughts that recur. Turn them and tumble them in your consciousness. Be alert to the one thing that keeps coming to you. Think through all the circumstances in your life when this thought was dominant. What events trigger that thought? What’s common in those events? Think deep. Hone those thoughts. Dissect and discern. Practice openness, it brings you a new perspective!

There’s no scientific basis to these words – I’ve made them up. Openness though brings to mind two things. First, the theme of a new approach to vocational education rolling out in the Basque Country in Spain and second, reflecting on my time in VET the illusiveness of quality is the recurring thought.

Melanie Williams (pictured) is the Associate Dean (Scholarship) at William Angliss Institute (WAI) responsible for embedding scholarly practice across the Institute, in both its TAFE and higher education offerings. Melanie was awarded a fellowship from the International Specialised Skills Institute. The institute operates out of Victoria, having been founded 28 years ago by Sir James Gobbo AC, CVO, QC former Governor of Victoria who wanted Australians to undertake international skills development and applied research that would have a positive impact on industry and the broader community. Melanie was sponsored specifically by the skills area of the Victorian Government Department of Education and Training.

The Basque Country embarked on a new approach to vocational education – what they call ‘ETHAZI’, the Basque equivalent to the notion of ‘openness’:

It brings together technical skills with a specific focus on twenty first century skills in collaborative challenges, the aims of which are to improve the professional competence of VET learners in order to produce good professionals, good citizens and good people. Thus, although the training is vocational, it also embraces a broader personal and social mission.

The approach is best described as challenge-based learning, similar to what we would call problem-based learning. Its features are telling, however. It is based on a holistic learning approach where units of learning are re-organised into team-based approaches to dealing with real-world circumstances with the learning design deliberately targeting creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship, not ‘just’ solving problems. There’s far more involved, of course, across the full VET operation in the Basque Country which Melanie’s report covers. ETHAZI has been implemented in 52 of the 56 colleges with 1650 teachers trained in the model.

Interestingly, the model is a response to feedback from industry partners.

The Basque government has responded at a systemic level to employers’ demands for less focus on training in technical skills and more on the twenty first century skills that companies need to maintain competitiveness.

A recent evaluation shows that even though the implementation is a challenge and students take time to adjust to the new-found responsibility of managing their learning, absenteeism has dropped. It finds the pedagogy is contemporary as it is based on processes and content of the workplace in increasingly digital contexts, and balances technical and transferable skills.

The standards-based approach in Australia is designed to allow for this innovation. Sadly, I take Melanie’s point, that “the various, arguably punishing, compliance regimes that apply to Australian VET render holistic learning and assessment problematic.”

I wonder if we now have a sector with irreconcilable philosophies that create a conceptual maize, probably a thicket. What do I dissect? Poor experiences of the VET market, leading to over-correction – detailed prescription in training packages in the vain hope of defining everything industry needs, which creates an all-too-easy compliance rod by which to whack providers. Then a deep-seated anxiety across the sector that it can’t loosen up lest the old ‘quality’ problems emerge. And, I discern – old thinking wrapped up in market philosophies and competency-based training won’t stop the recurring quality problem.

The opportunities are there, if education is given a voice. Melanie’s report is just part of a journey of exploration of WAI. The book Study of Food. Tourism, Hospitality and Events – 21^st Century Approaches prepared by practitioners at WAI explores a new approach to scholarship across the vocational and higher education domains. The European Union Erasmus+ scheme is allowing a staff member from TAFE SA to travel to the Basque country to learn about the approach. The Congress of the World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics is being held in San Sebastian in the Basque Country in October.

I’m open to the new thinking that trusting providers to deploy contemporary pedagogy and scholarship through professional teachers will achieve outcomes far more satisfying for the students and industry than specification and compliance can deliver. But what would l know? Perhaps I have taken advantage of the new Cannabis laws in Canberra!!