Support “to get stuff done” – comment by CEO Jenny Dodd

Barack Obama, in a Youtube presentation aimed at young people, says ‘just learn how to get stuff done”. The ability ‘to get stuff done’ is what marks TAFEs as distinct in the tertiary education landscape.

The applied learning that occurs in TAFE is about ‘getting stuff done”. The way in which teaching and learning occurs in TAFE is practical, workplace orientated, and delivers students who both know things and can do “stuff” as a result.

TAFEs are good at dealing with all sorts of students – from those who are aspiring to higher education, to those who enter at Certificate II, to those returning to study, to those who are apprentices or trainees, to those from equity groups, and the list goes on. I was asked recently to describe a TAFE student – what an impossible question that is given the diversity of our student population and the courses they are studying.

The purpose of TAFEs is a simple purpose – to teach and equip students with skills and knowledge for work and for their lives. In so doing TAFEs deliver people into local economies and workplaces who have both skills for now and transferable skills for the future. Along the way TAFEs also try to help students acquire the right attitudes, such as developing with them appreciation of a culture of respect and safety.

To do that requires extensive student support and the ability to insert into learning generic knowledge and attitudes. TAFEs have always invested in counsellors, advisors, equity support mentors, and tutors to help individual students reach their goals. TAFEs have also always run programs, such as cultural awareness and safe relationships, to help students become respectful and respected citizens. Both components need to be recognised, and most importantly, funded if we are to really help students to succeed.

Recent feedback given by senior members of the TAFE workforce to Treasury, as Treasury prepares the Employment White paper, was that our practical “get stuff done” approach needs to be supported by adequate funding for wrap around services. If we are going to ensure students from equity groups succeed, then we must fund these support services. If we are going to help TAFE students be strong members of families and communities, those other components of learning that are much more than just the task driven approach of current national training packages also must be funded.

So, whether young or not so young, a TAFE learning experience will help students learn how to “get stuff done”. For TAFEs to be even better at what we do, we need investment that will allow us to help students manage their life issues and to lead conversations about how to be a good member of a community.