The Romance of Capability – comment by CEO Craig Robertson

Leaves are wilted, colour pallid, petals limp. The soaring passion is now grounded in the reality of life – it’s a week since Valentine’s Day[1]!

In what can only be a sad reflection on my reflections, I’ve wondered how the VET system would assess the competency of romance. Stupid. Silly. Out of touch you might say, but it’s not too far from the realms of possibility. It doesn’t take much scanning of training.gov.au to find something similar; a unit on emotional intelligence – BSBPEF502 – Develop and use emotional intelligence (EI).

One conceptual shuffle and emotional intelligence falls into the general capability category, or as a 21st Century Skill, which is often the term used in the US. In a seminal piece[2] co-authored by Dr Jim Watterston, Dean of Melbourne Graduate School of Education and released this week he eloquently outlines the challenge facing school education (and education more broadly):

For humans to thrive in the age of smart machines, it is essential that they do not compete with machines. Instead, they need to be more human. Being unique and equipped with social-emotional intelligence are distinct human qualities … that machines do not have (yet). In an AI world individual creativity, artistry and humanity will be important commodities that distinguish us from each other.

Modesty prevents me from broadcasting my own competency in the romance stakes, but I can tell you about the experience of a close friend of mine. He proposed late one summer evening at the foot of the bell tower on Lake Burley Griffin followed by a picnic, only for the sprinklers to come on! It had followed a day of the couple retracing their favourite spots around Canberra. Filling the car with petrol on his way to the potential in-laws to ask in that old fashioned way for permission, his mind was so distracted he took off without paying.

The EI unit is faithful to the training package competency template – expression of learning and assessment in behavioural terms. There are 13 behavioural outputs (performance criteria), five knowledge elements and seven foundation skills which all must be demonstrated in two work tasks (or simulation) and one of promoting development of EI in others.

In what is a green shoot for the sector, the unit is an attempt at capability. Capability is a different concept to competency, however. Capability is a set of knowledge, aptitude and attitude of the individual which has a lifetime return and, just like reading and writing (and now digital), is the springboard for adaptability across a career.

The process-focused methodology in training packages is temporal and will be found wanting when it comes to foundation skills which is up for review on two fronts – a federal parliamentary enquiry and the review of foundation skills for the new national partnership. Foundation skills and capability are acquired through a learning journey, not as tidbit add-ons which seems to be the model in mainstream VET.

On economic grounds, capability makes sense. It has a far longer shelf-life for each of us which can be applied in more domains, whether in work, enterprise, citizenship, or democracy.

If we are serious about capability (and foundation skills) as the building blocks of success in an automated world, then we may need to seriously question the centrality of the occupation-competency nexus in VET. Sure, let competency frame training for process aspects of a job (where they remain) but let’s develop a new form of qualification guidance which builds capability and better reflects the intent of vocational education.

Curiously, if romance is measured in competency where there must be evidence of all designated observable requirements, I’d be far from competent if it were roses for each 14 February. Even on normative assessment grounds I’d still fail – I checked with my wife and its three or four out of thirty-one!

Some other things to contemplate.  There were 965 subject enrolments in the EI unit in 2018!  Speaking of foundation skills, my ability to construct this news piece could be assessed against FSKWTG011 – Write highly complex workplace texts but I’m not sure I’d bother as it’s only available in a Certificate II qualification.  No wonder there were only 65 subject enrolments in 2018. Appears writing isn’t that important!  My column next week will be a drawing!?

Seems we have a ways to go for the sector to come out smelling of roses.