What Tasmania Needs from Education a Regional Economic Perspective
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WHAT TASMANIA NEEDS FROM EDUCATION A REGIONAL ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE Authors: Craig Perkins and Kevin Turner Level of Which Submission Chief Executive Officer Has Been Authorised: Contact: Craig Perkins Position: Chief Executive Officer Return Address: Level 1, 12-16 St John Street, Launceston TAS 7250 Phone Number: 03 6334 9822 Date: 8th October 2014 Contents Purpose ................................................................................................................................................... 4 Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................. 4 Background ............................................................................................................................................. 5 1. Why we need what we need from education ................................................................................ 6 2. Education in Tasmania .................................................................................................................... 7 2.1 Educational attainment .......................................................................................................... 7 2.2 Education profile of the workforce ....................................................................................... 11 2.2.1 Tertiary education and research ................................................................................... 12 2.3 Workforce challenges ........................................................................................................... 13 2.3.1 Unemployment ............................................................................................................. 13 2.3.2 Hours worked ............................................................................................................... 13 2.3.3 Participation rate .......................................................................................................... 14 2.3.4 Ageing workforce .......................................................................................................... 14 2.3.5 Literacy and numeracy .................................................................................................. 15 2.4 Workforce opportunities ...................................................................................................... 16 2.4.1 Tasmanian Skills Strategy .............................................................................................. 16 2.4.2 Changes in industry activity .......................................................................................... 17 2.4.3 Skill shortages ............................................................................................................... 18 2.5 The cost to Tasmanian of its education levels ...................................................................... 18 3 Barriers to education .................................................................................................................... 20 3.1 Public perception .................................................................................................................. 20 3.2 Barriers identified by research .............................................................................................. 20 4 Regional development approaches to education ......................................................................... 21 4.1 Background concept and examples of models ..................................................................... 21 4.1.1 Collective Impact ........................................................................................................... 22 4.1.2 Place based development ............................................................................................. 22 4.1.3 Asset based community development (ABCD) ............................................................. 23 4.1.4 Regional development platform method ..................................................................... 23 4.2 Case studies .......................................................................................................................... 24 Page | 2 4.2.1 StriveTogether ............................................................................................................... 24 4.2.2 Learning Cities ............................................................................................................... 24 4.2.3 OpenIDEO ...................................................................................................................... 25 4.2.4 London Thames Gateway Development Corporation .................................................. 25 4.3 Current Tasmanian examples ............................................................................................... 26 4.3.1 Trade Training Centres .................................................................................................. 26 4.3.2 Bigger Things ................................................................................................................. 26 4.3.3 Pathways and participation – guaranteeing futures ..................................................... 26 4.3.4 Industry advice framework ........................................................................................... 27 4.3.5 Nextgen Challenge ........................................................................................................ 27 5.1 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 27 5.2 Recommendation .................................................................................................................. 28 5.2.1 Theory into practice ...................................................................................................... 29 5.2.2 Roles for RDA Tasmania ................................................................................................ 29 Appendix ............................................................................................................................................... 30 Appendix 1 – Northern Young Professionals Network ..................................................................... 30 Appendix 2 – Basic Framework ......................................................................................................... 33 References ............................................................................................................................................ 35 List of figures ......................................................................................................................................... 36 Page | 3 Purpose This report has been prepared as a submission to the Regional Development Australia Tasmania Committee to support the creation of a regional development approach to boost educational levels in Tasmania. This report explores the Tasmanian context and how regional development can help educational attainment. Through the production of this report the Regional Development Australia Tasmania Committee has been able to identify areas where education and regional development intersect within which there is a role for the Committee to facilitate action. RDA Tasmania continues to work with representatives of the key education and employment organisations to inform its work: University of Tasmania, Department of Education, and Department of State Growth including Skills Tasmania. Executive Summary Education is vital to Tasmania’s productivity and quality of life and is increasingly linked to the prosperity of regional economies. Developing a skilled and educated population will offer Tasmania the resilience and innovation to maximise opportunities and face future challenges. In general, Tasmania is behind in educational attainment and labour force skills. It also experiences slower economic growth than other regions. The reasons for this are many but they are in all well understood and policies are in place to address some of the key issues, such as post year 10 training and education. Activity within the school ground, campus and workplace is already improving educational outcomes, for example the school system delivers Year 10 students on par with similar regions. Where regional development approaches to education come into play is when there is an identified need to bring more partners into the process to amplify results or reverse negative trends. A structured, multi-disciplinary approach can tackle previously unsolvable problems and this is something communities around the globe are experiencing right now. There will be areas in Tasmania where education and the economy intersect and a regional development approach would be effective. These need to be identified using evidence and expertise and as this is a state-wide issue there needs to be direction given by state level organisations as to where efforts should be focussed. RDA Tasmania recommends this is where a regional development approach to education begins: Engage Stakeholders: Initiators: Dept. Employment RDAT Dept. Education Deliver: UTAS TasTAFE Agreed vision TCCI Schools Scalable framework DPAC RTOs (appendix 2) DSG / Skills Tas Local Gov Dept. Education Tas Tas. leaders (Think Bank) Page | 4 Background Regional Development Australia – Tasmania Regional Development Australia (RDA) is an Australian Government initiative established to encourage partnership between all levels of government