Conference 16Th National Research Training Conference

NCVER “No Frills” Conference 16th National Research Training Conference Alice Springs, 10-13 July 2007 VET IN A MULTI-SECTOR CONTEXT: STRENGTHENING THE CENTRAL COAST REGION Theme: VET In Context Authors: Stephen Crump, Central Coast Campuses (University of Newcastle - Central Coast; TAFE NSW - Hunter Institute) [email protected] Marie Larkins, TAFE NSW – Hunter Institute [email protected] Mallory Mills, Central Coast Community College [email protected] Breakout: No. 2 Time Slot: 12 noon – 1.00pm, Wednesday 11th July. Venue : Room 3 Charles Darwin University, Alice Springs Campus Introduction In recent times, many reports have argued for educational providers to think creatively about how to best meet the learning needs of students from all age groups. These developments aimed to cater for the education and training needs of the full range of students, increasingly providing broad access to a variety of vocational education pathways, an improved mode of career support and access to different sectors for qualifications and accreditation. One way this is being achieved in Australia is through the development of multi- sector campuses (clo-located or virtual). However, this is an area of VET policy and practice that has been poorly researched, largely because multi-sector sites and activities dwell in a grey area between different sectoral boundaries, so receive little direct attention. In some cases, multi-sector campuses are seen as being one-off solutions to local political initiatives or problems, therefore not representative of systems as a whole, and thus not having much to say to further or higher education providers as a whole. On the other hand they can be seen as satellite campuses, that is, not as mainstream campuses, thus requiring extra effort (and cash) that is not always easy to find. This paper will outline why it is worth the effort, and why we need more research on what is potentially an answer to many of Australia’s education and training dilemmas. Background The National Inquiry into Rural and Remote Education (2000, p.35) argued that: ‘ideological and historical barriers to the sharing of facilities and resources are inhibiting the capacity of rural and remote Australia to deliver a quality education to all children’. Multi-partner campuses have become increasingly attractive to educational providers as a viable method of efficiently and effectively combining educational services. A consideration of multi-partner campuses by the Queensland University of Technology (DETYA, 1999) concluded that: ‘the opening of a major campus in an educationally under serviced region actually creates its own demand’. Changes to public funding for the various levels and sectors were used as leverage for many of the structural reforms occurring at this time. Many of these interventions were aimed at making education responsive as an industry to local and regional aspirations and economies. These levers were particularly influential in further and higher education. However, some aspects of reform were driven by educators who saw the need to restructure schooling so that the artificial barriers between primary, secondary and tertiary education - constructed post-WW2 - could be partially demolished, allowing greater access to education to a broader community, and linking that educational experience to workplace and employer expectations and changing relations. As early as 1993, the OECD (p.35) reported: The once clear boundary between secondary and higher education is gradually blurring and even losing its relevance. The term ‘higher education’ itself, which in the past was associated with a specific set of institutions, now covers a much wider variety of courses and programs ...’. 2 Thus cultural changes were part and parcel of the economic and social factors brought to bear to turn education into a national worldclass endeavour. A national qualifications framework [AQF] and elements of a national school curriculum in each state and territory developed during the 1990s – and currently both being revitalised - were key outcomes that created new opportunities for both greater access to education and training, and better continuity between levels, sectors and providers. The AQF links senior secondary school to VET and University qualifications in an hierarchical sequence. One consequence of these changes was a renewed emphasis on improving teaching and learning through auditing and reporting on quality and standards. This process focussed the attention of educational institutions on student needs, both curricular and personal, especially in an environment of choice. Information and communication technology not previously available also led to significant change. The AQF, and the emergence of ‘pathways’ through school credentials it encouraged (including, for example, the option of taking 5 years to complete the NSW HSC) – as well as curriculum pathways linking the different sectors through credit transfer – led to the development of dual awards shared between institutions, as well as within new multi-sector co-located institutional partnerships. The spatial context of schooling, further and higher education and training thus shifted for students as they began to move between school, TAFE and university campuses, or to move across these levels/sectors on a shared location. Movement for teaching staff was less common, hampered by industrial relations issues and systemic idiosyncrasies. The development of a portfolio of awards, with portability through linked organisations and cross accreditation, has not depended on whether these organisational links are co-located locally, or virtually and globally. Both types of cross-sector institutional partnerships have emerged and generally thrived. While face-to-face contact remained an important ingredient in teaching and learning, it is no longer the sole educational experience one encountered over 10-15 years through childhood into adulthood. Local, regional and rural contexts were significant in shaping these shifts, with many of the changes to instructional management aimed at addressing barriers to access and educational equity. In 2007, education in Australia is a national undertaking with a clear and distinct character unknown a decade earlier. Internationally, shifts in thinking have led educational practice in Australia towards notions of ‘lifelong learning’, ‘flexible / alternate modes of course delivery’, ‘the knowledge economy’, ‘e-learning’, ‘the learning community / city / region’, ‘the global education village’, ‘education precinct’, ‘school of the future’, ‘brokerage’, ‘the engaged educational institution’, ‘cyber high school’, ‘workplace learning’ and ‘recognition of prior learning’. The co-operation of all sectors and providers is crucial to the potential success of these innovations and there is an increasing impetus to seek closer relationships with communities and clients beyond traditional intakes. While whole-of-organisation responses are rare as yet, policy and practice in education increasingly reflect new roles in responding to private and public demands. These networks include universities, institutes / colleges of TAFE, private and community providers of VET, 3 and schools. Whatever the nature of these new networks, educational institutions no longer operate in isolation from each other, their local and international competitors, local communities and feeder institutions. Given these facts, there has been a range of drivers and barriers to TAFE-University linkages, with teaching, assessment and the role of practice central concerns on both sides. In 1993 the AVCC established a set of credit transfer principles. This was subsumed by the 1998 Australian Qualifications Framework Advisory Board recommendations. Both documents indicate the goodwill with which universities and TAFE have approached some of the dilemmas arising from cross-sector linkages. There is good reason for this. The aging population of Australia means that universities will not survive if they rely on school leavers for their market. There will be nearly 6 million people between 45-50 years old in the next decade. This group is the most likely source for new skills, and educational funding, under current policy directions, is likely to respond by following students to their learning destinations. Constructive strategies for improving TAFE-university links involve including universities in the Training Package development process so that perceived barriers are eliminated at the source (within the curriculum) rather than encountered in practice (within the classroom). Understanding the preferences and choices of students from Yrs 10-12 is another strategy to assist determining whether TAFE, university and/or work provision will meet changing educational participation in Australia. Demographic shifts - as well as those for gender, ethnicity, race and socio- economic background - are radically transforming underlying attitudes and goals in young people about when, where and how they learn. We will return to barriers and boundaries later in our paper. Cross-Sectoral Education Policy in New South Wales As argued above, by the end of the 1990s, the goals of public education in Australia were being given shape in the form of multi-campus schools, the extension of open learning and the establishment of multi-sector educational campuses. These developments aimed to cater for the education and training needs of the full range of students, increasingly providing broad access

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