Workforce Development: Implications for VET Providers
This article is Part 3 of a series. Click to go to Part 1 or Part 2.
Paul Comyn is a VET practitioner with over 20 years experience in education, training and management gained through varying roles in both the public, private and community sectors.
Recently, Paul has been working as a consultant through his company SmithComyn & Associates, providing a range of research, management and advisory services to VET stakeholders and has worked on a number of AusAID projects supporting VET reform in China, Fiji and PNG.
This is the third of three articles by Paul on Workforce Development and VET.
In a recent major report on skills and the Australian economy, the Business Council of Australia concluded that ‘the vocational education and training sector has a critical role to play in supporting the development and maintenance of skills, ingenuity and capabilities that are required by Australian enterprises.’
Central to this role, is the capacity of VET providers to engage with workforce development and move beyond the delivery of traditional programs and services.
A key issue with workforce development is the need to clearly understand what makes it different from VET, workplace learning and skills development. When the differences are understood, then the challenges facing VET providers and other stakeholders become more apparent.
In South Australia, government has defined workforce development:
‘those activities which increase the capacity of individuals to participate effectively in the workforce throughout their whole working life, and which increase the capacity of firms to adopt high performance work practices that support their employees to develop the full range and their potential skills and value’ (Government of South Australia, 2003: 7).
To support workplace development at the level of national and regional strategy, significant policy and program adjustments appear necessary. As noted by UNEVOC, it requires:
‘all the resources of government, industry policy, job creation policy, the education system, the financing of vocational education and training, government sponsored training programmes and business support policies need to be all aligned behind the same well thought out and structured goals’ (UNEVOC 2006: 8).
Consequently, we can see that a focus on workforce development not only has implications for VET providers in terms of their orientation to the industry and the community, but also in terms of their own organisational capabilities and systems.
In terms of their service orientation, VET providers face specific challenges when looking to orient products and services to support workforce development.
Registered Training Orgranisations (RTO'S) have been urged for years to be more responsive to industry needs and to form industry and community partnerships, so what’s different now?
The community, industry and governments of all persuasions are interested in exploring new operational models for VET to enhance the capability of providers to more precisely meet industry skill needs and increase capacity building opportunities involving industry partnerships, skill ecosystems, regional development and innovation.
These new models include the concept of workforce development, which also has at its core, communities of interrelated and interacting organisations working together to increase opportunities for sustainability, innovation and growth.
Implications for VET
One of the main implications for VET providers is the need to address the skills of their staff and the capabilities of their organisation. VET providers need to develop a skilled, committed and motivated workforce that understands how global changes impact upon local opportunities for business and employment.
This requires different skill sets that move VET providers beyond their traditionally role of supplying skilled labour to industry. A VET institution focussed on workforce development needs to employ staff or establish alliances that provide expertise in work organization, job design, employment options, industrial relations, business strategy and inter-firm and inter-organizational linkages. This requires a shift away from the traditional role of training provision.
The challenge of improving an organisation’s capacity to support workforce development also requires a considerable degree of freedom, most importantly, the freedom of organisations to change and the freedom of managers to implement decisions. As noted by King, the challenge of shifting to a focus on workforce development:
‘needs new skills, new approaches and new attitudes as well as development time and resources. Improved productivity will not be brought about solely by increasing the volume of those with higher levels of learning. Skills can only make a substantial contribution to productivity performance if they are effectively deployed in the firm. Supply-side policies are not sufficient. It will not happen unless there are radical changes in many of the products, processes, accreditation and assessment systems, the funding of institutions and part-time learners and changes to the composition, motivation and capabilities of those delivering and facilitating access to the learning’ (King 2007: 6).
Consequently, the process of re-orientating service delivery to support workforce development requires a coordinated approach to various issues including legislation and policy, management, curriculum, pedagogy, and the training and ongoing professional development of TVET instructors, administrators, policy-makers and managers.
In a recent review of how UK higher education providers are engaged in workforce development, Connor notes that a number of changes need to happen, including:
- businesses better appreciating and articulating their needs whether directly or through intermediaries;
- providers and employers having a better understanding of each others’ cultures and what each could contribute to a partnership;
- a better sharing of costs between state, employer and individual learner;
- the provision of more relevant learning to employers, in appropriate ways and timescales; and
- development of better processes for assessing work-based learning and accrediting in-company or other prior learning of employees (CIHE 2007: 2).
Whilst not all of these challenges are solely within the remit of individual providers, management and staff of VET institutions need to recognise that the ‘workforce development market for providers is much more complex and also more diverse than their traditional student market’ (CIHE 2007: 1).
Key messages
A number of key messages can be identified for VET providers looking to engage with workforce development initiatives:
- There is not one solution that providers offer employers as there needs to be many different ones to meet the different circumstances and needs of businesses and employees;
- Providers must be able to offer flexible approaches to meet employers’ and employees’ needs;
- Provision must be business focused and meeting the demands and strategic goals of the enterprise or industry, not just aligned with what the provider prefers to offer;
- Programs and services should be integrated with a company’s internal progression routes;
- Providers must deliver a consistent and high standard of quality in all their operations;
- Not all learning offered to businesses need to be of a formal kind or linked to accreditation or qualifications. Informal learning is valued by employers, especially small and micro businesses, which have neither the funds nor the time to invest in formal management development programmes. Providers need to develop the capacity to offer informal learning.
- VET providers should share practices so that they, and the sector as a whole, can improve approaches to workforce development;
- Providers must work to address the cultural differences that exist still between the VET sector and the business world. These act as a barrier to developing the necessary good working relationships for engagement and program development;
- Providers should consider the use of facilitators to broker the establishment of workforce development initiatives;
- VET providers and employers must show considerable patience to get partnerships developed and sustained. Collaboration and the development of new workforce development programmes are complex experiences, and there is a tendency for employers to expect developments to progress more quickly than RTO staff are used to;
- Marketing of new programmes or schemes to businesses can be harder to do than expected by VET provider staff involved and is a significant challenge. It is likely to take a lot more time and resources than anticipated;
- Recognition of prior learning (RPL) has a significant role in many workforce development initiatives but can require a lot of time and resources to make it work well;
- Learning that leads to qualifications may be attractive to individual employees but is less so generally to employers (derived from CIHE 2007).
Clearly, these messages relate more broadly to the continuous improvement of VET operations and are not simply relevant to workforce development only. However, to orient program and service delivery to engage with workforce development in its fullest sense, VET providers need to develop new capabilities, some of which are shown below.
Workforce Development – Service Provider Capabilities
To support workforce development, VET providers require:
- Market intelligence and the ability to respond rapidly to emerging markets
- An emphasis on flexibility, adaptability and innovation
- Organisational structures and systems that support a high standard of delivery
- Staff or partners that provide expertise in work organization and job design
- Staff or partners that provide expertise in employment options and industrial relations
- Staff or partners that provide expertise in business strategy and inter-firm and inter-organizational linkages
- Programs or partners that recruit the best talent for partner enterprises
- Programs or partners that develop high levels of competence in individuals and groups
- A strong customer focus and demand driven approach
- Learning designed around the key organisational processes of partner enterprises
- A diverse and multi-faceted workforce skills mix that is considered integral to the provider’s strategy
- Flexible workplace practices acknowledged as strong features of the provider’s workplace culture
- Performance management linked to the provider’s strategic goals
- Program strategies that ensure enterprises are less vulnerable to the loss of key individuals
- An orientation where the provider views itself as a member of the community, contributing to community betterment.
These provider capabilities demand changes to the traditional operations of VET providers.
Strategies for moving forward
There are a wide range of strategies, activities, policies and programs that providers can put in place to support them moving from where they are to where they want to be in the future. In order to develop the capabilities highlighted above, providers will need to address issues related to:
- Legislation;
- Policy;
- Funding;
- Recruitment and retention;
- Resources;
- Support mechanisms; and
- Incentives (NCOSS 2007).
Protocols and systems of the past can act as real blockages to servicing the demands of students and firms in an industry-led vocational education environment.
If VET providers are to raise their profile in the community and develop their capacity to truly partner with industry in workforce development, the capability of their people and their willingness to grow and further improve their own skills, technology and competitiveness needs to be addressed.
To do so however, we must recognise the particular challenges faced by public providers. As noted by TDA:
‘TAFE requires enhanced financial flexibility and governance accountability…incentives and employment agreements also need to be re-developed to motivate TAFE staff to self-invest in their continuing professional development and improve the flexibility of work practices’ (TDA 2007:6).
To embrace workforce development as a focus of operations, VET providers, both public and private, must explore new brokerage roles so as to facilitate multiple partnerships that connect across industry, firms and community and social groups.
The development of these skill ecosystems leads to the planning of education and training in the context of the existing skills within an industry sector or region. These skill issues are then considered in conjunction with the drivers of business productivity and growth, as well as community development needs.
This approach highlights the value of a critical mass of stakeholders that can provide innovative responses to training and other workforce related requirements for individual firms, communities or regions. This is how workforce development can be supported at the local level.
Clearly, such a process requires a staged approach, but one that VET providers can embark on in their own community. By engaging with workforce development, VET providers can build on and extend current trends in the evolution of VET providers in Australia.
Bibliography
BCA (2006) New Pathways to Prosperity: A National Innovation Framework for Australia, Business Council of Australia, BCA: Melbourne.
Buchanan, J (2006) From ‘skills shortages’ to decent work; The role of better skills ecosystems. BVET NSW Department of Education and Training, Sydney
CIHE (2007) Workforce Development: What works and why? The Council for Industry & Higher Education.
Government of South Australia (2003) Skills South Australia. Final report of the Ministerial Inquiry. Adelaide: Government of South Australia.
Hall, R & Lansbury, R (2006) ‘Skills in Australia: Towards Workforce Development and Sustainable Skill Ecosystems’, Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 48, No 5, pp. 575-592.
NCOSS (2007) Models of Workforce Development. National Council of Social Services.
NISC (2008) Online Workforce Development Starter Tool. National Industry Skills Council.
TDA (2007) Investing in Productivity: Engaging TAFE to accelerate Workforce Development and Job Participation. TAFE Directors Australia.