Skills formation: A planned approach

Some of us are fortunate enough to have been at the leading edge of some government policy changes over the past decade. I refer in particular to those policies directed at addressing the "just in time" skills formation needs that will be required to place Australia in a stronger position of international competitiveness in line with our OECD partners. During this period there has been growing concern over the persistence among industry managers, academics, educationalists and vocational trainers of a mindset which hinders the implementation of skills formation policies.

This mindset will need to become mindsight very rapidly, if we are to arrest the decline Australia is experiencing in the skilling of its workforce.

We should no longer regard the skills formation of people as the stratified educational process that has tended to dominate our education and training systems in the past. If we are to improve the quality and productive outcomes being demanded of us in the world market place, education, training and economic development must be planned as integral components within a progressive, relevant and performance objective led culture. I believe the foundation for this new approach has been put in place by Federal and State governments and we owe it to ourselves to get on with the job, forgetting the politics and interstate rivalries which blinker our vision and hinder the skilling of our workforce which is so vital to the maintenance of the Australian way of life.

To reinforce this point I would like to quote from the Skills for Australia paper put out by the Minister for Employment, Education and Training, John Dawkins, in 1987.

The Government is determined that our education and training systems should play an active role in responding to the major economic challenges now facing Australia.

The adjustments required in the structure of the economy, and improvements in Australia's international competitiveness, will make heavy demands on our human resources and labour force skills. Our skills formation and training arrangements are not yet adequate to meet those demands.

The world's most successful economies over the past two decades have given high priority to education, skills and competence at work as vital factors in economic performance, and have supported their skills development policies accordingly. Now we must do likewise.

Specifically, action is required to:

• increase the total level of participation in education and training, and expand the national training capacity;

• improve the quality and flexibility of our education and training systems, and hence the quality, breadth and adaptability of skills acquired;

• improve the distribution and balance of the national education and training effort, to better meet the long term needs of the economy and labour market;

• raise the level of private sector investment in training and skills formation;

• improve the employment and training opportunities available to the unemployed and otherwise disadvantaged members of the community, including measures to reduce the high degree of occupational segregation in the labour market and to improve training opportunities for women;

• increase the productivity of our education and training resources, and evaluate the outputs achieved from the use of those resources.

The Government has already signalled its strong commitment to these objectives by creating a new portfolio to coordinate all Commonwealth policies in the fields of employment, education and training. The decisions announced in this 1987-88 Budget represent the first steps towards an integrated set of programs which ultimate will embrace all Commonwealth activity in these fields. (Dawkins and Holding, 1987).

• a tripartite planning process;
• a balanced curriculum;
• an integrated training plan;
• a modular learning process;
• accountability for learning contracts;
• relevant skills formation;
• industry led performance objectives;
• linkage and progression through a skills formation process;
• measurable skills acquisition based on job training objectives;
• national skills standards;
• a career path structure;
• equitable outcomes;
• a sharing of training responsibilities;
• a managed learning environment;
• changes to delivery techniques;
• a whole person approach to an individual's training needs.

Figure 1: Australian Traineeship System: traineeship development

Figure 2: What the traineeships provide

It would be true to say that as a result of the operation of the Australian Traineeship System over the last four years there has been a tremendous learning curve demanded of all tripartite sectors, that is, employees, employers and government, with the result that the model has begun to influence other well established practices and productivity measures that have been the very basis of our economic and industrial history.

References

Author: Ross Goodlet is Head of Industry Division, Vocational Entry Level Training, in TAFE WA's Central Office, 151 Royal Street, East Perth. Please cite as: Goodlet, R. (1990). Skills formation: A planned approach. In R. Atkinson and C. McBeath (Eds.), Open Learning and New Technology: Conference proceedings, 157-161. Perth: Australian Society for Educational Technology WA Chapter. http://www.aset.org.au/confs/olnt90/goodlet.html