3evp Emerging Futures

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Innovation in Teaching and Learning in VET

John Mitchell – John Mitchell & Associates

with assistance from Berwyn Clayton, John Hedberg & Nigel Paine


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EMERGINGFUTURES

Innovation in Teaching and Learning in VET

A report on current practice for the project Innovation in Teaching and Learning

in the vocational education and training sector

Prepared by John Mitchell – John Mitchell & Associates

with assistance from Berwyn Clayton, John Hedberg & Nigel Paine

June 2003


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© Australian National Training Authority

This work has been produced with the assistance of funding provided by theCommonwealth Government through the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA).Copyright for this document vests with ANTA. ANTA will allow free use of the material solong as ANTA’s interest is acknowledged and the use is not for profit.

First published June 2003

Author/Contributor: Mitchell, J; Clayton, B; Hedberg, J; Paine, N

National Library of AustraliaCataloguing-in publication data

Title: Emerging Futures: Innovation in Teaching and Learning in VET

Publisher: ANTA, Reframing the Future and Office of Training and Tertiary Education, VIC

ISBN 0-9750606-3-5

331.25920994

The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and thoseconsulted and do not necessarily reflect the views of ANTA. ANTA does not give anywarranty or accept any liability in relation to the content of the work.

Further information:Australian National Training AuthorityLevel 5 321 Exhibition StreetGPO Box 5347BBMelbourne VIC 3001

Telephone: 03 9630 9800Fax: 03 9630 9888

ANTA website: www.anta.gov.au

Additional copies available from http://reframingthefuture.net

Designed and printed by Peter Dyson, P.A.G.E. Pty Ltd 613 9645 6088


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Table of Contents

Executive Summary 1

Introduction 5

1 Why is innovation in VET teaching and learning an issue? 13

Vignette 1.1 VET in Schools program delivered in the workplace – Manufacturing Learning Centres in South Australia 16

Vignette 1.2 Assessment and training customised to meet the client’s strategic goals – TAFE NSW North Coast Institute and Centrelink 20

Case Study 1 Learner-focused, continually-improved programs for 15–18 year old youths at risk

– Holmesglen Institute of TAFE, VIC 25

2 What is innovation in VET teaching and learning? 29

Vignette 2.1 Simulation for assessment in trade areas – Brisbane and North Point Institute of TAFE, QLD 34

Vignette 2.2 An integrated approach to supporting and motivating distance students – TAFE NSW Open Training and Education Network (OTEN) 38

Case Study 2 Re-engineering the teaching of textiles – Institute of TAFE Tasmania 43


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3 How does innovation occur in VET teaching and learning? 49

Vignette 3.1 Multi-faceted innovation in teaching heavy vehicle mechanics in regional Western Australia

– Caterpillar Institute (WA) Pty Ltd 53

Vignette 3.2 Use of workplace mentors for training delivery across a region – East Gippsland Institute of TAFE, VIC 59

Case Study 3 International benchmarking underpinning the assessment of key competencies in electrotechnology

– Torrens Valley Institute of TAFE, SA 64

4 What fosters or impedes innovation in VET teaching and learning? 69

Vignette 4.1 Managing innovation in teaching in response to photography students’ and industry’s needs

– Photography Studies College, VIC 71

Vignette 4.2 Simultaneously fostering multiple innovations – TAFE NSW Hunter Institute 74

Case Study 4 Embedding innovation across the organisation – Open Learning Institute, QLD 79

5 Who gains from innovation in VET teaching and learning? 85

Vignette 5.1 Innovation in teaching remote Indigenous students about mining operations – Alcan, Yirrkala Business Enterprises and Government, NT 87

Vignette 5.2 Best practice delivery led by a national enterprise – TNT Express 89

Case Study 5 Innovative teaching and assessment for learners with a disability – Goodwill Industries and West Coast College of TAFE, WA 94

6 What can be done to further support innovation in VET teaching? 99

Appendices 105

1 Members of the consulting team and steering committee 106

2 The project brief 107

3 Research methods 108

4 Names of interviewees 109

5 Focus group participants 111

6 Contacts for the case studies and vignettes 1157 References 116


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Executive summary

This report on Innovation in Teaching and Learning in the vocational education and training (VET) sector

demonstrates that pressures for change are flowing with increasing force into teaching and learning practice

within VET. As a consequence of this ongoing change, wider, deeper and more frequent innovation is now needed

in VET teaching and learning practices.

However, this report shows that there are good grounds for optimism about the quality and scope of currentinnovation in teaching and learning practices in VET. The particular and local instances of practitioner innovation

found in the research for this project serve as a reminder of the many different ways in which VET practitioners

are knowledgeable and innovative. Positive futures for VET are emerging, as a result of this practitioner innovation.

A literature review, interviews, focus groups and case study research inform the key findings set out below.

■ More innovation in VET teaching and learning is needed in the national training system

Innovation in VET teaching practice is of great significance as a response to the learner-centred agenda contained

within the national training system. VET practitioners need to build their practice, increase their knowledge base

and skills and adapt VET pedagogy in order to realise and maintain the critical roles that teachers and trainers

play between learner aspirations and learner achievements.The industry-led national training system is focused on skills needed in the workplace at a time when industry

change and skill development are key elements in the makeup of the economic and social context of work in a

postmodern world. Beckett and Hager (2002, p.11) explain that a postmodern perspective acknowledges that

adults have considerable potential to learn in diverse settings. Hence, our contemporary world produces a variety

of narratives about adult learning and teaching, as reflected in this report.

As a result of the need for skills in the workplace, there is a strong demand for more differentiated and flexible

workplace training and assessment. Other broader demand forces are also shifting and changing VET, though

often at very uneven rates and at local and regional levels. In total, major shifts in demand are continuing to place

new pressures on VET and to set out new conditions that are driving searches for more flexible or relevant

approaches to formal and informal learning.

Another result of the industry-led national training system is that detailed and customised workplace trainingdemands on VET are potentially as varied as there are enterprises in Australia. This is bringing about new and

intensified professional, technical and educational roles for VET practitioners especially at the frontline and

particularly for teachers, workplace trainers and assessors, workplace mentors and supervisors.

Executive Summary

1


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These conditions suggest almost limitless scope for innovation in teaching and learning functions at individual,

group and organisational levels in VET. Additional possibilities for innovation are created by new relationships

between VET practitioners, industry representatives and the wider community.

The case studies and vignettes in this report indicate that VET practitioners remain able to imagine and realise

the opportunities that these changing conditions are presenting.

■ Innovation in VET teaching and learning is needed to meet the many needs of

different learners

Briefly, innovation is defined as the implementation of new and improved knowledge, ideas, methods, processes,

tools, equipment and machinery, which leads to new and better products, services and processes (Williams 1999,

p.17). Innovation in teaching is often about turning an ‘invention’ such as an idea, technology or technique into

a product, process or service that is successful because it meets the needs of learners.

Innovation is therefore about individuals and groups taking or responding to some form of novel or creative

action to bring about an intended change in their work context that, in the process, also changes their practice

and in varying degrees changes their roles, functions or even their sense of identity as VET practitioners. These

individuals and groups become innovators and often help position and interact with organisational innovation.

The report finds that innovation in teaching and learning in VET is ideally non-linear, customised, inclusive and

transferable. Innovative teaching takes account of individual learners’ differences, responding to the

contemporary push for all organisations including educational ones to be customer-centred. Innovative teaching

fosters lifelong learning, moving VET away from the ‘content model of education’ based on a teacher-designed

curriculum and to more fluid and interactive learning processes which move both student and staff members into

a new and different experience of VET.

Innovative teaching can be shown to assist students to develop not just technical skills and a common core of

generic skills, but to support a wider range of capabilities which can assist the individual in the wider world

of work and the community. As one example, the report finds that innovation in assessment, particularly in the

workplace, is emerging as a strong new trend in VET and is driven by client demand for customised assessment.

■ Innovation in VET teaching and learning results from practitioners’ skills and actions

Based on the empirical findings from fifteen case studies and vignettes and other consultations, the report findsthat innovation is assisted when VET practitioners consciously adopt new roles such as those of learning manager,

facilitator, mediator, broker or strategist.

The research also shows that innovative practice is assisted when practitioners draw on some or all of four areas

of their professional expertise, such as their vocational skills, for example in tourism or engineering; their adult

learning and teaching skills such as how to support problem-based learning; their VET sector specific skills about

how to assess in the workplace; and their generic personal skills such as managing their own personal and

professional growth.

Innovation can occur when practitioners use a variety of teaching and learning strategies: for instance, when they

skew teacher-centred methods towards student control; when they support self-directed learning; when

they facilitate activity-based and problem-based learning; and when they enable students to develop future-

oriented capabilities.

■ Innovation in teaching and learning in VET can be fostered or impeded by many factors

Within RTOs, a strategic response by the organisation’s senior management to internal or external pressures can

foster innovation in VET teaching and learning. The RTO’s management can also foster innovation by forming

external networks and alliances. Innovation in teaching can also be fostered by an individual teacher or a small

group of practitioners or units within an organisation.

RTOs’ organisational strategies that can directly foster innovation in teaching include developing a corporate

culture that is agile and flexible and encourages diverse thinking, individual initiative and the development of

new ideas. Tapping into the social capital of colleagues stimulates innovation in teaching, as does encouraging

knowledge management that is based on practitioner knowledge.

The reports highlights the complexities of innovation, often affected by multiple drivers, requiring a range of pre-

conditions and needing a mix of skills by a number of contributors. Hence, innovation in teaching and learning

can be impeded by countless factors, such as managers ignoring client pressures for innovative delivery or

2 Emerging Futures: Innovation in Teaching and Learning in VET


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overlooking the social capital of staff or discounting the value of the staff knowledge of industry and staff

networking with members of the industry. Other factors impeding innovation include a lack of resources, staff

resistance, student opposition and an inability to convert creative ideas into innovative services that can

be implemented.

VET system factors can both foster and impede innovation, depending on the context and the perspectives

of those involved. For example, in some situations the audit and compliance aspects of VET are seen to be

dampening innovation, but in other situations staff and their RTOs are innovative in response to

such constraints.

■ Many parties gain from innovation in teaching and learning in VET

The report’s findings show that to gather the necessary momentum to become a significant VET innovation,

an initiative from wherever it originates needs to generate benefits for all participating parties. Otherwise, the

change will not be sustainable and its value as an innovation in VET teaching and learning becomes doubtful

and contestable.

The beneficiaries play key roles in sustaining the innovation and enable its iteration and elaboration. These

beneficiaries include the practitioners themselves – since the innovation needs their ability to create or translate

and apply it – as well as the relevant VET learners and clients, and the RTO and its partners.

The benefits often cascade. Many of the case studies and shorter vignettes in this report show that an individual

VET learner gaining recognition for competencies can positively impact on the learner’s future, community

attitudes, enterprise growth and regional development.

An innovation in teaching in one part of a VET provider’s teaching and learning operation can often influence

another part, providing wider benefits for the RTO who supports the initial investment of effort.

While local innovation can be very positive and illuminating, there is a problem that knowledge of the

innovation may be hidden away in the level of local and regional practice and perhaps behind the curtain of

competitive advantage sought by RTOs in the VET sector. Unless innovative practice can be used to inform

practice elsewhere, the party least likely to benefit from innovation in practice is the wider VET sector – and its

reputation and standing may not then benefit from its efforts. To overcome these issues of knowledge being

hidden and the VET sector not benefiting, a recommended mechanism for dissemination of good practice is

discussed below.

■ Much can be done to further support innovation in teaching and learning in VET

The challenge for VET is to work with and manage its practitioners in such a way that innovation can be

supported to ensure new or improved outcomes for VET’s constituents, including VET organisations themselves.

The findings from this report provide the basis for a conceptual framework for understanding and supporting

innovation in VET teaching and learning. The framework shows that innovation in teaching cannot be reduced

to a formula of step-by-step actions, as innovation in VET teaching and learning is too complex to reduce to

simplicities. The framework demonstrates that extensive professional judgment, improvisation, experience and

wisdom are needed by practitioners contributing to innovation in VET teaching and learning.

The research for this project finds that, given the importance of innovation to VET, there is a case for a dedicated

mechanism to support practitioners in VET. By ‘mechanism’ is meant a nationally-sponsored arrangement that

can assist grassroots teachers and trainers – in conjunction with other stakeholders such as educational managers

– to better inform themselves about useful ideas and practices about innovation in teaching that offer improved

personal outcomes as well as better results and outcomes for VET students and clients.

The purpose of this proposed national mechanism is to support the dissemination of useful and practical

knowledge, techniques and ideas for application – about innovation in teaching and learning – elsewhere in VET.

The mechanism is intended to facilitate action and provide better results for VET clients, VET practitioners and

VET organisations.

Summary

The report acknowledges the central role in innovation of professional judgement, often exercised in conjunctionwith other stakeholders. While the narrative provided in this report emphasises that the conditions and drivers

behind specific innovation are highly contextual, the interpretation of possibilities and solutions rely heavily on

the professional judgment of the VET practitioners involved.

3Executive summary


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A key feature of good practice captured in this report is that practitioners have good knowledge of professional

developments and behaviour in their area of operations and how VET practice is being redeveloped. This is not

to suggest that VET practitioners simply imitate others, but rather that they use knowledge of other practice as a

way of informing their own judgement and professional imagination, and that this helps to open up the

possibilities that exist for innovation in their own arena of practice.

A migrating frontier of professional practice is required to both lead and follow changing conditions in VET. This

suggests that, to keep up with changing practice at and around the frontline of innovation in VET, practitioners

would benefit from arrangements that give them better sources of information, knowledge and understanding of

changing teaching and learning practice across the sector.

The VET sector needs highly informed practitioners who know about successful practice elsewhere in the sector

and can match this with appropriate innovations of their own. Identifying good practice is a key to fostering

innovation as it gives credit and recognition for VET achievement where it is due, and also encourages the

creation of collaborative mechanisms to further explore good practice and set realistic standards for success.

Making practitioner information more readily available can support VET professionals to position their own

thinking and practice closer to contemporary changes in VET professional practice. This can help to ensure that

innovation, in whatever form it then takes, will continue to contribute positively to the development of teaching

and learning outcomes across the sector.



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5Introduction

Introduction

This section introduces the consultants, the Steering Committee, the brief, the methodology, definitions, ways to

read the report and abbreviations of key terms.

Consultants and Steering Committee

The research and writing was undertaken from August 2002 to April 2003 by principal consultant John Mitchell

from John Mitchell & Associates.

Advice was provided by Berwyn Clayton from Canberra Institute of Technology, Professor John Hedberg from

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and Nigel Paine from the BBC in London, as set out in Appendix 1.

The project was managed by Ian Gribble from the Office of Training and Tertiary Education (OTTE), Victoria.

The Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) funded the project and support was provided by a national

Steering Committee, set out in Appendix 1.

Brief

This project aims to provide two avenues for helping to integrate a clearer knowledge and understanding

of practices, new ideas and new approaches to teaching, learning and related assessment relationships in VET:

• Firstly, by providing a national review of good practice that is drawn from current provider activity and

achievements. This aspect is addressed by this report.

• Secondly, by investigating the development of a suitable national mechanism for ongoing information and

support for the dissemination of teaching and learning practice and to strengthen and broaden innovation

in the future. This is the subject of a second report.

The brief for this project is set out in Appendix 2.

Methodology

The major research methods used in this project are listed in Appendix 3. They included the preparation of two

literature reviews and two initial discussion papers. Seven focus groups were conducted to respond to the

discussion papers and a further two focus groups were held at the conclusion of the project to discuss key aspects


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of the findings. Overall, sixty-seven interviews were conducted (see Appendix 4) and around one hundred and

thirty VET personnel participated in the nine focus groups (see Appendix 5).

In the final stages of the project, five case studies and ten vignettes, representative of the range of VET providers

and activities, were identified for reporting (for the relevant contact persons see Appendix 6).

Definition of teacher

The focus of this report is innovation in the professional practice of VET staff who have direct responsibility for

teaching and learning functions in VET organisations. Learners in VET and innovation in the ways those learnersgo about their learning are discussed throughout the report, but are not the major focus.

For brevity in the report, ‘teacher’ is used to describe all forms of teachers and trainers in VET.

The empirical research for this study, particularly the preparation of five case studies and ten vignettes, revealed

that the solo teacher is rarely the only influence on a student’s learning. Increasingly, other VET personnel and

stakeholders – in addition to teachers – influence student learning. These personnel could vary from educational

managers, to human resource staff, workplace supervisors, learning materials developers, educational technology

staff and student services officers. For shorthand, the word ‘teacher’ is used throughout this report, but the

contribution of other personnel to teaching and learning is frequently noted, particularly in the case studies and

vignettes. Innovation in VET teaching is so often a team effort.

In the report, the term ‘practice’ is used as a broad descriptor to cover the activities of VET personnel who may

describe themselves as teachers or trainers and workplace trainers and mentors. ‘Teaching practice’ extends well

beyond the conventional classroom-based instruction model. It includes a widening range of activities

undertaken by teachers that influence learning, such as preparing resource-based learning materials, assessing in

workplaces and using technology in the delivery of education. For many teachers in VET, teaching now involves

working in a team, and often in collaboration with industry, and these new roles for teachers are recognised in

the report.

Types of innovation

The following table sets out the different types of innovation described in the fifteen case studies and vignettes

in the report.

Table 1: Description of innovation

Number Organisation Innovation

Vignette No.1.1 Manufacturing Learning Centres, SA VET in Schools program delivered in the workplace

Vignette No.1.2 Centrelink Call Centre, Coffs Harbour Assessment and training customised to meet the client’s and TAFE NSW North Coast Institute, strategic goals NSW/ACT

Case Study No.1 Holmesglen Institute of TAFE, VIC Learner-focused, continually-improved programs for15–18 year old youths at risk

Vignette No.2.1 Brisbane and North Point Institute Simulation for assessment in trade areas of TAFE, QLD

Vignette No.2.2 TAFE NSW Open Training and Education An integrated approach to supporting and motivatingNetwork (OTEN), NSW distance students

Case Study No.2 Institute of TAFE Tasmania, TAS Re-engineering the teaching of textiles

Vignette No.3.1 Caterpillar Institute (WA) Multi-faceted innovation in teaching heavy vehiclemechanics in regional Western Australia

Vignette No.3.2 East Gippsland Institute of TAFE, VIC Use of workplace-based mentors for training delivery ofacross a region

Case Study No.3 Torrens Valley Institute of TAFE, SA International benchmarking underpinning theassessment of key competencies in electrotechnology

Vignette No.4.1 Photography Studies College, VIC Managing innovation in teaching in response tophotography students’ and industry’s needs

Vignette No.4.2 TAFE NSW Hunter Institute, NSW Simultaneously fostering multiple innovations

Case Study No.4 Open Learning Institute of TAFE, QLD Embedding innovation across the organisation


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Table 1: Description of innovation (cont’d)

Definition of innovation

There are numerous definitions of innovation in the literature and some of these are discussed in Chapter 3 of

this report. A scan of the literature, as reported in Chapter 3, did not provide a satisfactory definition of

innovation in teaching and learning for VET and so we adapted a working model based on Williams (1999) and

West (in King & Anderson 2002). Some key ideas about innovation that guided this study are summarised below.

Improved as well as new ideas Williams (1999) defines innovation as

the implementation of new and improved knowledge, ideas, methods, processes, tools, equipment and

machinery, which leads to new and better products, services, and processes (p.17; italics added).

Williams (1999) points out that the word innovation is derived from the Latin innovatio (renewal or renovation),

based on novus (new) as in novelty. Note that innovation is about the implementation of not just new ideas and

knowledge, but also of improved ideas and knowledge. Hence, many of the case studies and vignettes in this

report are about the renewal or renovation or improvement of an existing educational service.

Sequenced activities

Williams’ (1999) model below shows that discovery and invention, as outcomes of creativity, lead to the process

of innovation and the implementation of the innovation. This study attempts, where possible, to describe this

sequence of activities in each of the case studies and vignettes.

Diagram 1: Creativity leading to innovation and implementation (Williams 1999, p.13)

Because of this sequence that starts with creativity, an innovation may take some time to be implemented. Many

of the innovations described in this report took some years to unfold.

In adapting this model and in framing this report, the view was taken that innovation in teaching and learning

needs to lead to improved outcomes. So the implementation of the innovation in the case studies and vignettes

has included evidence of the reported benefits in each.

Introduction 7

Number Organisation Innovation

Vignette No.5.1 Alcan, Yirrkala Business Enterprises and Innovation in teaching remote Indigenous students aboutGovernment – East Arnhem Land, NT mining operations

Vignette No.5.2 TNT Express, TDT Australia and six Best practice delivery led by a national enterprise providers, national

Case Study No.5 Goodwill Industries WA in Innovative training solutions in the metals area for

conjunction with West Coast College trainees with cerebral palsyof TAFE, WA

Im p l e m en t a t i onCre a t i v i t y

D i s c o v e r y

Pr o c e s s o f

I n n o v a t i o n

I n v e n t i o n


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To better match the way innovations in VET often occur over a number of years and how new dimensions are

added in each iteration, the above diagram ideally needs to be represented as a single spiral, with the process of

creativity to implementation repeated a number of times, spiralling upwards.

Given earlier comments about innovation involving improved as well as new ideas, Williams’s diagram could also

be re-drawn to include an oval labelled ‘re-invention’, to accompany the existing oval for ‘invention’.

Types of innovation

Williams (1999) identifies different types of innovation: for example, product innovation; new and improved

services; new and improved work operations, processes and methods; new and improved machine design,engineering and layout; new markets and marketing methods; synthesis; and replication. The case studies and

vignettes in this report are primarily of the following four types, or combinations of two or more of these types:

• new and improved services;

• new and improved work operations, processes and methods;

• synthesis – when existing ideas, products, services or processes are combined in some new way so that an

improved idea, product, service or process results;

• replication – copying or duplicating or learning from others or applying someone else’s idea or invention in

a new situation.

While developing a new service is more original and often more visible than improving an existing service or

copying someone else’s, each type of innovation is of value.

Distinguishing features of innovation in action

The work of West and others (in King & Anderson 2002) provides further valuable assistance in the recognition

of innovation and its distinction from organisational change in general. These authors characterise organisational

innovation as follows:

• an innovation is a tangible product, process or procedure within an organisation;

• an innovation must be new to the social setting within which it is introduced, although not necessarily new

to the individual(s) introducing it;

• an innovation must be intentional not accidental;

• an innovation must not be a routine change;

• an innovation must be aimed at producing a benefit;

• an innovation must be public in its effects (King & Anderson 2002, pp.2-3).

Taken together, the above work provided this project with a basis for recognising innovation in VET and for

making a selection of 15 case studies and vignettes from a much larger candidate field. In order to be as inclusive

as possible of VET achievement, the final selection reflects a breadth of examples rather than focusing on where

the weight of innovation is currently occurring.

Different ways to read this report

This report was prepared in the expectation that you would not read it from start to finish, but would selectively

seek out those parts of the report that are most relevant to your needs. One approach might be to read first thosechapters whose titles catch your interest.

Table 1 above described the types of innovations in the case studies and vignettes. To assist a selective reading,

two tables are provided below, highlighting different aspects of the report. Table 2 below summarises the main

features of the major RTOs and students involved in each of the case studies and vignettes.

Table 2: Features of RTO and students involved in the innovation


Number Organisation RTO location RTO Ownership Key student features

Vignette No.1.1 Manufacturing Learning Metropolitan Public & Private VET in School students Centres, SA

Vignette No.1.2 Centrelink Call Centre, Coffs Regional Public Call Centre staff

Harbour and TAFE NSW NorthCoast Institute, NSW/ACT

Case Study No.1 Holmesglen Institute of Metropolitan Public Youths at risk TAFE, VIC


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Table 2: Features of RTO and students involved in the innovation (cont’d)

Please note that, for brevity, many of the names of the RTOs are abbreviated in the body of the report.

Table 3 summarises the main qualifications or programs described in the vignettes and case studies.

Table 3: Qualifications profiled in each case study or vignette

9Introduction

Number Organisation RTO location RTO Ownership Key student features

Vignette No.2.1 Brisbane and North Point Metropolitan Public Manufacturing industryInstitute of TAFE, QLD students

Vignette No.2.2 TAFE NSW Open Training State-wide Public Accounting students –and Education Network by distance education(OTEN), NSW

Case Study No.2 Institute of TAFE Metropolitan Public Textile Clothing andTasmania, TAS Footwear students

Vignette No.3.1 Caterpillar Institute (WA) Regional Private Automotive mechanics

Vignette No.3.2 East Gippsland Institute Regional Public Community Servicesof TAFE, VIC personnel

Case Study No.3 Torrens Valley Institute Metropolitan Public Electrotechnologyof TAFE, SA students

Vignette No.4.1 Photography Studies Metropolitan Private Photography students College, VIC

Vignette No.4.2 TAFE NSW Hunter Institute, Regional Public Variety of regionalNSW students

Case Study No.4 Open Learning Institute of State-wide Public Leadership studentsTAFE, QLD

Vignette No.5.1 Alcan, Yirrkala Business Remote Private Unemployed IndigenousEnterprises and Government people – East Arnhem Land, NT

Vignette No.5.2 TNT Express, TDT Australia Metropolitan Public & Private Road transport drivers and six providers, national and regional

Case Study No.5 Goodwill Industries WA in Metropolitan Public People withconjunction with West Coast cerebral palsyCollege of TAFE, WA

Number Organisation Accredited qualification or program

Vignette No.1.1 Manufacturing Learning Centres, SA Certificate I Engineering (CAD);

Certificate I Process Manufacturing (Plastics InjectionMoulding Operations);

Certificate I Automotive Manufacturing;

Certificate I Automotive Retail Service and Repair;

Certificate I Hospitality (Kitchen Operations);

Certificate II Business (Office Administration).

Vignette No.1.2 Centrelink Virtual College ACT, Centrelink Certificate IV Telecommunications;Call Centre, Coffs Harbour and TAFE Certificate IV Business (Frontline Management);NSW North Coast Institute, NSW

Certificate IV Assessment & Workplace Training

Case Study No.1 Holmesglen Institute of TAFE, VIC Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL)

Vignette No.2.1 Brisbane and North Point Institute Metals and Engineering Training Package of TAFE, QLD

Vignette No.2.2 TAFE NSW Open Training and Business Services (Accounting) Training Package Education Network (OTEN), NSW

Case Study No.2 Institute of TAFE Tasmania, TAS Textile Clothing and Footwear Training Package


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Table 3: Qualifications profiled in each case study or vignette (cont’d)

Definitions of abbreviations and technical terms Definitions are provided below of abbreviations and terms used throughout this report. Most of the definitions

are taken from the website of the Australian National Training Authority, www.anta.gov.au

ANTA The Australian National Training Authority

AQTF The Australian Quality Training Framework is a set of nationally agreed arrangements to ensure

the quality of vocational education and training services throughout Australia.

ITAB An industry training advisory body (or ITAB), also called industry training advisory board, is an

organisation, usually an incorporated association or company, recognised as representing a

particular industry and providing advice to government on the vocational education and training

needs of its particular industry. There are both national and State and Territory industry trainingadvisory bodies.

ITC An industry training council (or ITC) is a body established by an industry or business sector to

address training issues.

NTF National Training Framework (NTF) is the system of vocational education and training that

applies nationally. It is made up of the Australian Quality Training Framework (AQTF) and

nationally endorsed Training Packages.

RTO A Registered Training Organisation (RTO) is an organisation registered by a State or Territory

recognition authority to deliver training and/or conduct assessments and issue nationally

recognised qualifications in accordance with the Australian Quality Training Framework.

Registered Training Organisations include TAFE colleges and institutes, adult and

community education providers, private providers, community organisations, schools,higher education institutions, commercial and enterprise training providers, industry bodies

and other organisations meeting the registration requirements.


Number Organisation Accredited qualification or program

Vignette No.3.1 Caterpillar Institute (WA) Pty Ltd Certificate II Automotive (Mechanical VehicleServicing);

Certificate III Automotive (Mechanical - Heavy Vehicle);

Certificate IV Assessment & Workplace Training;

Certificate IV Business (Frontline Management)

Vignette No.3.2 East Gippsland Institute of TAFE, VIC Community Services Training Package (child studies,aged care, nursing and community services)

Case Study No.3 Torrens Valley Institute of TAFE, SA Electrotechnology Training Package

Vignette No.4.1 Photography Studies College, VIC Advanced Diploma of Photography

Vignette No.4.2 TAFE NSW Hunter Institute, NSW Workplace English Language and Literacy Program

Case Study No.4 Open Learning Institute of TAFE, QLD Certificate II, III, IV and Diploma of Government;


Vignette No.5.1 Alcan, Yirrkala Business Enterprises and Certificate II Metalliferous Mining OperationsGovernment – East Arnhem Land, NT (Open Cut);

Certificate I, II & III Workplace Education.

Vignette No.5.2 TNT Express, TDT Australia and six Certificate III Transport & Distributionproviders, national (Road Transport)

Case Study No.5 Goodwill Industries WA in Certificate I, Metals and Engineeringconjunction with West Coast Training Package;College of TAFE, WA Workplace English Language and Literacy

Program;



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11Introduction

Training A Training Package is an integrated set of nationally endorsed standards, guidelines and

Package qualifications for training, assessing and recognising people’s skills, developed by industry to meet

the training needs of an industry or group of industries. Training packages consist of core

endorsed components of competency standards, assessment guidelines and qualifications, and

optional non-endorsed components of support materials such as learning strategies, assessment

resources and professional development materials.

VET The vocational education and training sector provides post-compulsory education and training,

excluding degree and higher level programs delivered by higher education institutions. VET

provides people with occupational or work-related knowledge and skills. VET also includesprograms which provide the basis for subsequent vocational programs.


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Why is innovation in VET teaching and learning an issue?

This chapter sets out reasons why innovation in teaching and learning is a dynamic issue for VET.

Key points

Key points raised in the chapter include the following:• Change in VET teaching is being driven by multiple drivers such as global economics, industry restructures

and VET policy responses, such as the policy-led encouragement for more delivery and assessment in the

workplace.

• In particular, the world of work for VET learners keeps changing, requiring continual adaptations in VET teaching.

• Workplace training demands on VET are as diverse as there are enterprises, creating new and additional

roles for VET teachers.

Innovation in teaching is needed when the global context changes

The context for teaching and learning in VET is changing, impacted upon by broad factors such as the availability

of global telecommunications, the emergence of the knowledge economy, changes to the world of work and thenew emphasis on customising and personalising services – encouraging a demand-driven, and learner or

customer-centric approach to education.

Researchers (Waterhouse et al. 1999; Marginson 2000; Robinson 2000; Mitchell & Young 2001) argue that VET

providers cannot stand still and watch while other enterprises respond to globalisation and other forces:

Diversity and creativity is increasingly required of VET in meeting the requirement of organisations to nurture

employees with a high appetite for new learning and making a contribution within empowered teams working

in a flexible environment - individual and collective competence is sought. VET providers are faced with

similar challenges, in respect of their staff, as applies to the individuals and organisations they serve (Waterhouse

et al. 1999).

Two of the responses by VET to the above needs are to promote self-directed learning and lifelong learning. Casestudy 2 in this report illustrates how self-directed learning in the textile arena can prepare the student for making

decisions in the workplace. Case study 3 provides an example of the promotion of lifelong learning

to electrotechnology students, through innovative ways of assessing the development of key competencies.

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Innovation in teaching is a response to multiple change drivers

The drivers of innovation in teaching and learning in VET are numerous. They are also profound in their

cumulative impact and implications. They also interact and make their presence felt in uneven ways. These

drivers include:

• Rising complexity/uncertainty. There is a growing recognition that postmodern society is based on much

higher levels of complexity and uncertainty due to such factors as global, national, regional and local social

and political diversity and pluralism; competing paradigms or world views; conflicting priorities:

fundamental challenges to established authority, values, and power; divergent ways of conceptualising andthinking about business, society and economic and social capital; population trends; and changing markets,

finance and investment conditions.

• Changing structures of work. These changes include the growth of part time and casual or contingent or

shadow workforces and the decline of the standard employment model based on fixed hours, long tenure

and prescribed benefits and social contracts about mutuality and ethics. The changes also include the endless

scarcity and mobility of work and new and more liquid forms of devolved and decentralised work organisation.

• The changing structures of industry and employment. The changes include the growth and movement

in new and older industries and the industry base; the need for continuing modernisation of traditional

industries; the central importance of small to medium sized employment and self-employment; and the

increasing focus on competitive alignments between markets, work organisation, skills and professional

standards for high performance workforces. In this quickening scenario, training, retraining andreplacement training are all critical in their own way and for both organisations and individuals.

• The dynamic knowledge imperative. There is a growth in the economic and commercial value of

knowledge and skills, and especially know-how; that is, the ability of people to apply new knowledge, and to

do this more efficiently at work, often in teams and with higher levels of personal initiative and responsibility.

• The aggressive spread of the value proposition. Although most obvious in business, the proposition

that we must be able to demonstrate the value of our contribution and effort to throughputs and outcomes

is now a commonplace requirement for profit and not-for-profit organisation alike. Examples of this

conviction at the level of organisational identity include: ‘If you don’t add value to a “throughput” you are

unlikely to survive as an organisation’ and ‘Organisational outcomes must always determine throughput

processes’ (Mant 2002).

• Public policy. All Western governments continue to redevelop their positions on society and economy andwithin the constraints of their limited revenue and tax base. This takes many forms that provoke the need

for innovative practice. For example, the National Training Framework (NTF) is an innovative construct for

recognising the multiple ways in which workers can acquire skills and for this recognition to be transferable

from one context to another.

• New technology. The spread of digital communications is increasing the need for information technology

(IT) literacy and fluency across many workforces and challenging the VET system and its staff to integrate,

model and lead this type of learning, and where and when it is relevant. Changes in technology alter the

way in which occupations carry out their normal work tasks and often require new learning by staff both in

industry and VET providers. For instance, clerical tasks in the past might have included running a filing

system, whereas today the system will be driven by a database. Knowing how databases are structured and

accessed and how questions can be asked of them requires a knowledge and skill level different from those

required in previous times.

• Shrinking time horizons. The ‘time to market’ delay between changing productive processes and

delivering products and services is a key indicator of organisational responsiveness. These time horizons are

beyond the control of the production processes, whether they are in industry, government or VET. They

reflect, on the one hand, the impact of competition in the marketplace or ‘client place’ and, on the other,

the fundamentally different scale of demand and expectations for increasingly customised and ‘Just In Time’

goods and services by consumers and suppliers. Time, as a scarce resource, has never been more important.

Individuals, organisations and government are all increasingly ‘time poor’. Options such as e-learning

potentially provide some solutions for the ‘time poor’ worker who is keen to stay abreast of the

developments in their field.

• From mass production to market segmentation. The need for agility in delivering goods and services

that match the particular preferences, wants and needs of different clusters and market segments, is acontinually rising discipline. Client demand is becoming highly differentiated away from standardised

forms of demand that once permitted simpler mass production and the standardised work and delivery

systems behind them.

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As a result of the above change drivers, much more of what has been taken for granted in the recent past is being

contested; and this has important psychological and attitudinal ramifications for people and society, including

the people and cultures in the VET workforces.

Assisting young people to start developing competencies in this increasingly turbulent context is more of a

challenge now than before. Case Study 1 below shows how one VET provider, Holmesglen Institute of TAFE,

continually improves its teaching of youths who have not found a comfortable fit with high school structures.

Despite all the turbulence, the Holmesglen approach creates the possibility of a successful future for ‘youths at

risk’ by effectively linking them with pathways for study, jobs and community life.

A number of the points highlighted above are now discussed in more depth, including the impact of policy,

changes to work and the importance of workplace training.

Innovation in teaching is needed when policy changes

Within the VET sector, teaching and learning is significantly affected by the progressive implementation of the

national training system with its focus on Training Packages and competency-based training, often delivered and

assessed in the workplace. The national training system is an industry-led approach, with industry determining

its training needs and the required standards and competencies. Policy initiatives at both Commonwealth and

State/Territory levels that support the implementation of the national training system provide a spur to

innovation in VET teaching.

Vignette 1.2, on Centrelink and North Coast Institute of TAFE and set out later in this chapter, provides anexample of how competency-based training and assessment can be customised to suit a client’s specific needs in

a call centre environment: a model of client-responsiveness that satisfies the direction of VET policy. Vignette 5.2

in Chapter 5 describes how TNT Express, a national transport company, guided six providers to align their

delivery and assessment strategies to suit the needs of the national enterprise: a model of enterprise client

leadership. In both vignettes, employees undertaking training benefited from achieving nationally recognised

and portable qualifications – important policy goals of the national system.

The increasing focus on e-learning – driven by policy and by government funding sources – has challenged

previous teaching and learning methodologies that were based around teacher delivery in a classroom.

Simultaneously with the rise of e-learning, e-business has created more opportunities for VET providers to provide

additional services for students (Mitchell 2003). Vignette 2.2 in the next chapter describes how a distance

education provider, the Open Training and Education Network in NSW, has incorporated into its delivery model

both e-learning options and over-arching e-business strategies.

The pace is quickening and new pressures are now coming increasingly to the fore across, and within, many more

areas of VET delivery. Put simply, the quality and frequency of innovative activity in teaching and learning must

respond and adjust to the external environment and policy directions.

Innovation in VET teaching is needed when the world of work changes

Innovation is needed in VET teaching so that students can quickly and effectively acquire skills to meet the pace

of industrial, organisational and personal change. For example, innovation in VET teaching needs to reflect the

following requirements in the workplace:

• continuous skilling to meet new and emerging industry needs;

• re-skilling of some staff following the disappearance of many entry-level jobs;

• re-skilling of older employees;

• recognising the current skills of the existing workforce;

• attracting new entrants to industry who have a positive attitude to skill development.

Vignette 1.1 below focuses on the last of these points – attracting new entrants to industry. It relates how a VET

in Schools program is largely conducted in industry workplaces, so that school students could learn in the

workplace, preparing them for the range of options available in an industry many view as conservative – the

manufacturing industry.

Innovation in teaching is needed so that VET students can adjust to the changes in the world of work: for

example, the increase in self-employed workers, the growing casualisation of the Australian workforce and the

emergence of ‘portfolio’ workers holding a cluster of part-time positions. Vignette 4.2 later in this report profilesthe changing world of the photography industry and how one VET provider continually adjusts its learning

programs to ensure its graduates are prepared to work in an industry where self-employed ‘freelancers’ and not

permanent, lifetime employees are now the norm.


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The implications for VET teaching of changes in the workplace are summarised in the following table.

Table 1.1: Workplace changes and implications for education and training (Burns 2002, p.24)

Vignette 3.1 in Chapter 3 of this report, on the Caterpillar Institute (WA), provides examples of trainers modelling

the approach identified by Burns (2002). Changes to Caterpillar technology will never stop, so the Caterpillar

trainers approach the task of assisting trainees to acquire skills in heavy vehicle mechanics as a knowledge-

intensive exercise, where trainees need to develop skills so that they can continue to learn on-the-job, as the

technology changes.

Burns (2002, p.22) suggests that we are moving into a world that is complex and unpredictable; network-based

and horizontally integrated; information rich; and, uncomfortably, largely beyond our personal control. For work

organisations and work-focused societies, one solution to this portrayal of modern life as a ‘swamp’ or move to

chaos is to assist people to capitalise on their learning capabilities in order to learn more rapidly and to apply

that learning:

The new economic paradigm requires flexibility, quality, innovation and knowledge at all levels. Success now

depends on how quickly and well employees can transform ideas into better products and services. In the new

economy, employees capable of rapid learning and willing to undertake retraining in complex tasks/skills are

critical (Burns 2002, p.22).

In order to help employees to become capable of rapid learning in the field of community services, Vignette 3.2

describes teaching staff at the East Gippsland Institute of TAFE using a range of flexible methodologies, such as

the use of on-the-job mentoring, weekly telephone link-ups, individual home study packages, mentoring with

industry based staff with specialist expertise, one-on-one tutor support and an increasing use of online

assessment, assignment submission and tutorials.

Vignette 1.1VET in Schools program delivered in the workplace – Manufacturing

Learning Centres in South Australia

The provision of new pathways for school students to VET and jobs is a critical issue for the VET

sector, if industry is to benefit from the injection of young people. However, providing pathways

for students for jobs and study programs in the manufacturing industry and developing relevant

support programs is challenging, especially in manufacturing.

The manufacturing industry has a generally conservative image for school students and

structural changes in the last decade have given it the appearance of being in decline as an

employment sector of choice.

Offsetting this negative view, the following vignette describes the provision of new VETpathways and opportunities for students. This initiative involves the establishment of new

learning centres within enterprises in South Australia as government strategy there seeks to

reverse a decline in their regional manufacturing sector.


1

Workplace: yesterday Workplace: future Implications for teachers

Mechanical systems Micro-electronic systems Conceptual learning

Labour intensive Knowledge-capital intensive More value added by people

Apprenticeship training on Competency standards to Modular training

time basis specified objectives

Training in more physical skills Learning of systems, social skills Less manual learning; self-directed andself-initiated learning; involvement indecision-making process

Established equipment Prototypes and development Experts are trainers

Individual tasks fragmented Team work; holistic view of More social skills training inproduction; barriers between communication and relationshipsworkforce levels break down

Reactive and passive; routine Proactive and flexible; initiating Learning how to be responsible, makeand anticipative; monitoring decisions and be involvedand diagnosing


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The Manufacturing Learning Centres (MLC) vignette focuses on VET in School students

developing competencies in the workplaces of different-sized manufacturers, ranging from the

large Mitsubishi Motors Australia Limited, to medium sized suppliers of Mitsubishi and other

local manufacturers. In these different organisations, skill is required by teachers and workplace

mentors to ensure the benefits of each workplace are accessible to students.

Challenges

The Australian manufacturing industry is the largest employer of full-time workers. But with

increasing overseas competition the industry needs to invest in new technology, new skills and

quality systems and to attract young people into the workforce (Blight and Dymock 2002).

Manufacturing in South Australia is feeling this pressure very strongly. Although the State is a

particularly important regional producer of white goods and automobiles, its whole

manufacturing base is now subject to strong pressures from cheap imports. To remain

competitive, South Australian manufacturers are adopting world class production standards. In

turn, this means they face the need to reskill and upskill their company workforces.

Jillian Blight, until recently the long-standing manager of the Manufacturing Learning Centres,

and researcher Darryl Dymock believe that industry and education need to develop a clear

understanding of their respective positions if manufacturing training is to be more effective in

South Australia. As they see it:

Not all companies are familiar with the ‘finer points’ of the national training system. They do not

always understand Training Packages, on-the-job assessment and how to combine career

pathways and options for young people with school, work and study. It is also true to say that

not all education workers understand the skills and qualities industry needs in its current and

future employees (Blight and Dymock 2002).

Description of the innovation

Manufacturing Learning Centres (MLCs) grew out of a collaborative project that commenced

in 1991 between Mitsubishi Motors Australia Ltd (MMAL) and six local schools. Originally, there

was one MLC, sited at Mitsubishi Motors in Adelaide’s southern suburbs.The objective of this joint project was to raise the profile of manufacturing and manufacturing

employment in the community. It offered school students the chance to undertake complete

on-the-job learning programs.

The initiative moved through a number of stages. In particular, as described below, a major

change occurred in 2003. As a result, there is now a network of MLCs in a range of enterprises

linked to the administrative hub at Mitsubishi.

An unchanged core aspect of all the MLCs is that student participants develop on-the-job and

industry-specific competencies and generic work skills. These cover communication, teamwork,

problem solving, and planning and organising. At the same time, student participants

contribute to production in their host organisation.

The learning programs are very extensive. For example, they include engineering,

information technology, polymer technology, automotive manufacture (engine parts

machining, engine and car assembly), automotive retail service and repair (tyre fitting, wheel

aligning, detailing, general servicing), business services and hospitality. There are plans for

new career streams in general manufacturing (metals), warehousing, logistics and electronics

(Blight and Dymock 2002).

Drivers

There were a range of interests behind the establishment of these Manufacturing Learning

Centres. For example, local industry wants to attract young people to choose employment in

manufacturing; local secondary schools want more employment and vocational opportunities for their students; and the Onkaparinga Institute of TAFE, a partner in the MLCs, wants to

provide on-going training opportunities for school leavers and local employees in

manufacturing enterprises.


1industry and

education need to

know more about

each other

stepped

innovation

manufacturing’s

image problem


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All of the stakeholders were agreed from the outset that the manufacturing sector needed to

improve its image for school leavers. The MLCs always intended to provide an opportunity for

the stakeholders to construct a collaborative approach to this image problem.

Developing the innovation

The distinction of the project of 1991 which developed into the MLC was that it introduced an

on-the-job learning program for secondary school students that built bridges between school

and workplace learning in the manufacturing workforce. It then added to this foundation. For

instance, in 1998 five new program streams were added to the program: business, trades,

engineering (CAD), automotive manufacturing and information systems. In 1999, with the

introduction of Training Packages and with the change from teaching modules to assessing

competencies, MLCs introduced Certificate-level courses. In the business services stream alone,

this resulted in approximately twenty companies becoming involved and approximately 50

students per year completing a Certificate II, on-the-job.

In 2000-2001 the partnership was expanded to include Training Packages relevant to new

companies in the MLCs’ network. New companies included Schefenacker Vision Systems – an

auto supplier of Mitsubishi – and Seeley International, a maker of air conditioners. Other

prominent companies include Sola Optical, Electrolux, Hills and Coroma. At this point in its

development, the MLCs concept expanded significantly beyond its original Mitsubishi base.

Overall, about 200 students in 2002 completed either partly or fully a Certificate I and II, in

approximately 30 companies. The number of schools involved had expanded to 22.

A change occurred in 2003 when Commonwealth Government funding ended for the MLC’s

manager position. A training coordinator funded by nine schools and Onkaparinga Institute of

TAFE is maintaining the existing program offerings, with new developments currently on hold.

The 2003 program (see http://www.manufacturinglearningcentres.org) has refocused on the

core business of providing learning experiences for the VET in Schools program, together with

some opportunities for students from the TAFE Institute. However, Margie John from

Onkaparinga Institute of TAFE describes the revised arrangements as not changing the character

of the program, as it is still very much industry-led.

Onkaparinga Institute is the RTO for programs in Business, IT, Engineering and Hospitality. In

other career streams, training is provided under the auspices of other RTOs including MitsubishiMotors and Quality Automotive Training.

Program delivery occurs in a variety of modes. By way of example, Graham Hargreaves, the

training coordinator of the MLCs, explains:

For the Business Services stream, all but one of the competencies are delivered on the job. In the

Hospitality, Engineering and Information Systems streams, some competencies are delivered on

the job and some at school. The canteen at Mitsubishi Motors is the site for delivery of parts of

the Hospitality Certificate I program, building on underpinning competencies developed

previously at schools.

Teaching dimensions of the innovation

The Manufacturing Learning Centres partnership model is built not just on networking

principles, but on innovative teaching and human resource (HR) practices, including the use of

action learning and the cultivation of a culture of learning in the workplace.

Much of the teaching available in the workplace is provided by the staff of the manufacturing

companies who act as mentors. Jillian Blight explains:

The mentors involved in the MLC commonly use action learning methodology, which assists in

understanding the difference in learning between the sectors of education and the work provider,

and which develops learning solutions for students which include discovery and problem solving.

The concept of an enterprise being used as a learning centre is still highly innovative and each

MLC has a different contribution to make. Jillian Blight explains that a range of the companies

involved in the program are manufacturing learning centres:

Each one identifies one or more career pathways or streams for students to follow. There are

multiple career pathway offerings in some companies. Students need to appreciate a broad range

of opportunities which many manufacturing companies provide.


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initiativerestructured

cultivation of a

learning culture in

the workplace


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Blight and Dymock (2002) believe that this learning centres model also fits with the increasing

focus on the workplace as a site for learning and the development of a culture of learning (see

for example Boud and Garrick 1999; Hager 1998). The enterprises which are MLCs benefit from

their staff being involved as mentors to external students, assisting the development of a

learning culture. A learning culture is one where ‘the conditions for workplace learning are part

of a work group’s experience and history; where learning opportunities are valued to the extent

that they are actively discovered, invented and developed; and, are structured into the

organisation’s functioning so that opportunities for new learning could continue’ (Owen and

Williamson 1994, 76).

Given these features of a learning culture, the learning centre approach not only benefits the

students, but it also benefits the enterprise. Jillian Blight finds that, based on experience over

the last decade, the learning culture of each manufacturing enterprise improves as a result of

being involved in the MLC program.

Outcomes for students, providers and industry

The MLC model provides positive outcomes for students, schools, the TAFE Institute and

enterprises.

Blight & Dymock (2002) explain that at the end of the placement, students’ communication

and presentation skills are demonstrated and assessed in an oral presentation to other students,

industry mentors and managers, parents, school and TAFE staff. In their presentations, students

describe their workplace experiences, learning and reflections.

These presentation sessions provide the workplace mentors and the teachers involved in the

VET in Schools program with an opportunity to share their learning strategies and assessment

activities and to reflect on and review their own practices. The process provides these teachers

with an understanding of what learning and experiences occur in the enterprise and helps them

to see how students benefit from being involved (Blight & Dymock 2002).

Blight and Dymock (2002) believe that the learning opportunities promoted through MLCs to

young people in schools and TAFE result in the four main areas of benefit:

(a) having access to labour market and course information, (b) gaining greater understanding

and access to the pathways from school to traineeships and employment either directly into the

companies or through labour hire arrangements, (c) acquiring job seeking skills relevant to the

labour market of the 21st Century, and (d) seeing the relevance of lifelong workplace learning

within a training and career pathway.

Enterprises involved in the MLC network benefit not just from attracting new recruits but also

from the development of a learning culture, discussed above.

Transferability and sustainability

Since the beginning of 2003, the viability of this innovation depends upon the continuing

support of 30 local enterprises, the nine partner secondary schools, other schools that purchase

services on a fee for service basis and Onkaparinga Institute.

As an innovative partnership and teaching model it has attracted the interest of groups from

Japan, China, Indonesia and Germany and from other States in Australia.

Messages

The MLC vignette provides a number of messages regarding innovation in teaching and

learning:

• As the organisation of work influences learning, and ‘situated learning’ can lead to high-level

learning (Billett 2001), innovation in teaching is required to optimise the influences of the

workplace on learning.

• There are many benefits in students learning in the workplace, as learning changes both

learners and their environments (Hager 2001), increasing the need for innovative teaching

in the workplace.


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sharing between

workplace mentors

and VET in schools

staff

depends on

ongoing support


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• As informal and incidental learning occur in the workplace, innovation in teaching is

required to ensure that these forms of learning are valued and supported through

mechanisms such as coaching and mentoring and a ‘learning culture’ (Boud and Garrick

1999). Innovation in teaching is needed to enhance a major shift in VET towards learning

in the workplace

• Despite the above exemplar from the manufacturing sector in South Australia, one of the

continuing challenges to teaching in VET since the introduction of the national training

system is to hasten the shift away from teaching in provider classrooms to teaching and

assessing in the workplace.

Innovation in teaching

Despite policy-level support, the concept of workplace learning for VET students has not found universal

acceptance. Billet (2001) examines learning that occurs in the workplace and finds that it struggles to achieve the

recognition it often deserves. He notes that teachers are interested in their students engaging in workplace

experiences to assist the transfer of learning from classrooms, but concern still exists about the legitimacy of

workplace or on-the-job learning experiences (pp.3–4). This concern exists despite the availability of research that

shows that learning in educational organisations is often fragile and not easily transferable to other settings such

as workplaces (p.4).

Learning in the workplace features strongly in many of the vignettes and case studies presented in this report.The positive embrace of learning in the workplace underpins innovations such as the following one from Coffs

Harbour in NSW.

Vignette 1.2Assessment and training customised to meet the client’s strategic goals

– TAFE NSW North Coast Institute and Centrelink

Large organisations such as Centrelink with national and regional networks across Australia can

have complex training needs that require high levels of collaboration with local training providers.

This case study describes the making of a new collaborative regional training arrangement

which can help shape Centrelink’s future relationships with regional VET providers in other parts

of Australia. The approach also has potential for being taken up by other large enterprises inregional Australia.

This innovative approach includes TAFE teachers being prepared to develop programs for

supervisors as well as students. In addition, this approach includes teachers’ willingness for their

performance to be measured in terms of their contribution to the achievement of the client’s

strategic goals.

Converging needs and drivers

The Commonwealth Government’s Centrelink system has staff in over 360 offices around

Australia, including a major call centre at Coffs Harbour.

This case study is about the innovations that arose out of Centrelink’s new relationship withTAFE NSW North Coast Institute. This Institute provides training services from Taree up to the

Queensland border.

Whilst the North Coast Institute aims to excel in the provision of regional training it also sees a much

broader regional development role for itself, particularly in stimulating regional economic growth.

With a limited number of specialist teaching staff spread over a thinly populated and large

geographical area, the Institute’s ongoing challenge is to expand and maintain customised

training services to a wide variety of regionally based clients.

In this context, North Coast Institute faced the challenge of providing training services to

Centrelink’s call centre at Coffs Harbour.

Centrelink is one of Australia’s largest national government agencies, second only to theDepartment of Defence. With 24,000 staff, Centrelink aims to be a world leader in

the speed, quality and consistency of its work, in fields such as call centres and customer

service centres.


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assisting a major

new regional

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Centrelink has its own RTO, the Centrelink Virtual College located in Canberra. This provides

some direct training. However, the scale and regional dispersal of training demand across

its national and regional operations means that external trainers and assessors are also

commonly engaged.

The Centrelink Virtual College has developed print-based, self-paced learning materials and

assessment tasks for telecommunications training for its call centre staff at most locations

including Coffs Harbour. However, additional local training services, particularly assessment, are

needed to assist the learning process.

Centrelink is committed to nationally accredited training and to rewarding the achievement of

nationally recognised training qualifications by using progressive pay systems.

For example, staff at Centrelink call centres receive additional pay if they obtain a Certificate IV

in Telecommunications. Jo Wisely, Training Manager at Centrelink’s Coff Harbour call centre,

explains that, starting in 2001, Centrelink set out to quickly assist over one hundred of its Coffs

Harbour staff to gain national qualifications:

The immediate driver for Centrelink included the need to quickly enable nearly one hundred staff

to gain qualifications to underpin the quality of the call centre services.

To achieve this Centrelink turned for assistance to North Coast Institute.

Developing the innovation

The planning for this began in 2001 and involved personnel from Centrelink and the North

Coast Institute of TAFE. Centrelink was represented in the planning by managers, HR managers,

trainers and the Centrelink Virtual College. In turn, North Coast Institute was represented by

its business manager, internal business consultant and teaching staff.

In collaboration with Centrelink’s Coffs Harbour call centre training manager Jo Wisely,

the two Institute teachers who made the innovation work, were Sandra Bannerman

(Head Teacher, Administrative Services), and Carolyn Fletcher, the teacher who provided the

on-site services.

Initial discussions and planning between the two organisations identified a whole suite

of training needs. Peter Newman, the Institute’s business manager, describes how theinnovation evolved:

The key people from the two organisations got together and built a relationship. Together we

looked at Centrelink’s unusual needs, we found a common goal and we came up with a totally

flexible approach to training and assessing. We kept on talking till we worked it out. Each valued

the other.

Frederick Millard, the Institute’s business consultant, described the next level of the planning

process:

We went to Centrelink to talk about traineeships and ended up talking about a duality of

certification: Centrelink’s and our’s. We mapped Centrelink’s learning modules against the

Training Package competencies. The teacher, Carolyn Fletcher, then worked with Centrelink’s Jo

Wisely, to develop appropriate assessment processes. Jo was Centrelink’s only trainer in Coffs

Harbour, so they needed our help.

The training needs identified in the discussions included recognition of current competence

services and prevocational courses for New Entrant Traineeships and Existing Worker Traineeships

in Telecommunications. In addition, further discussions showed that the Institute could usefully

deliver the Certificate IV in Workplace Assessment and Training to enable the sole Centrelink

training staff member Jo Wisely to provide ongoing training and assessment in the workplace.

North Coast Institute’s Peter Newman, believes there are a number of reasons why the new

collaborative model was effective:

We took a partnership approach to meet client needs; we provided a customer-focused

personalised service; and our services were flexible, particularly the on-the-job assessment service.

We also saw this as a long-term relationship and sought solutions that would be outcomes-

focused in terms of the Centrelink staff.

Other factors that Peter Newman and Jo Wisely believe contributed to the successful

implementation of the innovative model included involving Centrelink staff and facilities in the


1

Centrelink’s

training mapped

against Training

Package

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program delivery. The Institute’s provision of articulation pathways to other VET qualifications

for Centrelink staff was also important.

However, everyone involved in the collaboration agreed that the key to the success of the

implementation of this innovation was the approach of Carolyn Fletcher, the TAFE teacher who

actually provided the onsite training and assessment services to the call centre.

Teaching and assessment dimensions of the innovation

Within this innovative relationship between these two organisations, the teaching and

assessment services provided by the Institute and the support of Centrelink were the two critical

components for success. Jo Wisely from Centrelink explains:

We needed a very flexible approach to assessment by TAFE, as it is very hard for us to take any of

our call centre staff off their phones, for any length of time or in groups. The TAFE assessor,

Carolyn Fletcher, did the bulk of the recognition of current competencies, by sitting and working

with each of our individual call centre operators. She came into our workplace on a regular basis,

got to know the staff and customised her approach to suit us.

Head Teacher Sandra Bannerman adds:

It is an excellent arrangement. We provided the flexibility that Centrelink sought. Centrelink was

very happy that Carolyn, the teacher, was able to work with Centrelink call centre staff in their

workplace, providing a flexible but quality assessment service.

The Institute’s Peter Newman added that coaching and mentoring by Carolyn also underpinned

the relationship between the TAFE and the client.

The teacher Carolyn Fletcher believes that her effectiveness was the result of a number of

deliberate actions she took. Firstly, she took some time getting to know the staff as individuals

and the work they did. As Carolyn explains:

I would work closely with the call centre operators and really learn how they worked. I also kept

up with the new equipment installed in the call centre and made sure I knew how to use it.

Secondly, she places a strong focus on the recognition process with the existing staff:

Many of the staff had been with Centrelink for some time, so I put a lot of time into developing

a tool for mapping their previous training and duties against the Training Package competencies.I worked with each individual in carefully identifying their current competencies. I found that if

they got recognition, it was an incentive for them to continue.

Thirdly, Carolyn was flexible about her availability, saying:

I was available to the staff at their workplace when it suited them. They could make an

appointment and if my proposed times didn’t suit them, I would fit in with them.

Fourthly, even though Carolyn assessed over one hundred staff, she made sure she gave

sufficient time to each staff member:

Each of the staff put in a lot of effort, so I put a lot of time into reading their written work and

giving them feedback, both in writing and verbally. I also gave the team leaders positive feedback

about each person, so they could pass it on.

Fifthly, Carolyn made a point of working closely with the team leaders from Centrelink, so that

her work was integrated with Centrelink’s internal staff development.

Frederick Millard, the Institute’s business consultant, explained that the teaching methodology

used to deliver the Frontline Management program was predominantly based around

workplace projects.

Similarly, the Certificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training involved staff members

undertaking numerous practical case studies taken from Centrelink’s workplace. Frederick

added: ‘We even used the training of new Centrelink staff in the Telecommunications Certificate

IV as part of the program’.

Outcomes for Centrelink staff, the community and TAFE

The student achievements in the first year of the relationship were significant for a regional

town. Ninety-one Centrelink staff in Coffs Harbour completed the Telecommunications


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Certificate IV as New Entrant Traineeships. Eight Centrelink staff also completed the Certificate

IV in Assessment and Workplace Training, a further nine have nearly completed the

Certificate IV in Frontline Management and three completed the Business Certificate IV.

Frederick Millard is proud that many of the staff at Centrelink’s Coffs Harbour call centre now

have a national qualification.

Jo Wisely is clear about the benefits of the collaborative partnership for her staff:

The staff gain a certificate which enables them to move to a new pay point. They received

national recognition for their skills, so they can go to any other call centre and provide accreditedevidence of their skills and knowledge The Certificate IV makes them very employable. It costs an

individual a lot on their own to undertake a certificate, so they welcomed this opportunity to

study under the New Apprenticeship system as either a New Entrant or Existing employee. It is

an opportunity they wouldn’t normally have.

Another benefit for Centrelink is its future growth. Jo Wisely explained: ‘Centrelink bids for new

business, so it is essential that we have highly-skilled and publicly qualified staff’.

Peter Newman and Jo Wisely agree on the importance of the model for regional development.

Benefits include creating local employment opportunities, attracting new people to the region

and encouraging people to stay in the region.

As a result of the initial training, Centrelink and North Coast identified an opportunity to

provide training for people in the local community who might want to apply for work at a callcentre such as Centrelink.

Another unexpected outcome of the partnership is that a number of the staff at Centrelink who

were assisted by North Coast Institute in gaining their Certificate IV in Assessment and

Workplace Training now teach in the TAFE Telecommunications program. Frederick Millard

reflected on the role reversal that occurred as a result of the partnership with Centrelink:

As a result of the work with Centrelink, and

3evp Emerging Futures

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