Winter 2007

Careers and transition

VET in schools–not the Enron story!

Sandra Kenman looks at the success of Vocational Education and Training (VET) in Schools, and finds that its success is not because of hyped-up marketing, but rather because it constitutes an important part of the post-school curriculum.

When looking for models of success in the business world, from which to learn lessons applicable to the educational sector, don’t look at Enron. Enron, the corporate giant, was established in the USA when energy became deregulated and survived on ‘talking it up’—convincing everyone including auditors, assessors and stockholders to jump on the ‘get rich’ band wagon. Very few asked about (and more probably didn’t want to know about) the actual outcomes, the cash flow, the tangible gains. The dream kept the billion-dollar company going until two reporters from the Fortune magazine, Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, started asking questions as to why the stock continued to rise. They subsequently wrote the book The Smartest Guys in the Room that exposed the real Enron and what ultimately became one of the most spectacular crashes in US corporate history.

What is the relevance of the Enron story to the apparent rise and rise of VET in Schools? Like Enron, VET in Schools gained early and significant popularity initially because of ‘talking up the take up’. Between 1996 and 2004, for example, VET in Schools enrolments increased nationally by over 350 per cent, from 60,000 to 212,000. However, unlike Enron, VET in Schools has proved to be generally much more than a hyped-up marketing phenomenon. Instead it has produced tangible outcomes for young participants, has introduced multiple career and further education pathways and has nurtured the value of recognising individual differences in future aspirations. As a result not only are young people’s transitions likely to be more successful, but also local and national community employment and training needs are better met.

Tangible outcomes

If the status of VET in Schools has been initially driven by ‘take up’, its current status and success has been more an outcome of the enduring success stories reported across the nation. Indeed since the mid 2000s, enrolments have tended to plateau, although there is significant difference between States, across sectors and within different variants (VET in Schools compared with school-based apprenticeships, for example). The outcomes that have helped to enhance the status of VET in Schools appear to include an increase in the value attributed to post-compulsory certification, a drive for extensive curriculum reform, a recognition that learning environments beyond schools (including workplaces) can be valued, and an increased valuing of young people and their contribution to capacity building in local and national communities.

VET in Schools has moved from a fall back option for lower achievers to a valued alternative curriculum with increasingly strong national endorsement. Many schools saw advantages in marketing national certificates driven by a strict quality control mechanism, Australian Quality Training Framework (AQTF). In the early days of VET in Schools as part of the national agenda, there was considerable debate about the economic rationalism of the curriculum and plenty of examples of the jealous guarding of ‘curriculum turf’ against the invading VET hoards. The fight to see scarce school-based resources allocated to VET in Schools programs has been an enduring one, and given that somewhere in the vicinity of 95 per cent of schools with senior secondary enrolments now offer one or more VET in Schools programs, is confirmation of its now enduring status.

Meeting local and national community needs

Fortunately State and Federal Governments recognised the importance of providing both initial seeding funding and, more recently, recurrent funding for VET, which supported the development and implementation of courses, and which has assisted in building an inclusive curriculum in line with national rhetoric. Numbers grew, teachers became trainers, and schools or districts became Registered Training Organisations (RTOs). Today we look to both ends of the education spectrum to help overcome skills shortages—encouragement for young people at schools to take up VET, traineeships and apprenticeships and at the other end keeping the experienced oldies on the job.

There is now growing evidence that VET in Schools has shifted from being driven by teacher and school resource availability to genuinely contributing to addressing the national skills shortages. In Tasmania, for example, VET in Schools programs are now offered in over 25 Training Packages, including aquaculture and fin-fishing, as well as forestry, building and construction and aviation.

VET is now seen as a viable alternative for all students, not just for those who may have difficulty with the traditional school curriculum. While the issue of whether the type of education young people receive should be driven at least in part by social and community needs such as skills shortages remains contentious, there appears to be a growing consensus that, in line with international developments, learning about the world of work is a valid and legitimate educational imperative. At times, however, the endemic concern about declining standards in the core curriculum areas of languages, mathematics, sciences and social sciences targets VET and other alternative curriculum initiatives as anathema. If we look to the past, we acknowledge that learning ‘on the job’ has always been valued, so the question may be more to do with balance and timing. The challenging question is when should young people be exposed to VET, when should more concentrated VET be available, and how do we help a young person decide whether or not to choose trade training?

Valuing difference

It remains difficult to paint a clear picture of how successful VET in Schools has been. The complexities of the VET sector, idiosyncratic local issues, and the difficulties in obtaining destination or post-school data have not assisted this sort of assessment. Some States have had more success with VET in Schools than others. Queensland for example, has led the nation in terms of the uptake of school-based traineeships and apprenticeships, while New South Wales claims over 50 per cent of senior secondary students undertake a VET course. Victoria has probably been most successful in building VET assessment into conventional senior secondary certification, both with the VCE and more recently its Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL).

Some schools and colleges appear to be far more successful in assisting post-school transitions into employment and training through their VET programs. Rosny College in Tasmania, for example, boasts 100 per cent success in career and training outcomes in its building and construction and business administration programs. Elsewhere, strong partnerships between schools, local business and communities appear to consistently support positive transitions. Junee High School in NSW has a fine record of successfully supporting young people into further training and employment in a rural community subject to the vagaries of seasons and markets.

‘Are we there yet?’ is a question rarely answered with a ‘Yes’ when we work in a continuous improvement system, with a dynamic industry driven agenda. The status of VET in Schools has improved and will continue to improve because there has been an identifiable and shared need for change, a shared set of stakeholder visions, a national, State and local commitment to resourcing, well-documented strategies through a national curriculum, promotion of good delivery models and reinforcement through the application of quality control measures that characterise mainstream VET delivery.

So VET in Schools has not been a ‘flash in the pan’ initiative—it appears to be here for the long haul and while some frustration exists through a perceived lack of adequate resourcing in some sectors, the consensus seems to be that it now constitutes an important part of the post-school curriculum.

Some suggest that VET is now declining in popularity and that there is a strong move to rationalise the curriculum. Unlike the Enron roller coaster ride, which ended in the ‘poor house’ for some and jail for others, the VET roller coaster may have reached a peak in numbers but levelling out will mean more careful selection by students suited to VET and hopefully more completion rates and successful transitioning to trades. Quantity in qualifications may be replaced by ‘skills sets’. Schools as sites of training may become more specialised. Fewer students in VET may in fact lead to more outcomes. The success of VET in Schools should not only be measured by the number of students enrolled but by the difference VET has made to each individual in their particular circumstances, and in meeting community needs for an educated and trained workforce.

References

Anlezark, A, Karmel, T & Ong, K (2006). Have school vocational education and training programs been successful? NCVER, Adelaide.

Frost, M (2006). ‘The impact of VET in Schools on new certification of post-compulsory education and training in Australia’, VOCAL, Volume 6, 2006–2007, VETnetwork, Australia.

Hill, A and Dalley-Trim, L (2006). ‘Getting research around VET in Schools on the agenda’, VOCAL, Volume 6, 2006–2007, VETnetwork, Australia.

Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) (2004). National Data on Participation in VET in Schools Programs & School-based New Apprenticeships for the 2004 School Year. Retrieved from www.mceetya.edu.au/verve/_resources/vetdata2004.pdf

Sherman, R (2006). ‘Down the track: TAFE outcomes for young people two years on’, VOCAL, Volume 6, 2006–2007, VETnetwork Australia. www.vetnetwork.org.au

Sandra Kenman is the executive officer for Vocational Education and Training Network Australia.

The author owns the copyright in this article. For information related to the reuse of this work in any form please contact the publisher denise.quinn@curriculum.edu.au