Future workforce needs new approach to skills and training

When we talk about preparing people for the workforce, it is often framed as being a choice between vocational education, going to university, or on-the-job training.

The problem with that paradigm is that the speed of technological advances means future workers will probably need to do all three, and not just once. They will need to constantly move in and out of education throughout their careers to update their knowledge and skills.

The sensible first response is to make it easier for students to move between the three settings, and to ensure they receive recognition for their previous learning – no matter where it occurred. But a new experiment in Sydney’s north-west goes a step further by looking at how a fully integrated approach could work.

Earlier this year, the Institute for Applied Technology (Digital) opened its doors on a site at Meadowbank TAFE. It brings together the University of Technology Sydney, Macquarie University, TAFE NSW and Microsoft.

It aims to take the best of each type of training, giving learners a rigorous yet practical and industry-relevant education in digital technologies such as big data, cybersecurity, software development and artificial intelligence. Employers are crying out for graduates in these areas, and that demand is only expected to increase.

This is a significant moment for those of us who have been trying to offer integrated educational offerings in Australia.

IATs were originally recommended by Professor Peter Shergold and David Gonski in their 2020 review of the NSW vocational education and training sector. The report’s findings were clear: the future of education must involve a more seamless, connected approach that puts the learner at the centre of the system. The IATs are one model to achieve this.

Progressive pathways

IATs are a distinctive, and new, form of tertiary education – blending VET and higher education with a focus on preparing students with industry-based employability skills to meet emerging workforce needs.

IATs are not super-TAFEs, nor dual-sector institutions. Nor do IATs replace university-based programs that already deliver foundational or bridging courses to higher education students.

IATs integrate curriculum with progressive pathways, through which students will be able to stack meaningful qualifications that are valued and recognised by industry.

It is the education delivered that is distinctive: IATs integrate practical and theoretical components of education by bringing the best of academia and industry together. They address shortcomings in the tertiary system, such as responsiveness to changing industry training needs. Students gain skills and microcredentials that are recognised by education partners.

The national universities accord process has this in its sights, as does the new Jobs and Skills Australia.

The Productivity Commission recently recommended other states and territories follow the example set by NSW’s IAT model. The point has been made repeatedly that the current system does not work for students. It would seem the political appetite to find solutions is finally here. So, what are the possible solutions?

Changes to current funding settings must better incentivise collaboration, co-design and innovation across industry and providers.

For the IATs in NSW to succeed, we need to spend the next four years expanding the program and evaluating what works, with continuing state government support and, ideally, additional federal support.

Other individual universities and TAFEs are collaborating in parts of the country, but this activity is ad hoc and, by all accounts, many of the same pain points are being felt. We need a determined push by state and federal governments to evaluate the various pilot programs, catalogue the barriers and commit to breaking them down.

In the longer term, governments need to work together. Changes to current funding settings must better incentivise collaboration, co-design and innovation across industry and providers, and provide students with a smoother transition across different loan and fee settings.

This work is complex and won’t be done in a year. One of the outcomes of the universities accord process should be the initiation of a formal co-ordinating council to address issues at the intersection of VET and higher education, including qualifications, reciprocal recognition of prior learning, collaborative courses, provider funding models and student funding, preferably with a commitment to Commonwealth Supported Places for joint courses like those on offer at the IATs.

This would go a long way to creating a future nation that has the individual students and their future employability at its heart.

Professor Bruce Dowton is Vice-Chancellor of Macquarie University and Professor Andrew Parfitt is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Technology Sydney. This article was originally published in the Australian Financial Review.