Thinking differently about the status of VET: an institutional logics perspective
Authors:
Don Zoellner
Charles Darwin University
Theme: Teaching & Learning
Presentation:
Since the election of the Federal Labor Government in 2022, a plethora of reports have re-affirmed the view that VET is a low status alternative in Australia’s socio-economic process of skills and knowledge development. Most contributors see this situation as undesirable, but other than repeating well-rehearsed shibboleths, fresh ways to address the problem are glaringly absent.
This presentation explores how status works by applying an institutional logics perspective as a novel addition to existing research in the sector.
The recent parliamentary inquiry into the status of VET and the appointment of members to the Jobs and Skills Australia Advisory Board demonstrate that institutions decide how this sector works. Institutions have their own logics that determine their world views and what attracts their attention. The VET sector’s dominant institutional logics derive from the state, market and professional orders of society. These three share an emphasis upon the use of status to determine how organisational leadership allocates limited and valuable attention to their operating environments and consequent decision-making. The institutional logics perspective challenges the traditional depictions of what status represents and, in turn, suggests how public policy can be re-imagined, thus improving the sector’s standing and value propositions.