Vocational Voices: Season 1, Episode 11
Industry currency and professional obsolescence: what can industry tell us?
Steve Davis (00:00)
Hello I'm Steve Davis. Welcome to this podcast for Australia's National Centre for Vocational Education Research.
Industry currency and professional obsolescence are about the competence of an individual to perform their job. In the report Industry currency and professional obsolescence: what can industry tell us?, researchers have identified how workers in the plumbing, hairdressing and printing industries, as well as professionals in the science, engineering, human resources and health sectors have maintained their industry currency or prevented professional obsolescence.
One of the researchers behind this report is Berwyn Clayton from Victoria University. Berwyn, you present the findings through two lenses in this report, the industrial and the professional. Lets perhaps take one of them at a time. Starting with trades, what are the common strategies used by employers to keep tradespeople current with new technology and the changing ways of working in various industry sectors?
Berwyn Clayton (01:05)
The 22 employers that were kind enough to give us information and their study. We're fairly clear about the things that they thought allowed people to keep up to date, and there were things that they were employing themselves. And I think this is an important issue to make in presenting this research that if it works for industry, it should perhaps also work for VET trainers.
The sorts of things that they felt provided them were good value were trade events, events where their particular industry were testing and presenting new ideas. They read trade magazines and there are many of them. They undertake online research these days because there is a plethora of material that is readily available to them. They are active in industry networks and members of industry associations, and they do take on board the opportunity to learn through training that's provided by product manufacturers and vendors who are selling equipment in the particular industry.
Inevitably, these employers said that they rated that sort of learning really valuable, and that certainly kept them up to speed with the new and emerging technologies that were coming into being. They also they undertook short courses, and they acknowledged that post trade training was also a critical issue.
Steve Davis (02:28)
And was much of this grassroots led, or foisted upon workers by management?
Berwyn Clayton (02:36)
The majority of the employers we spoke to were fairly small establishments. So they took it upon themselves to develop their own skills. This was generally at the behest of a new project, a new job that had to be done. And they had to learn skills to meet client needs to use particular technology. Therefore, they consider they need to upskill.
Generally it was done on the job and inevitably it was done in work teams where three or four people may get together to learn a new technique, to work their way through how they might do things differently. And most often, it was on the job and very much work related learning that took place.
Steve Davis (03:21)
If we flip over to the other lens now, what strategies are used by leading edge organisations to keep professional people up to speed with new knowledge and skills?
Berwyn Clayton (03:31)
Of course, with professionals there is some imperative for them to maintain their professional status by being a member of an association. But in the nine organisations that we spoke to, the learning and development managers emphasised the importance of, I suppose, providing a healthy organisational climate that actually sent the message that keeping current was a critical and expected activity for all of their employers. And what they tended to do is provide formal training, formal qualifications, access to study leave, those sorts of things.
But at the same time, they very much placed emphasis on what could be learned at work, what could be learned within the work team, and how they could reorganise work to allow learning to occur as a natural part of it. Therefore, you saw things like mentoring and coaching. One person put it nicely that we allow people to rub shoulders with experts so that they get an opportunity to learn from others who are more skilled, more experienced.
At the same time learning was very much collaborative. Sharing of knowledge was a critical issue. In fact, some of them ran quite large weekly affairs, which allowed people to come and share new knowledge, talk about their projects, talk about the learning so that others could learn from that process.
Steve Davis (05:01)
If I turn our attention now to a recent position paper by the National Skills Standards Council, there was a reference to the VET workforce along the lines that maintaining the currency of vocational skills of its trainers, teachers, assessors is a challenge. And in fact, the report quotes the Productivity Commission, which said despite a long standing recognition of the central role of industry currency in quality VET delivery, it does not appear to be well researched or understood with evidence of currency gaps in the current workforce.
Now, there's a number of things for us to talk about here, perhaps can we start how important industry currency for practitioners in the VET sector?
Berwyn Clayton (05:46)
It's critical. The qualifications that are being issued need to be of the highest quality, and VET practitioners who do not have current knowledge of industry put those qualifications in jeopardy. Industry is demanding that we produce people ready to work and suitable for positions in a range of occupations and organisations. Without currency, without quality teaching, which is underpinned by industry currency, I believe all of that is in jeopardy.
Steve Davis (06:24)
With your knowledge of the VET sector and looking at the research you've just undertaken. Have you got any ideas why some VET practitioners may well be lagging in these areas?
Berwyn Clayton (06:38)
I believe there are a number of issues. Firstly, we do have an ageing workforce and that can be a benefit. I don't want to give the impression that that's just something that is a negative. But many people have trained quite a long time ago and the skills that they learnt in those times have now to some extent faded or eroded, and new and emerging ways of working, particularly in the area of technology, means that gaps open up between what was learnt and what now is needed. So that is one of the critical issues.
The other is, I think also it's a personal thing. It's not only up to the organisation to ensure that people are given the opportunity to upskill, but individuals must also choose to upskill and make sure that their skills are appropriate for the units of competency they are teaching. They need to network closely with industry so that they can understand what changes have occurred in order to realign themselves.
I think another issue is also there's a lack of funding. There is very little funding for professional development. People must grab it where they can and with limited resources, it certainly is insufficient to sustain what is a very large workforce.
Steve Davis (07:59)
There were some references of some strategies to adopt within this position paper by the National Skills Standards Council. But I wonder, what do you think? What sort of things can VET practitioners do to stay current within their fields? And the other side of that question, how might they demonstrate that to the market?
Berwyn Clayton (08:18)
To answer that question, I think there are two issues. The impetus must also be for the organisation as well as individuals. So if I can tackle it from an organisational perspective, to keep people current requires organisers. Organisations are quite strategic in their thinking and planning about how they upskill people. Obviously not all trainers and assessors need to constantly refresh their skills, but rather it needs to be those who are responsible for implementing innovations which support interaction. New technology, a new training package, or where there is client demand for change.
From an individual's point of view. I think it is an acceptance that it is part of the job, that maintenance of currency is the business as it is in the professions. Constantly upgrade. Work out how and where you might access opportunities to learn, and not just assume that the organisation will do it for you, it's a team effort here, organisation and individual.
But again, it's about linking with industry informally and formally being members of an industry association, networking, attending trade fairs, etc.
Steve Davis (09:36)
Including some placement?
Berwyn Clayton (09:39)
Industry placement is an interesting activity and from the employers in our study, it is clearly even that they're not particularly fond of it. I think one of the issues about return to industry is it's very difficult for industry to organise. It's sometimes disruptive, and it's not always possible to find opportunities to stop the machines, stop the hair cutting, to explain new processes and strategies. So I think from an employer perspective, they'd rather come and talk to people than have them in the workplace. But it very much depends on whether it can be structured to suit the individual needs and is not disruptive of industry.
Steve Davis (10:23)
Do you think there's much to be said for the fact that in some VET organisations a large number of the trainers assessors work part time, as opposed to someone who's full time hairdressing or working full time as a human resources consultant.
Berwyn Clayton (10:38)
Well, the challenge there is if the part time trainers are actually still in industry, that's wonderful, they can maintain their currency. The trick for the organisation, of course, is to encourage them to come and share their ideas with those who are full time and less likely to be able to access industry information, knowledge and new technologies that might be emerging.
Steve Davis (11:02)
Berwyn are there any obvious things that spring to your mind that would enable VET organisations to demonstrate to their sectors that they are maintaining currency?
Berwyn Clayton (11:13)
That's an interesting question, because quite clearly, we will need to provide evidence to those who audit organisations. I think it's best to understand what currency might look like in practice before we can actually report against it. So I'd be interested to have a much better definition of what industry currency might look like in practice.
Steve Davis (11:38)
In summing up then, there's a lot of work ahead of us in the VET sector. Is it right to say the responsibility does not lay directly at the feet of individuals within the sector alone, or of the organisations there, but it's shared in some way or shape.
Berwyn Clayton (11:55)
Yes, Steve, I think that is true. It is really, it has to be a partnership, and it's a partnership that requires individuals to accept their responsibility and for organisations to acknowledge that they have one as well.
I think one of the critical issues is perhaps to not talk about individuals when you're talking about currency, but instead to talk about work teams, because I think it's much easier to maintain a work team's currency across an industry than it is with individuals. And maybe that's a clue about how organisations might manage this process. It's not a matter of everybody being absolutely up to speed. It is a means of having someone there who can share it with others, but all have to accept responsibility. That's part of being a professional, and it's part of being a VET practitioner, is to maintain your technical currency and to be seen by industry as a valid trainer in what is now an essential area.
Steve Davis (12:57)
Thanks for listening to this podcast produced by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research. If you'd like to download Industry currency and professional obsolescence: what can industry tell us?, visit our website www.ncver.edu.au