Description
Economic downturns have a particularly strong impact upon new entrants to the labour market. These can include recently arrived migrants and refugees, women returning to the labour force after a period of child rearing, and youth. This paper reflects on the impact of the recent financial crisis on particular groups in Australian society and comments on whether the VET sector is well placed to meet the challenges of the recovery. An overview accompanies this paper.
Summary
About the research
This paper reflects on some of the challenges for the vocational education and training (VET) sector in responding to the current economic crisis and ensuring that it is well placed to meet the demands of the recovery phase. It is the result of a roundtable organised by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) at Parliament House, Canberra, held on 30 July 2009.
The forum participants identified a number of groups particularly affected by an economic downturn. As well as those made redundant, new entrants to the labour market—notably young people and recent migrants—and those who are generally disadvantaged in the labour market are particularly vulnerable. The apprenticeship system, because of its reliance on employers offering apprenticeships, is also directly affected.
Key messages
- In terms of youth, there is overwhelming agreement on the importance of education and training in the downturn, and this is driven by short-term considerations—the need to keep young people usefully engaged—and long-term considerations—the need to have skilled people in the future.
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The downturn puts the spotlight on a number of tensions within VET:
- the role of institution-based training relative to workplace training, noting that apprenticeships come under pressure if there are insufficient numbers offered by employers. There are clearly different views on this, with some questioning the absolute preoccupation with the apprenticeship model, and those affirming its superiority
- the type of education and training that should be promoted; in particular, there is much support for vocational education which is more broadly based, as distinct from the narrow industry focus of current training packages. We also need to be mindful of the need to ensure that students are engaged in their training, particularly the least academic, who will be most affected by the downturn
- the funding structures, which make it difficult to develop new models. New governance and funding models may be required to create fluidity between the sectors and with fewer institutional barriers.
Tom Karmel
Managing Director, NCVER