Building learning communities: Partnerships, social capital and VET performance

This research examines the impact of vocational education and training (VET), and its project-based activities and partnerships, on the development of sustainable communities in regional Australia. It finds that VET plays a critical role as the entry point to learning and builds considerable social and other forms of capital in regional communities. 'Building capital' means making the most of available resources and trying to generate more resources when required. Social capital refers to the network of relationships and skills which result from community and civic activities. This study points to new opportunities for integrating these assets into strategic regional development.

• Vocational education and training, VET partnerships and project-based training have created and mobilised social capital, as well as human, environmental, cultural and built (that is, physical) capital in regional Australia. These various types of capital are core requirements for sustainable regional development.

• Vocational education and training and VET partnerships play a critical role in creating individual and community confidence and are often the key entry points to learning and employment.

• There is a need for a more holistic approach to training, giving consideration to the continuing learning pathway along which an individual may travel, as opposed to focusing on discrete packages and modules. This is especially apparent in Indigenous communities where training can impose community obligations.

• There are excellent examples of VET leadership in regional development but, in general, vocational education and training and VET partnerships are not full participants in regional development plans and strategies. The changing regional landscapes will benefit from more input from the VET sector.

• VET has responded well to a growing consolidation of larger regional service centres, where the 'higher order' skills associated with new technologies and electronics are often required. Less well resolved is the role of VET in smaller centres. There is a need for effective regional delivery models which link these service centres.

The initial aim of this research project was to focus on two aspects of vocational education and training (VET) in regional Australia. First, there was a need to know about and understand more adequately the role of VET and VET partnerships in regional development. These partnerships are creative associations entered into by the VET sector with the community and/or business and/or other institutions. Their aim is to enable the region as a whole to 'build capacity': the power to make the most of available resources and to develop the ability to generate even more resources should they be required. VET partnerships contribute to developing and facilitating 'social capital': the network of relationships within a society that are built on trust, reciprocity and loyalty, and which can improve the efficiency of society by aiding coordinated action.

Second, there was a concern to identify indicators and performance measures to determine the impact of VET in regional Australia. To undertake this, VET (and indeed other organisations and agencies) need to know more about their activities in regions.

A considerable body of good data on the state of the regions exists in Australia. But these data more often reflect a broader regional scale and tend to focus on trends, such as whether regions are growing or declining and on the levels of available human capital. To assess the value of the role of VET in the regions, there is a need to add a qualitative dimension to the existing data. This study seeks to do this.

The underlying theme in this study is that a shift towards learning communities represents both a pragmatic and creative response to the needs of regional Australia. The concept of learning communities is pragmatic, because it involves both people and institutions with the knowledge and skills necessary for effective regional development in a knowledge economy and learning society. It thus provides a fundamental and sound approach for regional development in the current global context. Yet the concept also affords opportunities for creative associations and ways of responding to change. It suggests that the VET sector and VET partnerships can play a critical role in the development of these kinds of learning infrastructures and processes.

To produce qualitative data, case studies have been undertaken of 12 regions. The 12 regions were selected because they each exhibited a cross-section of the characteristics of declining, growing, stagnating, as well as differing levels of human capital. But they also exhibited interesting 'landscape' characteristics, such as 'amenity', 'irrigation', 'restructuring' and 'intercultural' (for definitions of these terms, see appendix 1). Although a particular region could exhibit more than one of these characteristics, this project used only one landscape characteristic to describe each region. This captured the kind of activity that was dominant in the landscape (for example, restructuring) or identified a point of difference (that is, intercultural) that would impact on the role of the VET sector in the region. By examining the role of VET through a landscape perspective, there was an opportunity to identify how the VET sector might engage more widely in the economic and social development of regions.

This study reveals some interesting opportunities and challenges for the VET sector. It is clear that VET and VET partnerships play an important role in the regions for building and maintaining capacity. While there are still some negative attitudes about VET vis-?-vis higher education, the VET sector emerges as a critical entry point, in terms of employment and skills development, for both school leavers and those re-entering the workforce. Within this context there have been key findings, such as the increasing need for a holistic, whole-of-person approach to training rather than discrete packages and modules, although these individual components could be restructured to form appropriate learning pathways. This kind of training plays crucial roles in building confidence and social connections and connectedness-both for individuals and organisations.

In this regard there is a plethora of good stories illustrating how VET and VET partnerships have developed relevant and innovative learning environments. Quite literally, hundreds of inspiring 'learning fires' have been lit across regional Australia. These initiatives have several important effects. They have created an interest in learning in communities, they have developed leadership, creativity and innovative thinking among VET providers, and they have laid the foundations for a significant amount of social capital in regional Australia.

But they have done more. These projects are applied and hands-on. They make a visible difference to the landscape, often in the development or maintenance of locally needed infrastructure. As a consequence, the study reveals that VET has played a key role in the development of other forms of capital, such as human, environmental, built (that is, physical) and social capital. All these forms of capital add significant value to the community balance sheet and the assets to be mobilised for sustainable regional development.

However, the study also reveals that many of the VET providers, for a range of reasons-but often related to the need to stay competitive-have not fully understood or engaged with the multiple roles of regional landscapes. Specifically, there is not necessarily a full understanding of the economic
base and therefore there is little alignment of local social and economic needs to training and skills development, although there are exceptions to this. Yet we would argue that these changes taking place in the regional landscapes, especially those associated with natural resources management, not only require a VET-related response, but also afford new opportunities for some regions.

Broadly, the study suggests that the many effective and successful initiatives and the nature of the VET partnerships have now developed the capacity within the VET sector to take a more strategic and regional approach to planning, delivery and investment. The experience, leadership and social capital are there, and it is time now to consolidate these activities to more explicitly benefit and complement regional development. There are one or two good examples of this identified within the study (for example, Cradle Coast, Orange), and other examples-such as the Regional Catchment Planning processes funded by the National Heritage Trust-which might provide models on how to proceed.

The study suggests that adopting a regional approach is all the more urgent, as there would seem to be broader changes likely in the patterns of service delivery and access across much of regional Australia. This study (along with other reports) suggests a consolidation of larger regional service centres. Often VET has responded well to this trend and supports the training needed in these centres for those higher-order skills often associated with new technologies and electronics. However, this raises questions in regard to the role of smaller centres and the small VET providers. Is a more coordinated approach with larger nodes and specialised local units the answer? Again the study revealed one or two good local/regional responses to these issues.

The study revealed that VET has responded well to the broader social issues especially apparent in regional centres, such as an ageing population and the growing number of retirees. VET has initiated a range of innovative partnerships and delivery systems across the health care sector. There is recognition of the need for shared community-based systems.

There are also some outstanding examples of the ways in which training is now being developed for Indigenous communities and in remote areas. In several regions the study identified Indigenous training delivered 'on country'. Often this training was linked to the broader natural resource management agenda and involved partnerships with the private and public sectors. All of these encountered new forms of social capital. It is clear that VET partnerships have enabled the creation of new and different learning environments (for example, mobile adult learning units, weekend schools, multi-partner campuses).

However, there was broad agreement that small and medium enterprises have not engaged well with training. Some suggested that VET, as a response to increased competition, has been too focused on big business.

The qualitative analysis of these 12 landscapes provides data which enrich the broader macro-descriptors of regions in Australia. However, the qualitative probing also affords an opportunity to structure, assess and then refine a set of indicators which provide some measure of the performance and impact of VET and VET partnerships. One of the criticisms of the evaluation of programs in regions and communities is that the impacts measured often give only the 'passive' effects, rather than demonstrating the longer-term sustainability and embeddedness of projects, initiatives and training.

Two sets of indicators were used for this study. The first set of indicators sought to gain a deeper understanding and an evaluation of the performance of the VET sector, as far as its role in partnerships is concerned. These included:

• the nature of the collaboration and partnerships, which seeks to look at the formal and informal agreements in place, types of partners, as well as issues of co-location

• governance and management of partnerships, which seeks to study how the memorandums of understanding or formal arrangements are set up and administered

• types of learning environments created through the partnerships, which particularly seeks to identify examples of 'Mode 2' learning (Burton-Clark 1998)-for example, applied knowledge such as community-based research/projects-and types of learning pathways

• leadership and innovation, which seeks to identify how the partnerships have developed and promoted new opportunities

• connections with wider community, which seeks to identify how social capital is generated, what benefits are generated, what networks are created

• shared resources, which seeks to identify how partnerships have enabled sharing of resources such as facilities, markets and people.

There was plenty of evidence of partnering among VET providers. Equally apparent were partnerships with industry and local government. Many of these partnerships were informal and highlight the importance of trust-it contributes to the development of capital and provides a framework for a more comprehensive coverage of services.

A second set of indicators sought to identify and measure VET performance in regional development, particularly in relation to the development of learning-based communities. These included:

• knowledge and skills transfer, which seeks to identify and map the ways in which VET contributes to the learning and education within the region

• enterprise development, which seeks to identify how the VET sector has either supported, enabled or spawned enterprise development

• value-adding to local supply chains, which seeks to identify the ways in which the VET sector is aware of, contributes to, and adds value to local industry supply chains

• mobilising social and other forms of capital, which can be defined as the results of the generation of capacity

• civic engagement, which includes working parties, committees and leadership roles in the community

• innovation and creativity, which seeks to identify ways in which VET has contributed to access to, and use of technology, and changing technology.

The strength of the impact is largely derived from the viability, longevity and resilience of the partnerships described above. VET partnerships have supported interesting local enterprise developments and enabled a range of innovative and creative responses to regional situations. But the impact of VET is best indicated by the generation of new forms of capital. The critical question which now emerges is how to mobilise these different forms of capital to ensure regional sustainability.