Keeping up with technology: A pilot study of TAFE and the manufacturing sector

• Most studies on innovation have focused on emerging industries and the ability of the vocational education and training (VET) sector to help them meet their skills and knowledge needs. This study focuses on the manufacturing sector, a traditional client of vocational education and training, and examines in particular how well technical and further education (TAFE) teachers maintain the currency of their skills, and support innovative work practices and the adoption of new technologies in the sector.

• The manufacturing sector has a particularly high level of innovation and a large VET-trained workforce, so it is imperative that TAFE maintains not only current skills and knowledge about the latest technology, but also its capacity to support innovation in the sector.

• TAFE teachers are involved in seeking information about, and supporting, innovation and technical development through a wide variety of approaches outside their normal teaching activities. However, this role in technology diffusion, deployment and innovation goes largely unnoticed and it has become even harder as work levels have intensified and key staff numbers have been reduced.

• Both TAFE teachers and the employers they service are satisfied with the currency of teachers' skills and knowledge. Neither are satisfied with the currency of equipment for teachers, nor with the formal professional development available for maintaining that skills and knowledge currency. However, industry associations have concerns about staff qualification levels.

• Teaching staff surveyed note that there are no formal mechanisms for evaluating new technologies and equipment for incorporation in teaching programs.

• The role of the VET sector in technology diffusion needs to be more widely acknowledged. It needs to be more integrated into national innovation policy and research and development programs because of its dual role of ensuring that appropriate training is available and promoting new technologies to small and medium-sized enterprises. The VET sector also needs to acquire more capacity to monitor technological trends and innovation in industry, and to help assess the implications of this for vocational education and training.

This report seeks to determine how technical and further education (TAFE) teachers can maintain the currency of their skills and knowledge, and support innovative work practices and the adoption of new technologies. It is one of the first research projects undertaken in Australia to look at innovation in an established industry such as manufacturing, rather than a new or emerging industry, and should thus be regarded as a pilot study. In addition, sample sizes for the surveys were not large, so results cannot be generalised to the entire TAFE system. Finally, the absence of a broad range of national data on TAFE teacher numbers, qualifications and capital investment methods meant that it was not possible to objectively test some of the claims of survey participants.

In recognition of the growing importance of 'productive knowledge' in national prosperity and competitiveness, many countries are devoting more support to the creation and deployment of innovation. In Australia the vocational education and training (VET) sector is largely excluded from national innovation strategies. In other countries, such as Finland, Germany and the United States, public vocational colleges are an important part of such policies. The colleges run technology deployment programs which encourage industry to adapt well-established technologies and raise both the level of productivity and the capacity for product and process innovation, especially in small-to-medium-sized firms. These programs include a broad range of consultancy, technology demonstration and applied research and development functions, separate from traditional classroom teaching. They are particularly useful for small and medium-sized firms, which typically have fewer resources to identify potentially valuable technologies, to evaluate competing technologies and to adapt these technologies to the particular needs of their firms.

The study chose manufacturing programs in TAFE as its subject because previous research indicates that the manufacturing industry has a particularly high 'innovation intensity'. An innovative industry is defined as one which has 'implemented technologically new or significantly improved products and processes. Those characterised as intensive have contributed to the national expenditure on innovation after putting particular effort into research and development'(Toner 2004, p.6).

Manufacturing was also selected because it is a mature industry with well-established technologies and standards, as well as having a large workforce which has studied with a VET provider, and well-developed TAFE infrastructure. It also provides an interesting contrast with other studies which have focused on 'emerging' industries. Empirical data were collected through a survey of 18 TAFE teachers in manufacturing programs. In addition, interviews were conducted with eight innovation-intensive manufacturing firms which receive training from TAFE, and four education and training officers from a major industry association covering the manufacturing industry. The study also includes a literature review which focused on two commissioned studies addressing similar issues in the public VET system in Germany and the United States.

The survey data found that TAFE teachers used a wide range of external and internal sources to identify new technologies and associated teaching methods. The most important external sources included leading-edge users/producers/suppliers of equipment, industry associations, learners and the actual manufacturing plants. The most important internal sources were internet searches and journal circulation. Information-sharing with other intrastate and interstate colleges and professional development were also important. However, links between TAFE and universities and cooperative research centres, which could provide important information-sharing opportunities, were viewed as weak and in need of strengthening.

Just over three-quarters of teachers indicated that there was no prescribed formal method for evaluating and selecting new technologies to be used in teaching. Formal methods were defined as activities such as surveying an industry to determine if there was a demand for training, evaluating the technical superiority of competing technologies, or formally calculating costs against expected revenues. Although some teachers included aspects of this information in written requests for the acquisition of technologies, most teachers confirmed that there is no prescribed procedure or process to follow for evaluating or selecting technologies.

The acquisition of new technologies typically occurs by direct purchase through tender. Other methods of acquisition, such as leasing or sharing costs with industry, are not generally used. Important sources of equipment and consumables included donations from industry, the armed services, equipment suppliers and large firms which had established close relations with TAFE. Some courses are heavily reliant on donations from industry for their continued operation, and this dependence appears to be increasing.

Once new equipment or software is acquired, teachers need to be educated in the new technology. This can occur in a number of ways, such as accessing training from equipment suppliers, or learning internally at TAFE through developing learning materials for the new equipment. In addition, recruiting new staff who are familiar with the new technologies, seeking advice from industry and participating in return-to-industry programs can help teachers in the process. Half the teachers claimed that modification of equipment and software occurs in response to the needs of the teaching environment, and a quarter suggested modifications are made to meet the needs of prospective employers of students.

On the basis of the surveys of teachers and employers, it is evident that teachers are involved in technology deployment and even applied research and development with firms through a wide range of processes, as well as classroom teaching. For example, some small and medium-sized enterprises purchase equipment based on the needs of TAFE because this offers a number of benefits to all concerned. It ensures a ready availability of training and technical advice, and that teachers are involved in product and process development through consultancies and return-to-industry programs. In addition, TAFE colleges can run demonstrations and exhibitions of equipment by suppliers, and universities can become involved in research and development projects.

The involvement of teachers in this broad range of deployment and product and process improvement in firms is an important finding since, as noted above, the TAFE system is not generally recognised by government as part of the Australian innovation system. It is also largely absent from government innovation or technology deployment programs. As is explored later, there appear to be increasing barriers to the TAFE system's ability to take part in this process. These include the restructuring of some TAFE departments, the difficulty of maintaining its current knowledge base, and the uncertain role that teachers play in technology deployment.

Only two of the teachers interviewed were satisfied with the capacity of TAFE to identify new technologies. However, most teachers felt their qualifications and knowledge were satisfactory for their current role. Teachers believed that, despite an increasing number of barriers to preserving the currency of their knowledge and skills, they were still managing to maintain satisfactory standards.

Barriers identified by the teachers included inadequate resources in terms of reduced staff numbers, an inability to maintain the currency of equipment, and reduced access to professional development and return-to-industry programs. These barriers are interdependent because capital and recurrent funding are linked to student numbers which, in the manufacturing industry, have declined over the last decade.

Other impediments include reduced information dissemination regarding new technologies, due to the closure or downgrading of central agencies within TAFE whose job it was to collect, analyse and disseminate information on new technologies and develop learning materials. It is also due to the application of the National Competition Policy to TAFE colleges, which makes them compete for public and private training contracts. Teachers believed that this competitiveness between colleges meant that it was no longer in their interests to share information and resources as had occurred in the past. Another point raised by some of the teachers was that the typical age of their colleagues was in the early-to-mid-fifties. Thus, many teachers have not worked in industry for some time and their technical qualifications may also be out of date.

Finally, teachers criticised both training packages and competency-based training. They believed that training packages were too slow to incorporate new technical development, while competency-based training did not give priority to teaching the theory underlying production processes. These issues, amongst others, have been considered in the recently published review of training packages undertaken by the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA). The review emphasised the importance of incorporating generic skills, occupational specific knowledge and, where appropriate, 'higher-order skills'(Schofield & McDonald 2004, p.17).

Employers and industry association representatives agreed with the teachers that TAFE equipment needs to be upgraded to meet industry standards. Industry association representatives also expressed concern at the adverse effect of competition between colleges, although opinions were divided over whether the loss of central TAFE information agencies had impacted on information-sharing about new technology. Again, employers and industry association representatives did not agree about teacher qualifications and skills: employers were satisfied, but industry association representatives were not. Representatives were also concerned that some teachers may be conducting courses above the level of their own technical qualifications. Both employers and industry association representatives were satisfied with training packages, and industry association representatives rejected teachers' criticisms of competency-based training.

The study concludes that vocational education and training plays an important role in innovation, and this needs to be more widely recognised. For example, VET skills are incorporated in product and process innovation, and the public VET system contributes to technology diffusion. For this recognition to occur, the public VET system in Australia must be given a role to play in the development of national innovation policy, technology diffusion programs and Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data collections on innovation, and research and development.

This study supports the recommendation of Ferrier, Trood and Whittingham (2003, p.43) that the VET system must develop the ability to monitor technology trends and undertake analysis of the effects of innovation on vocational education and training. In addition, it must collect data on the capacity of the system to meet the innovation requirements of industry.

Maintaining an up-to-date VET system requires additional resources to take on significant new roles. These include accessing more current equipment, employing teachers with more recent extensive industry experience—some of whom have higher technical qualifications—accessing more return-to-industry programs, and negating the adverse effects of excessive competition between colleges. There are also some potentially important efficiency gains to be achieved through changes to current procedures. For example, the introduction of a formal system for identifying and evaluating the relative merits of technologies to be purchased could improve the quality of new equipment. This is an issue which should be further investigated.

Other suggested strategies to improve the currency of equipment available to TAFE for teaching purposes include leasing instead of purchasing equipment and forming training partnerships with industry to share costs or 'buy time' on equipment. These methods are not new and are, in fact, being implemented in some colleges. However, the effectiveness of the processes need to be evaluated and possibly developed further.