The double helix of vocational education and training and regional development

Australia has a mix of metropolitan, outer-metropolitan, rural and remote regions. In the recent past, economic growth has been biased towards knowledge-intensive industries and occupations, which take place mainly in metropolitan areas. While some non-metropolitan parts of Australia are doing very well, many rural and remote regions are in decline or are stagnating.

We know that human resources will be one of the most important factors in encouraging regional development. We also know that vocational education and training (VET) institutions have a significant presence in the regions and are usually integrated with the local economy. In order to find out more about the role VET can play in regional development, the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) commissioned a suite of research.

This study, The double helix of vocational education and training and regional development, is part of that suite. It looked at five regions across Australia to assess how well VET is meeting the skills needs of those regions, such that these communities achieve sustainable development.

Key messages

• To enable communities and regions to be strengthened through learning and education, VET needs to become integrated with regional development in all key dimensions—economic, social, cultural and environmental.

• The VET role should not be seen in terms of matching VET supply to a given demand. Rather it needs to respond to a complex set of local needs and relationships, as well as to national and state policy settings.

• VET organisations require strategies which look outwards and engage with the local community and other agencies.

• To support sustainable regional development VET organisations need to move from bilateral partnerships towards arrangements that aspire to whole-of-region development.

Tom Karmel
Managing Director, NCVER

In 2006 the Council of Australian Governments agreed on a new national reform agenda with a strong focus on education and training reform and with new initiatives to boost opportunities for Australians to participate and be productive in the workforce. This study considered how well vocational education and training (VET) is meeting this challenge in regional Australia.

The research questions underpinning this research focused on matching VET provision to regional development skill needs, the flexibility of VET responses to these needs, and the role of local community frameworks in fostering innovation and building social and human capital.

The analysis in the study involved both quantitative and qualitative data derived from a study of five regions across Australia. These regions were Cooloola (Queensland), Northern Adelaide, Riverina, south-eastern New South Wales, and the Sunshine Coast.

The case studies involved consultations and analysis at both regional and community levels. The initial analysis at the regional level identified issues which were subsequently taken up in a further process of consultation and analysis in a selected community in each region. These communities were Gympie, Playford/Salisbury, Griffith, Bega and Noosa.

We found a mixed picture in each of our research questions. While VET undoubtedly plays an important social and economic role in regional development, its full potential is not being achieved and a range of barriers remain to be addressed.

The barriers identified included unresolved tensions between national, state and community/ regional priorities and between competition and cooperation in meeting skill needs; cultural barriers which inhibit enterprise and entrepreneurial initiatives; and a tendency in some cases to focus on short-term skill needs rather than promotion of a more strategic orientation of VET to support sustainable regional development.

Not all these tensions were observed in all regions. We found locations where local skill needs were receiving priority, where there was cooperation in the provision of skills training and where longer-term development planning was taking place. We highlight these positive instances, as well as instances where unresolved tensions remain.

We found two regions where the concept of sustainable regional development was incorporated into regional plans and VET providers were seeking to respond, as advocated by international agencies such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). However, a re-orientation of VET’s role towards the achievement of sustainable development is an ambitious goal, one which would take some time to implement. It will be a considerable time before the VET sector in Australia is fully oriented to such an approach.

Balancing and aligning VET supply to demand

The case studies demonstrated the substantial diversity in the socioeconomic context of the regions studied, which emphasises the importance of VET being enabled, through funding and other policies, to be responsive to local needs and conditions. At the same time, these regions were subject, to varying extents, to the ongoing impact of demographic change, globalisation, new technologies, and changes in work and labour markets.

This complex pattern of community and regional development influenced our conclusion that the VET role should not be seen in terms of matching VET supply to a given demand, but rather that the relationship should be seen as a dynamic two-way interaction between VET and regional development. A number of issues need to be considered when attempting to balance and align VET offerings to the skills needed. These include: national/state versus local skills development priorities; local industry versus community members’ skills needs; and short-term skills needs versus long-term skills for sustainable development.

The VET sector, by being more flexible and building partnerships, is in the process of adapting to this situation.

Flexibility

In terms of timing, location and mode of delivery, the VET sector has undoubtedly become more flexible and responsive. In this study, flexibility was most evident in partnership arrangements for workplace delivery with medium and large firms, but was less evident in provision for small businesses and small underserviced communities.

Limited evidence was found of VET organisations contributing to enterprising human capital ¹ —of adopting new approaches to enrich the learning experience of the general student body through action-based learning linked to workplaces and employment and future goals. However, one positive and nationally recognised example was the Northern Advanced Manufacturing Group’s ‘Concept 2 Creation’ program in the Northern Adelaide region.

Internal cultures of compliance rather than innovation remain a key barrier within VET organisations, although there were signs of change in all regions studied. This was summed up in a few of the consultations where the view was expressed that there is a dichotomy between the ‘old’ and ‘new’ TAFE.

VET partnerships and regional frameworks

We found that VET partnerships were well developed in all regions, but were usually bilateral or single sector. There were VET relationships of many sorts: VET in Schools partnerships; VET and single enterprise or single industry partnerships; and some VET for social inclusion partnerships.

There was less evidence of overarching whole-of-region frameworks that foster interaction between the different partnerships, although two of the five regions had experience and some exemplars to share (Northern Adelaide and the Sunshine Coast). Barriers to a broader partnership-building process for the achievement of comprehensive social and economic regional development included unresolved issues between competition and cooperation in some regions, including between the various types of VET providers—public, private and community-based—and sometimes also between economic and social groups. A series of narrow partnerships may not by themselves address the complex challenges a region or community faces and may compete for scarce resources.

Overall, we have concluded that the role of the VET sector in contributing to sustainable regional development should be strengthened in ways that foster a more dynamic two-way interaction between VET and regional development. This will require broadening VET’s role in serving communities and regions in the light of shifts in the socioeconomic context of VET.

This rethinking of the VET paradigm and its role in serving communities and regions will require:

• enhancing flexibility in the sector’s response to the full range of learning and skill needs in community and regional development, including the small business sector and small and underserviced communities

• encouraging innovation and enterprise in VET institutions, especially in the technical and further education (TAFE) sector as the public provider

• encouraging and supporting community and regional frameworks that connect and extend VET partnerships in strategic ways and which foster ongoing dialogue and interaction.

The double helix of VET and regional development

We have used the image of the double helix of VET and regional development to convey key ideas from our conclusions about VET and regional development.

• The spiral of the helix image reminds us that regional development is complex and is characterised by a range of interacting influences.

• Both VET and regional development involve dynamic processes, so that effective relationships between VET and regional development require ongoing alignment both ways.

• Collaborative frameworks have major value in facilitating ongoing processes of interaction and alignment.

• These relationships should be seen as a regional system of innovation and learning, and be actively promoted.

We have concluded that this double helix process is best facilitated through a comprehensive regional framework, such as a learning region, which encourages and facilitates ongoing interaction and learning and the application of learning strategies to drive VET and regional development.

The way forward

We suggest a number of requirements to progress a strengthened VET role in regional development. These include the establishment of pilot projects that develop models for a strengthened interaction between VET and regional development; the development and testing of a ‘VET in the regions’ evaluation framework; an assessment of the role of regional innovation blueprints in encouraging innovation in VET institutions; and the clarification of the relationship between innovation skills and the employability skills included in VET training packages.

We suggest that state and national funding bodies consider a discrete ‘VET in the regions’ program, which has both an implementation and a research arm. We also suggest that VET providers review their internal structures, cultures and processes, with the aim of achieving greater flexibility and, furthermore, that providers promote and nurture their relations with external agencies to develop innovative solutions to local skills and development opportunities and challenges.

¹ Defined by Garlick, Taylor and Plummer (2007) as a process whereby individuals take responsibility for action. Enterprising human capital goes beyond simply generating a good idea or being skilled to embrace the knowledge that enables on-the-ground achievements.