vol_57-3_tattspring2023_1

THE AUSTRALIAN

TAFE TEACHER VOL 57/3

SPRING 2023

Rainbow Action at TasTAFE Why teachers are the key to quality VET Fee-Free TAFE bringing new cohorts to the workforce

National TAFE Day Building on a year of hope and promises

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Recognising and rewarding Nominations open for the Arthur Hamilton Award This is your chance to celebrate AEU members who are making an outstanding contribution to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education. The Arthur Hamilton Award commemorates the achievements of Arthur Hamilton, a Palawa man who was active in promoting cross-culture awareness, recognition of Indigenous peoples and the right for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to access a high quality public education.

The winner will receive a $3,000 prize and their work will be recognised by the AEU in an appropriate public forum in 2024. All nominees will receive a certificate from the AEU.

2023 Arthur Hamilton Award winners from Coldstream Primary School, Yvonne Thurgood (left) and Phillippa Adgemis (right).

Get nominating!

Download your nomination form at aeufederal.org.au/our-work/aboriginal

Nominations close 6 November 2023

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Find out more Contact Kevin Bates, AEU Federal Secretary, aeu@aeufederal.org.au

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Contents 05 CAMPAIGN

The Official Journal of the TAFE Division of the Australian Education Union VOL57 • N0.3 • SPRING 2023

Australian TAFE Teacher (ISSN: 0815-3701) is published for the Australian Education Union by Heads & Tales.

The magazine is circulated to all TAFE members of the AEU nationally.

Heads & Tales, Ground Level, Building 1, 658 Church St, Richmond 3121 Tel: (03) 8520 6444 • Fax: (03) 8520 6422 Email: tafeteacher@hardiegrant.com AEU and subscription enquiries: Australian Education Union Federal Office, PO Box 1158, South Melbourne Victoria 3205 Tel: (03) 9693 1800 • Fax: (03) 9693 1805 Email: aeu@aeufederal.org.au facebook.com/AEUfederal @AEUfederal Editor Kevin Bates Publisher Fiona Hardie Account manager Christine Dixon Art direction & design Dallas Budde & Robert Bertagni Printer Printgraphics Printgreen Circulation: 6,610

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PEOPLE

ICONIC TAFE

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NATIONAL TAFE DAY Building on a year of hope and promises for the future of TAFE FUNDING FOR THE FUTURE How Fee-Free TAFE is lessening skills gaps and bringing new cohorts to the workforce TRUSTING VOCATIONAL EDUCATION TEACHERS Why teachers are the key to quality VET LOOKING OUT FOR ONE ANOTHER How the Rainbow Action Group at TasTAFE is making a difference

Your national TAFE Council Executive members: Federal TAFE President Michelle Purdy

Features

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Copyright rests with the writers, the AEU and Heads & Tales.

No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior permission of the copyright holders. The opinions expressed in the magazine are not necessarily the official policy of the AEU.

Federal TAFE Secretary Maxine Sharkey

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ICONIC TAFE Recognising demand at Gilles Plains and Regency TAFE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHER VOICE Teachers have unique insight in understanding how transformation impacts a student’s learning journey KEEPING IT HUMAN AI and the future of teaching and learning at TAFE

Regulars

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PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

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AROUND AUSTRALIA

ACT Karen Noble aeuact@aeuact.org.au • 02 6272 7900 • aeuact.org.au NSW Philip Chadwick mail@nswtf.org.au • 02 9217 2100 • nswtf.org.au NT Vacant admin@aeunt.org.au • 08 8948 5399 • aeunt.org.au QLD Dave Terauds qtu@qtu.asn.au • 07 3512 9000 • qtu.asn.au SA Angela Dean aeusa@aeusa.asn.au • 08 8172 6300 • aeusa.asn.au TAS Simon Bailey support@aeutas.org.au • 03 6234 9500 • aeutas.org.au VIC Elaine Gillespie melbourne@aeuvic.asn.au • 03 9417 2822 • aeuvic.asn.au WA Gary Hedger contact@sstuwa.org.au • 08 9210 6000 • sstuwa.org.au

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President’s column

From the president National TAFE Day was celebrated around Australia on 6 September, and especially so in Parliament House.

to qualifications, the essential voice of teachers must be heard. Victorian Skills Authority CEO Craig Robertson, who chairs the Design Group spoke with the National TAFE Council Executive in September and outlined the committee’s priorities, saying they want the process to reshape qualifications and have asked the question, “Can we be brave enough as a sector to respect what needs to be delivered but do it differently?

We cannot solve what has grown over 30 years overnight but will be working Michelle Purdy AEU Federal TAFE President

T

his year’s National TAFE Day was a shared celebration of the value and essential place that public TAFE has in Australia. Delegates from around the country came to Canberra to meet with Minister for Skills and Training Brendan O’Connor and other politicians to share their stories, hopes and needs for the future of TAFE. Following a special announcement

by Minister O’Connor and these parliamentary meetings, delegates and a host of members of parliament joined special guests, AEU representatives and the seven state and territory TAFE student finalists in the inaugural National TAFE Photography Competition exhibition and national winner announcement, which you can read more about in this issue.

The success of the day confirmed the Albanese government’s commitment to TAFE and centering TAFE back as the heart of vocational education in Australia. It was a fruitful day that cemented both the deep support for TAFE and the remaining work to be done to ensure that TAFE is fully funded and that TAFE teachers’ voices are heard.

To that point, the Qualification Reform Design Group set up by the Albanese government currently excludes TAFE teacher representation. When it comes

QUICK STATS As the skills shortage continues, Australian Bureau of Statistics reported job vacancies were

89.3% higher in May 2023 than in Feb 2020

New research has found

54% of Australians

believe that cheaper or free courses are the most effective way to solve the country’s skills shortage

over the next two years for a change of model/design that will better meet the aspirations of students and make their qualifications more transferable across their working life.” Meanwhile, the AEU is working with the government to change this oversight as teacher representation on this committee is a fundamental need.

As the skills shortage continues, Australian Bureau of Statistics reported job vacancies were 89.3 per cent higher in May 2023 than in February 2020,

indicating the widening gap between the average number of qualified and suitable applicants and need is growing.

New research by Immigration to Australia released in September has found that more than half (54 per cent) of Australians believe that cheaper or free TAFE or university courses are the most effective way to solve the country’s skills shortage, and 22 per cent believe it is also the fastest solution.

Respondents aged 18-34 are most likely to believe that cheaper or free TAFE or university courses will help solve the skills shortage in the long term (chosen by 56 per cent of that age group), followed

by Government tax or wage incentives for the underemployed (44 per cent), and incentives for companies to hire and train apprentices and interns (40 per cent). Across all age groups, when asked which of the listed solutions would solve the skills shortage in the fastest way, Immigration to Australia found the highest proportion of respondents (22 per cent) think it would be free education, followed by Australia increasing its intake of skilled migrants (12 per cent) and government incentives for companies that hire and train apprentices and interns (11 per cent).

It’s clear that Australians believe in the role of public TAFE and free education as the country’s way forward to address skills shortages now and into the future, and fully funded TAFE must be a priority for governments It’s been a busy year with much reform on the horizon, but it’s been a year of hope, hope that the Rebuild with TAFE campaign is taking hold, that TAFE will have funding restored, that TAFE will be accessible to all students and thusly TAFE will be reinstated as the anchor institution for vocational education provision in Australia. Thank you for your hard work this year, your dedication to your students, to TAFE and to shaping the future – the community spirit remains strong.

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Campaign

L A N O I T A N TAFE DAY

PICTURED (above) TAFE students and staff celebrating National TAFE Day around the country, and Lisa Chesters, Mary Doyle, Minister Brendan O'Connor with TAFE Photography Competition winner Khanh Ngan Ho, Correna Haythorpe, Libby Coker and Senator Mehreen Faruqi

Building on a year of hope and promises for the future of TAFE. Supplied: NSWTF, TAEU Tasmanian branch, Tess Gilfedder

Article by Correna Haythorpe

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o kick off National TAFE Day on 6 September 2023, AEU TAFE delegates attended Parliament House to witness Minister for Skills and Training Brendan O’Connor’s Statement on Significant Matters to Parliament about National TAFE Day and the importance of public TAFE. In his presentation the minister outlined the Albanese government’s commitments to TAFE, including committing to at least 70 per cent of Commonwealth VET funding going to the sector, but also acknowledged

there’s a lot more work to be done.

Praising TAFE teachers and the contribution TAFE makes to skilling Australians, the minister said: “The TAFE sector is one of our greatest national assets and vital if we are to address the worst skills shortages facing this country in decades, in order to meet the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.”

In referencing the 300,000 Fee-Free TAFE places connected to the skills agreement for 2024, the minister also cemented TAFE’s importance in Australia, saying: “The Albanese government is putting TAFE back at the heart of Australia’s vocational education and training sector, after a decade of neglect by the previous government.”

AEU delegates then undertook a lobbying exercise, meeting with various members of parliament to share their stories, including the ALP Caucus led

by Minister O'Connor, Greens Caucus hosted by Senator Mehreen Faruqi, and

advisors for Independents Dr Monique Ryan and Dr Sophie Scamps before returning to the parliamentary gallery for Question Time.

The past year has seen the Rebuild with TAFE campaign find strong support with government and communities, with the acknowledgement of TAFE’s unique role in skilling Australia, increased funding and multiple commitments from the Albanese and state governments.

This is due to the dedication of AEU members who have continued to campaign to Rebuild with TAFE, even through extraordinarily difficult times.

This has changed the political narrative and governments have shifted to the Rebuild with TAFE frame by ensuring that additional investments are made; however, there is still significant policy work ahead to lock in the foundations that are required to achieve our objectives. But, for TAFE members across the nation, a day of celebration and recognition was much deserved.

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Campaign

TAFE

PHOTOGRAPHY N O I T I T E P M O C

FINALISTS

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elebrating the vital role of vocational education in Australian society and the diversity of TAFE students, National TAFE Day concluded with an exhibition of state and territory winners of the inaugural TAFE Photography Competition.

The competition, which featured students from TAFE campuses across the country, celebrated vocational education through moving photographic depictions of life on campus that captured the multi-faceted and important role TAFE plays in our society.

The national winner, Khanh Ngan Ho from Victoria, was announced by Minister O’Connor and TAFE Directors Australia CEO Jenny Dodd, who presented her trophy and $5,000 cash prize, with runner-up Callae Sutton from Western Australia being rewarded with $1,000.

In addition to sharing in the joy of the photographs on display and hearing about each student’s journey, guests also heard from ACTU president Michele O’Neil, Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi and Minister for Skills and Training Brendan O’Connor, each of whom celebrated TAFE, the teachers, students and support workers that make TAFE the community that it is and recognised the essential role that public TAFE has as the anchor of vocational education in Australia society.

Heather Hodgson / ACT Heather is a student at the Canberra Institute of Technology Reid campus and has always appreciated the way in which pictures can capture a moment in time and tell a story. She captured fashion student Grace at work at a sewing machine.

WINNER

& THIS ISSUE’S COVER

Khanh Ngan 'Mei' Ho / VIC Mei is a culinary student at SuniTAFE in Mildura and her photograph replicates her graduating class at TAFE akin to the memories of a high school yearbook.

Benjamin Anstey / SA Benjamin studies at the Adelaide College of Arts and his submission pays tribute to Edward Hopper’s painting 'Nighthawks'.

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Senara Rajith Sankalpa Kasthuriararchchige / TAS Senara is a student at TasTAFE Clarence, and his submission captures the visual depiction of humanity via health services student's practical work.

Callae Sutton / WA Callae has had a lifelong interest in art and studies at North Metropolitan TAFE in Northbridge. His photograph features three friends catching up between classes.

Sakina Fayasi / NSW Sakina is a student at Granville TAFE and enjoys photography because it offers her a unique way to express herself. Her photo was of her sister in the campus library.

Steven-Cilliers Krige / QLD Steven studies at the TAFE Acacia Ridge Skills Tech and hails from South Africa.

His submission captures his TAFE carpentry journey in Australia.

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PICTURED (clockwise from top) National and Victoria winner Khanh Ngan Ho with Minister Brendan O’Connor; AEU federal president Correna Haythorpe addresses the crowd; Granville TAFE teacher Vesna Krstic, NSWTF TAFE organiser Phillip Chadwick, NSW winner Sakina Fayasi and her sister and fellow TAFE student Salima Fayasi, who is the subject of her winning photo; winner’s trophy; WA winner and national runner up Callae Sutton with Minister O’Connor

Photos by Tess Gilfedder, Khanh Ngan Ho

Campaign

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Funding

Funding for the future

Fee-Free TAFE is achieving much more than lessening skills gaps; it is also bringing new cohorts to the workforce.

FEE-FREE PLACES In the first six months of the scheme, national take-up was

214,300

– 35,000 more than expected in the entire first year of the program.

Demographically significant enrolments came from priority cohorts including disadvantaged and in-need Australians, with enrolments including:

F Photography: iStockphoto

Article by Debbie Morgan-Frail

unding a future-focused workforce means funding a diverse and inclusive TAFE with equity front and centre and Fee-Free TAFE is a small part of the solution.

The Australian Government has taken the lead on Fee-Free TAFE by providing $493 million as part of the $1 billion 12-month Skills Agreement established in partnership with state and territory governments. This partnership has provided 180,000 FeeFree TAFE and vocational educational places for 2023. An additional $414.1 million has been committed for 300,000 TAFE and vocational FeeFree places from January 2024 over the five-year National Skills Agreement.

Fee-Free training places are based on national priority industries, these priority industries include the care industry (aged care, childcare, health care and disability care), technology

and digital, hospitality and tourism, construction, agriculture and sovereign capability.

Priority groups that will be targeted to fill these Fee-Free places include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, young people aged 17-24, people receiving income support payments, unpaid carers, women facing economic insecurity, women undertaking study in non-traditional fields, people with lived experience of disability and certain categories of visa holders.

Minister for Skills and Training Brendan O’Connor said on ABC Sydney Radio that the take-up has exceeded government expectations: “Across the economy, around a third of those courses that have been taken up are in the care economy, disability care, aged care, childcare, areas where the labour supply is in much demand. And there are other areas too; 20,000 at least in construction, 17,000 in Information Technology (IT).

One-third of the courses are also in regional areas of the country and 60 per cent of the enrollees are women.

50,849

job seekers (23.7 per cent)

15,269

people with disability (7.1 per cent) and

6,845

First Nations Australians (3.2 per cent)

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Funding

Pathways for support

This additional funding and Fee-Free places will not immediately fully address the lasting damage to TAFE caused by the failed marketisation and contestable funding policy model settings of the previous government, but it does provide a much-needed entry pathway for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, and those from culturally diverse backgrounds.

In addition to ongoing funding of Fee-Free places, funding of TAFE’s wraparound services are imperative to the success of the project, as well as programs to support literacy and numeracy such as Western Australia’s CAVSS and USIQ , which involves a literacy or numeracy lecturer team-teaching with the vocational lecturer, or free access to foundational studies.

Ensuring student success for people with English as an additional language is key to the ongoing success and sustainability of the Fee-Free initiative if it is to address skills shortages present and future. Funding the development of a diverse and inclusive TAFE sector that reflects the diversity of modern-day Australia through strategic initiatives is essential to ready Australia’s workforce of the future – and if we are to be a modern country that learns from the past and 65,000 years of knowledge of

the land, water and air, then this strategy must centre Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as Australia’s First Peoples and the unique perspectives and knowledge that First Nations Australians bring.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students participating in vocational education and training (VET) have a right to be comfortable and proud of their First Peoples’ cultural identity. TAFE has long been a place for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to seek education and training, and as more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people take up study, there is an even greater need for culturally appropriate education and cultural competency training for teachers.

The 2021 census showed an increase in the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders between the ages of 20 and 64 who had gained qualification Certificate III training or above – from 35 per cent in 2011, to 42 per cent in 2016 and to 48 per cent or 182,620 people in 2021.

Representation and retention As educational institutions have realised the importance of providing an educational ecosystem that develops learning experiences that celebrate and promote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, support must also be given to teachers to upskill and access cultural competency training. TAFE teachers are asked to provide a culturally safe, inclusive and welcoming learning environment, and they are responsible for nurturing this environment through their attitudes, behaviours and their cultural competency/responsiveness, oftentimes with insufficient support and training.

The diversity of culturally responsive strategies to engage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in the TAFE learning environment requires a level of funding to provide an appropriate level of cultural competency training to all teachers currently teaching in the TAFE system.

Whilst the provision of Fee-Free places provides a pathway into TAFE, proper funding of wrap-around services supports retention of students from priority groups, the employment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers and those from other diverse backgrounds creates a safe environment for those students, and is another critical issue for investment in a secure workforce.

This can be achieved via the development of a future-focused TAFE workforce strategy drawing in those already qualified and skilled educators that have left the sector due to the unreliable casualisation of the workforce and via the equipping of all TAFE teachers with an AQF 6 qualification or higher, in adult or tertiary education by providing free and subsidised Certificate IV TAE or Diploma qualification.

Why diversity matters

Bringing cohorts traditionally excluded from meaningful workforce participation not only benefits communities economically through financial participation, but also fosters innovation, alleviates skills shortages and creates more stable and inclusive workplaces, which typically leads to happier and more productive employees.

Internationally, direct targeting of those from diverse backgrounds with

Photography: iStockphoto

So, it’s been a really, really great take-up.

We’ve met our targets well in advance of our goal, and as you said, we’ve exceeded 180,000 enrolments and hit 214,000 and we are now looking beyond this year.”

In August 2023, the Prime Minister’s Office released data that demonstrated the initial take-up of Fee-Free places in the first six months of the scheme nationally was 214,300 – 35,000 more than expected in the entire first year of the program.

Demographically significant enrolments came from priority cohorts including disadvantaged and in-need Australians, with enrolments including 50,849 job seekers (23.7 per cent), 15,269 people with disability (7.1 per cent) and 6,845 First Nations Australians (3.2 per cent). Not surprisingly, due to the feminised care industry being the major priority industry targeted for training, women make up the majority (60.2 per cent) of enrolments, with close to 130,000 women taking on a qualification under the program. More than a third of Fee-Free enrolments (34.1 per cent) were in geographically inner and outer regional areas.

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inclusion initiatives has seen a boost in employment for these cohorts and the filling of those hard-to-recruit-for roles in industries such as the caring industry.

Management expert Michalle E. Mor Barak’s longitudinal research highlighted in her renowned and since updated 2005 book Managing Diversity Toward a Globally Inclusive Workplace found diversity, inclusion and equity (DEI) has also seen a “burgeoning specialization within business, governmental, and nonprofit organizations” seeing professionals within this sector moving from within the human resources realm into specific roles across skills areas as a core business practice to achieve an array of goals, including profitability and sustainability.

Disrupting the skills shortages that are recognised globally as one of the greatest challenges for organisations, and just as providing safe and inclusive workplaces encourages greater workplace participation, safe and inclusive education also encourages skills to be taken up.

More than educational outcomes

The stakes are high for student success.

For Aboriginal and Torres Islander people, student success is not only about obtaining knowledge and education and then being about going out to get a job to participate in society economically, it’s about the bigger picture, it’s about health, wellbeing and happiness, it’s about pride and it’s about everything that will come from that point on.

Studies have shown that participation in adult education indirectly benefits physical and mental health by improving social capital and connectedness, health behaviour, skills and employment outcomes.

Adult education participation is also proven to be even more beneficial to the health and social outcomes of those from marginalised and disadvantaged groups including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Longitudinal studies show that adults who participate in post-school learning engage in healthier behaviours, including increased amounts

of physical exercise and improved social and emotional wellbeing.

It is evident that to achieve positive outcomes through Closing the Gap initiatives intersecting policy approaches must be considered. For First Nations communities, our experiences are not siloed. They are intrinsically connected through our shared histories and lived experiences of colonial systems and structures, including the educational systems and structures that we must navigate.

The provision of entry pathways and adult education through TAFE or other vocational education options is therefore not only providing education and training, it is also more broadly improving the health of First Nations individuals and communities in the process.

DEBBIE MORGAN-FRAIL is AEU Federal Aboriginal Education Officer.

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There are no membership fees to access VDC services.

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Photography: iStockphoto

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Policy

Trusting vocational education teachers

Article by Steven Hodge

F

or many people, this point is so obvious that it hardly needs to be made. However, training reforms in Australia that commenced over 30 years ago cast doubt on teachers’ motives and started a long process of reducing teachers’ influence on the sector.

Doubts about the positive role of teachers were part of reform rhetoric from the start. Where did these distrustful attitudes to vocational teachers come from and how has reform continued to reinforce these ideas?

Training reform

Research on vocational education in Australia frequently points to training reform in the 1990s as the starting point for our current industry-driven, competency-based and marketised system.

The so-called training reform ‘agenda’ was part of a wider push to modernise Australia’s economy. The government was grappling with high unemployment and a raft of challenges facing Australian industry.

The worry was that Australia could become a ‘banana republic’ in Paul Keating’s colourful language. ‘Opening’ the economy was seen to be the key to transformation and changes were put in play across government departments to make the Australian economy globally competitive.

In the training portfolio, John Dawkins did his part to reform the TAFE system, which was designed in the previous decade following the blueprint laid down

by Meyer Kangan. According to the first policy document making the case for reform, Dawkins and Clyde Holding pointed out in 1987’s Skills for Australia that: “The Government is determined that our education and training systems should play an active role in responding to the major economic challenges now facing Australia. The adjustments required in the structure of the economy, and improvements in Australia’s international competitiveness, will make heavy demands on our human resources and labour force skills. Our skills formation

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Photography: iStockphoto

Teachers are the key to quality VET.

“Where did these distrustful attitudes to vocational teachers come from and how has reform continued to reinforce these ideas?”

Economic theory and training reform

Government analysis of the economic challenges facing Australia was shaped by a family of economic theories. This family is sometimes called neoliberal economics or neoliberalism for short. These include neo-classical economics, which considers markets to possess special properties.

These properties include a powerful influence on individuals operating in markets to curb extreme behaviour. As early as the 1700s, economists observed that when sellers compete for market share, prices tend to drop. It was also thought that quality of goods would improve, too. Even if an individual seller wanted to charge extremely high prices, they would be priced out of the market if they did not take into account what other sellers are charging. The way the

OLD

NEW

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Single nationally recognised credential Credential = specific competencies Accreditation recognised nationally Curriculum based on competencies derived from industry Courses and outcomes consistent with required competency More providers registered and monitored RPL processes formalised Credit processes structured Assessment related to competencies

Different credentials for different states Credential = successful completion of course Accreditation processes vary with states Curriculum based on time served Courses and outcomes influenced by teachers TAFE only recognised providers with status Recognition of prior learning (RPL) processes ad hoc

8 Credit transfer ad hoc 9 Assessment processes variable

Photography: iStockphoto

was no direct evidence that the TAFE system was not ‘adequate’ to meet the demands of an open economy. Nor was there evidence that a competency-based approach was an especially effective model for training. Another idea that circulated was that somehow vocational education teachers were a reason why TAFE was not adequate. For example, in a resource designed to introduce competency-based training (CBT) to teachers, the differences between the old and new systems were summarised as shown in the table below.

Scanning down the list of differences, point 5 contrasts the ‘old’ system in which ‘Courses and outcomes influenced by teachers’ with the ‘new’ where ‘Courses and outcomes [are] consistent with required competency’.

This kind of information used to

and training arrangements are not yet adequate to meet those demands.”

The following year, Dawkins provided more detail about how to reform the system in A Changing Workforce: “The training system, in apprenticeship and other areas, must move to a competencybased approach where entry to ‘qualified’ (e.g. tradesperson) status is based on achieving specified standards of skill.

Efficient provision of further education and training will need to build on existing skills and knowledge. This will be best served if competencies are assessed and certified.”

These two policy documents contain arguments and suggestions that were not necessarily based on research. There

explain and justify the new system put teachers in a negative light. In particular, teachers were seen to be a bad influence on courses and outcomes.

The information implies that teachers did not know what it took to achieve competence and that they exerted ‘influence’ as if they were trying to shape courses rather than some other more legitimate influence. Again, as with Dawkins’s ideas that TAFE was not ‘adequate’ to develop a skilful workforce and that CBT was a superior model for vocational education, there was no evidence teachers were problematic.

If evidence was lacking for these various claims, where did these arguments and ideas come from?

market as a whole influenced individual operators was referred to as the ‘invisible hand’ of the market. Because the market had this price-controlling and qualitypromoting influence, economists believed that markets were a beneficial mechanism for the population as a whole.

From that time on, economists argued that markets were good, and should be fostered rather than controlled too rigidly by governments.

Markets could also be applied like a medicine to correct undesirable behaviours like charging too much and/or producing poor-quality goods.

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Policy

previously considered to be public services. Health, welfare and education started to be viewed as systems in which market mechanisms could be put in place to correct real or perceived excesses.

In Australian vocational education, it was decided that a market mechanism would be a way to reduce excessive costs and improve quality. Following on from Dawkins’s initial ideas for education and training, a report was commissioned on introducing market mechanisms. This report by a group chaired by Ivan Deveson argued that: “When markets work well, the processes offer a number of important benefits.

For example, high cost or inefficient training providers will lose out through competition to those trainers providing a better quality or more efficient service, thus providing the desired results at a lower cost to customers and the nation.

Through competitive pressures, markets result in prices being pushed down to the cost of production. At a time both of a widely shared perception of the need to sharply increase the quantum of training in Australia and a set of economic circumstances that limits available resources, this potential benefit is especially compelling.”

From this time on, governments worked to introduce market mechanisms in vocational education on the assumption that doing that would reduce costs and boost quality. That was the theory, anyway.

Implicit in this shift toward markets is the idea that previously, vocational education was too expensive and the quality wasn’t good. Another economic theory made these assumptions more explicit. So-called ‘Public Choice Theory’ pioneered by American economist James Buchanan attacked the notion that public servants could really be ethical and put the interests of the public before their own. Buchanan believed this was a romantic ideal and that instead, we should assume public servants will serve their own interests, creating inefficient, poor-quality, unresponsive and overpriced services. The ideas of Public Choice Theory were extended beyond the behaviour of bureaucrats and was applied to other professionals including teachers.

Rarely were teachers openly accused of self-serving behaviour (the Thatcher government in the UK was an exception).

“Australia needs its VET teachers to assume much greater responsibility than ever before to translate competencies into interesting, rich, future-focused learning.”

Rather, the introduction of Public Choice Theory ideas demanded that the behaviour of public servants had to be put on watch or ‘balanced’ by bringing other interests into play that would curb the more extreme behaviours bureaucrats were supposed to be prone to.

In vocational education, the way that teachers could be made to properly serve students and employers was to find a way to force them to take the market into account. UK economists David Finegold and David Soskice illustrated the solution in 1988. They acknowledged that governments needed to keep teachers and trainers on side, but should not lose sight of the tendency of teachers to run the show for their own benefit.

They warned that, “educators will have their own interests” but that an “effective solution” is to “balance the interests of educators against the interests of employers and those of employees”. In other words, organisations representing employers needed to be involved in vocational education to stop teachers from having too much influence.

CBT and distrust

Policymakers in Australia borrowed this UK model. To ‘balance’ the interests of employers and educators as required by Public Choice Theory, responsibility for writing the competency standards was given to employer representatives, and responsibility for ‘delivering’ them was given to teachers. During the 1990s, CBT was implemented in Australia, observing a strict division of labour between employer input (units of competency) and teacher activity (training and assessment). Teachers

were kept as far away as possible from the process of competency writing, and employers did not have much to do with the process of delivery. CBT thus embeds the distrust of teachers that was promoted by Public Choice Theory and neoliberal thinking in general.

The current vocational educational system is now suffering from that stance.

The slow pace of change of competency standards at a time when various kinds of disruption are impacting industry and society means that providers and teachers are being saddled with outof-date and highly task-focused units.

Government and industry are struggling to keep competencies current and broad enough to equip students for a fast-changing world. We need to do much more than just keep teachers on side. Australia needs its VET teachers to assume much greater responsibility than ever before to translate competencies into interesting, rich, future-focused learning. The system needs to trust its teachers, reversing years of influence by economic theory. Trust is the key ingredient we need to restore VET to a position where it can make a positive impact on Australia’s social and economic future.

STEVEN HODGE is an associate professor in the Griffith Institute for Educational Research (GIER) at Griffith University in Queensland and is immediate past president of the Australasian VET Research Association (AVETRA). He is researching how teachers critically and creatively interpret curriculum (including in the form of units of competency) to improve the learning of diverse students.

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People

Looking out for one another

It’s not just the work behind the scenes where TasTAFE’s Rainbow Action Group is making a difference. It’s also the visible signs that the LGBTQIA+ community is welcomed by the institution.

Article by Tracey Evans

Courtesy Shelli Johnston

W

hen a TasTAFE job applicant walked into the Hobart campus for their interview a few months ago, they immediately relaxed a little. The rainbow flags and other signs of support for the LGBTQIA+ community displayed around the campus made a difference to their sense of safety and inclusion. It was just the kind of feedback Don Pitcher wants to hear.

Pitcher, a former TasTAFE Clarence community services teacher who has just left TasTAFE after 24 years of service to pursue a Master of Human Rights Policy and Procedures in Europe after being awarded an Erasmus Foundation scholarship, founded TasTAFE’s Rainbow Action Group (RAG) five years ago to create a safer and more inclusive space for students and staff. The group welcomes members of the LGBTQIA+ community and allies.

The starting point, says Pitcher, was the concern that the needs and rights of LGBTQIA+ students and staff in educational institutions were being overlooked.

“They didn’t feel confident or comfortable to be themselves on campus, even just in little things like talking about their partners or what they did on the weekend,” says Pitcher.

“So, much of the impetus for the group was wanting to make TasTAFE a place where people could express who they were, and not have to hide parts of

themselves that only increased pressure and made their studying more difficult.”

One of the group’s first projects was to advocate for more inclusive or unisex bathroom facilities.

“At the time, on my own campus, we only had binary-specific toilets,” says Pitcher.

The group, made up of volunteers helping in their spare time, also began running events to raise awareness. “We wanted to make sure that people weren’t doing or saying things that made others

feel uncomfortable by, for example, making assumptions about a person’s gender identity."

Events centre around two annual days in particular, International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexism and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT) on 17 May and Wear it Purple on the last Friday in August. IDAHOBIT is a celebration of milestones in LGBTQIA+ equality while Wear it Purple encourages supportive, safe, empowering and inclusive environments for rainbow young people.

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PICTURED (Left to right) Shelli Johnson and Don Pitcher; (below and previous page) TasTAFE Rainbow Action Group celebrates pride.

Matching identities

Taking over the torch from Pitcher is Rainbow Action Group coordinator Shelli Johnston, a senior library technician at TasTAFE Burnie. She has taken the lead on one of the group’s most significant projects that aims to ensure TasTAFE uses students’ preferred names.

Johnston says an RAG survey found that while there has been progress in the use of students’ preferred names at TasTAFE, student ID cards remains the one area that has not yet fallen into step.

“This situation affects not just members of the LGBTQIA+ community (for example, students who want their names to reflect their gender identities) but others such as international students who may choose English names for their time in Tasmania,” she says.

Several other tertiary institutions have led the way on this issue and Johnston says all TAFE campuses should be following suit.

“It would send the clear message that: ‘If it’s your preferred name, then we prefer it too’,” she says.

Johnston says the ongoing RAG survey has been invaluable in helping to pinpoint areas of concern for the LGBTQIA+ community.

“It’s anonymous, although we ask that participants indicate if they’re students or staff and which region they’re in. That allows us to find out what’s working or not and to target any problems,” she says.

“So much of the impetus for the group was wanting to make TasTAFE a place where people could express who they were, and not have to hide parts of themselves.”

Looking ahead, RAG is working on a film project for students and staff across TasTAFE campuses.

“We have engaged Xris Reardon to curate a series of online videos designed in consultation with the RAG network,” says Johnston.

The videos will be educational and awareness tools to help promote safety and engagement for LGBTQIA+ students and staff.

“We know that LGBTQIA+ people, especially those with intersectional identities, are more likely to disengage from formal education. As research indicates, their disengagement is due to experiences of homophobia and transphobia; the fear of being stigmatised and discriminated against,” says Johnston.

“But further education is an important pathway. It makes it possible for people to increase their knowledge and skills, to

access employment, as well as to build social and professional networks.”

Johnston says the film project will raise awareness about the effects of homophobic and transphobic practices (intended or not), and what TasTAFE is doing and expecting others to do, to ensure safety and cultural inclusion.

“This project will support TasTAFE staff, students and visitors to create a more welcoming and inclusive educational institution that understands its responsibility to ensure minority groups have equal and equitable access to educational opportunities,” she says.

Courtesy Shelli Johnston and Don Pitcher

Engaging with film

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People

Welcoming classrooms

Pitcher says in his own experience, borne out by research from Australia’s biggest ongoing survey of LGBTQIA+ people – known as Writing Themselves in 4 – students and staff in educational institutions frequently hear negative comments about people of diverse gender and sexuality.

The 2021 Writing Themselves in 4 results found more than a third (34 per cent) of TAFE students had felt unsafe or uncomfortable on campus, while only 37 per cent of participants felt they could safely engage in public affection with other LGBTQIA+ people and 66 per cent felt they could openly identify as LGBTQIA+.

Organising staff training has also been an important activity for the group. Using Working It Out, Tasmania’s LGBTQIA+ support, advocacy and education service, sessions are run at least once a year across the state, providing information and support to help staff create welcoming classrooms.

“LGBTQI inclusion has been incredibly important to me professionally because it’s been such an obvious area of exclusion.”

Pitcher says TasTAFE has largely been supportive of the group and its activities: “The counselling team have also been very involved with us from the beginning.”

Pitcher says his founding and support of the group had both professional and personal motivations.

“LGBTQI inclusion has been incredibly important to me professionally because it’s been such an obvious area of exclusion. I'm a social worker and so my career has been around challenging injustices,” he says.

“Also, with both my young adult children now identifying with that community, it’s a very personal thing for me as well.”

For more information about the Rainbow Action Group’s activities go to https://library.tastafe.tas.edu.au/ diversity/LGBTIQ where you can take the survey and sign up to receive the regular newsletter.

TRACEY EVANS is a freelance journalist and editor.

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Iconic TAFE

A caring community How rebuilding early childhood education and care programs at TAFE north of Adelaide is changing futures.

Article by Diana Ward

I

n Adelaide’s northern suburbs TAFE SA is seeing a massive increase in students in the muchneeded early childhood educator sector, thanks to a return of government funding for the Diploma and Certificate III programs and FeeFree TAFE at both of its Gilles Plains and Regency campuses.

Gilles Plains TAFE Early Childhood Education and Care lecturer Luella Lascala believes education is the foundation of a caring community, and now that the South Australian government has returned funding for early childhood education and care (ECEC) to Adelaide-based TAFE campuses after a four-year hiatus, early childhood educators can once again get qualified closer to home.

PICTURED TAFE SA Gilles Plains Lecturer Luella Lascala; (opposite) TAFE SA Gilles Plains campus.

Gilles Plains which sits 10km north east of the Adelaide CBD, is a traditional family-friendly working class neighbourhood which today continues to include a high percentage of young families, people studying in tertiary education, including TAFE, and significant populations who work in community services and trades.

TAFE at Gilles Plains was established in 1979 and the Regency Park Institute of TAFE a few years later in the 1980s. The TAFE campus at Gilles Plains remains historically significant. A community college was determined to be of urgent need in the area in a 1969 report by A.F. Sando, A Study of the Future Needs of Technical Education in the Adelaide metropolitan area, and later supported by studies showing that 25 per cent of all metropolitan apprentices lived in the area. Gilles Plains thus became the first South Australian planned community or technical college with a broadbased multi-level curriculum aimed at supporting the local community as well as specific industries, and it was intended to be built at the heart of the community to allow better access for students. It opened as Gilles Plains TAFE with a School of General Studies (including home economics), Para Dental Studies, Technical Studies (building, furnishing, trades) and a learning resource centre in 1979.

The small campus, designed with four buildings surrounding a central courtyard and intended to service just under 1,000 students per year, thrived.

Photography by Sia Duff

Historic roots at Gilles Plains

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Photography by Sia Duff

From public good to commercial enterprise

TAFE SA became a single statuary corporation and registered training organisation (RTO) owned by the South Australian Government but removed from government portfolios and operations in 2012. The aggressive marketisation of TAFE saw drastic reductions in course offerings and student enrolments, with regular whispers of suburban TAFE campuses closing. TAFE students sometimes had to travel over an hour to other campuses to find the course they wanted to do on offer when their local campuses “streamlined” for profitability.

The ripple effect of the failed marketisation of TAFE in South Australia led to programs being reduced and cut, lower student intakes, teacher shortages and massive shortages of skilled graduates across industries, but none more so in ECEC. The sector is in the midst of a massive skills crisis due the confluence of booming demand for ECEC, fewer qualified graduates and growing worker attrition.

Favouring funding private providers rather than TAFE, the then South Australian government removed funding

“The demand is so high for early childhood educators, there’s just not enough of them.” for TAFE ECEC programs in metropolitan Adelaide in 2019. “Our program went from a fully flourishing busy program that was being delivered at all of our metropolitan campus to a very small streamlined minimal offering, with some campuses not offering the course at all,” says Lascala.

Then in 2020, ECEC at both Regency and Gilles Plains were among the 53 courses deemed unprofitable in the state and that were floated by TAFE SA to potentially be axed, teachers at both TAFE campuses were left in limbo. “There were fears that the program would be

cut altogether and for job losses… we didn’t know if we would still have jobs,” says Lascala. “Large numbers of lecturers left TAFE or took targeted separation packages.”

At Gilles Plains, the ECEC program went from over 100 students down to 20.

Following years of reducing enrolments and absent funding for ECEC programs, the Albanese federal government upped its support for the sector to help plug other skills gaps and encourage more women to re-join the workforce. The ensuing boom in childcare centre openings demand for qualified staff has added even more pressure to a starved system.

“The demand is so high for early childhood educators, there’s just not enough of them. We tell students that they will get jobs by the end of the course, usually after their placement they are offered jobs where they train,” she says.

“Services are desperate for qualified employees, because educators have to have the Cert III as a minimum to work.”

Road to recovery

Currently Lascala is teaching one of two groups of students at Gilles Plains, and senior lecturer Tasia Camacho at Regency is overseeing the Diploma cohort. Both lecturers are brimming with hope as they T H E AU ST RALI A N TA FE T E AC H E R • 1 9

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Iconic TAFE

and their dedicated teams rebuild the ECEC programs and take on full classes once again.

Lascala, a TAFE teacher for 14 years who has been based at both Regency and Gilles Plains across her career is a former TAFE trained early childhood educator who also trained at TAFE to become an educator, something she wanted to be since she was a little girl: “I always loved being with children and wanted to be a school teacher but when I went to the school guidance councillor they said don’t do it,” she laughs. “It was the 1980s and they told me to just get a job.”

Nowadays she has the best of both worlds, teaching the next generation of educators and visiting students on placement in early education and care services, and she’s especially thrilled to be back in the classroom teaching students face to face.

“Last year we were prepping this course – it’s a brand-new program … and we’re now so busy with supporting the students and the services,” she says.

Back from the brink

Camacho is equally busy shepherding two fulltime and two parttime groups through the Certificate and Diploma courses at Regency. In the space of one year she’s gone from 20 students to nearly 100 and had to deliver entirely new programs. “I only found out we would be offering the Diploma in 2023 in November of 2022,” she says. “It’s been a

very stressful, but fruitful time.”

Camacho has 20 years’ experience working in the Vocational Education and Training sector specialising in early childhood education.

“I was a long-term educator in early childhood in a community based childcare centre and worked my way up to become a director,” she says of her career journey. “I’ve always been actively involved in the building the capacity of those I work with and in professional development projects, so becoming a TAFE teacher appealed to me.”

“You get students coming in on placements, so I had relationships with lecturers and in mentoring their students – so I did training at TAFE to be a student assessor and they offered me work doing that when I qualified, so I reduced my fulltime load at the centre and found I loved the work. After a few years, I was offered work as an hourly paid instructor (HPI) at Croydon TAFE and then a contract to develop the Learning Centre project at Gilles Plains - a collaboration between TAFE and local services hosting student placements.”

Then after starting a family, she decided to focus fully on TAFE. “I started my TAFE career at Croydon and at Gilles Plains and worked with such a passionate and invested team of lecturers many of whom came from communitybased childcare centres and had that collaborative approach and skills focus,

and today even though I’m, fulltime at Regency, the early childhood teams still collaborate and support each other across campuses.”

Centring students at Regency

A much larger campus than Gilles Plains, Regency also accepts international students, who appreciate the rigour and teaching a TAFE qualification offers.

Very different in style and positioning than Gilles Plains, Regency sits 6km due north of the CBD in an industrial area with only 60 residents according to the 2021 Census. The Regency TAFE campus was designed by architect Guy Maron AM LFRAIA, who also designed the Bicentennial Conservatory in Adelaide and the Headquarters of the Australian Automobile association building in Canberra, as broad-based educational hub to support industry. Today it hosts 10,000 or 24.4 per cent of South Australia’s TAFE students and offers 151 courses. Regency is a sprawling campus that features a cooking school, mining institute and being just down the road from Coopers Brewery, an on-campus brewery. Recognised at the 2011 South Australian Architecture Awards for Enduring Architecture, the concrete and wood buildings emerge from the flat landscape with drama, yet the connectivity of the space shines.

It’s an inspirational leafy and light-filled space that Camacho has relished setting up for her students, despite spending most of last year delivering programs online.

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PICTURED TAFE SA Regency Senior Lecturer Tasia Camacho; (opposite) Regency campus and its thoughtful Early Childhood Education Care teaching space

Plains too: “Learning about it and then working on floor with children and families is very different and it can difficult for some. We spend a lot of time simulating spaces for them – to change nappies, to touch clay, to touch paint, practice reading books before they get there, so they can learn practically.”

The campus also supports students broadly with a study-hub in the library, which sits alongside student counsellors, where students can drop in or make an appointment and have help with studying or assignment structure.

“They can even get help with how to use a computer if they need that,” says Lascala. “We also have a free laptop rental service for on campus use.

“TAFE is an opportunity to be educated and it should be free for everybody.”

“We spend a lot of time thinking about delivery,” she says. “We want to keep going and improve, we want our students to come out with a really good qualification and to do that, we work with the sector in tailoring our delivery to their needs.”

Part of that is the practical side of the training with extensive simulated spaces in teaching rooms, but the other side is taking the time to think about what you are doing and why.

“Reviewing and reflecting is part of our culture,” she says. “The early years learning framework curriculum calls for critical practice – and we embed that in every unit we teach. We encourage our students on their placement to reflect on every day – individually and as a group.”

Graduates in demand

Halfway between the Gilles Plains and Regency TAFE SA campuses is C.A.F.E Enfield Children’s Centre. Assistant director Lee Jones works closely with TAFE SA in both student placements and employment of graduates, and he says now that the Diploma course is back at TAFE, it will be great for the quality of applicants.

“In our experience, we value TAFE graduates as they come to us with a greater depth of knowledge and it’s evident there’s been lots of rigor and reflective practice in their study,” he says.

“We find they are thinking about why they are doing the things they are doing, which makes for a more robust educator.”

He says the sector is calling out for more early childhood educators at both Certificate III and Diploma level qualifications: “In the last three years it’s become way more difficult to find educators – both because of the growth of new centres and because there are fewer educators. Across the board providers are now struggling replacing educators. For example, three years ago a job advertisement would have had 90 applicants for a Cert III position, now it’s like five, and the last ad we put up for an early childhood teacher, only one candidate made it through the pre-screening. For Diploma level graduates, now we are seeing about a dozen applicants when previously it was 60-70, and now our relief pool is down to two educators.”

Like many childcare centres, C.A.F.E Enfield Children’s Centre hosts student

“Recognising what this sector is about and that the early years are the most important years has made a difference.” placements, many of whom end up taking on permanent roles at the centre upon graduation, further supporting the local community.

The TAFE effect

“TAFE supports the people that live around them … we can help students be successful in so many different areas,” Lascala concurs.

She says flexibility and understanding of industry is key to TAFE delivery: “There are many different ways of studying, faceto-face, online, a weekly workshop or a combination for our yearlong Certificate III or two-year Diploma. Our Diploma course is only run in the evenings because the students all work during the day.”

This understanding flows through to the design of classroom itself at Gilles

Putting the children first

Camacho champions ECEC as a career, but also cautions that access to training isn’t a panacea for educator sustainability in the sector, nor is it the only thing that matters.

“Early childhood education and care is a really good career pathway,” she says. “We are really thrilled to be able to support the sector to get Diploma qualified people back into the workforce, but with everyone so short staffed it can be very challenging for educators to focus on the children’s education and care.”

Over the years she has seen continual changes in funding affecting both the sector and TAFE, but sees more of a crisis now: “Fee-Free is an opportunity to get your qualification and upskill, particularly for the Diploma – but the sector is in crisis, and in some instances those with a Cert III are put in positions that they are not trained to be in expected to be acting as leaders and run rooms and they shouldn’t be put in that position – what is it doing to the sector, to the children?”

Lascala also looks to what really counts – the children that her graduates go on to educate and care for.

“Recognising what this sector is about and that the early years are the most important years has made a difference,” she says. “Children have rights, they deserve to be listened to, to follow up with, and in this career, they are the most important people at the end of the day.”

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VET Development Centre

The importance of teacher voice

When it comes to putting theory into practice, teachers have unique insight and are a necessary voice in understanding how transformation impacts a student’s learning journey.

A

s Australia’s governments embark on reforms to improve VET’s responsiveness to workforce needs in the face of technological, geopolitical and climate change disruption, teachers’ voices need to be included if reform is to be effective for teaching and learning outcomes.

Included in that is Minister for Skills and Training Brendan O’Connor’s VET Qualifications Reform Group, which is tasked to kick-start reform.

The VET Development Centre’s (VDC’s) Quality of Teaching project (Guthrie & Waters, 2022), found teachers’ practical experiences in the transformative nature of learning differs from theory in oftentimes small, but important ways.

The project found teachers are responsible for translating training package content into constructive and meaningful outcomes for students and employers. In discussions with teachers, they stated their role was not about ‘transferring’ skills and knowledge to students, but rather, taking students on a journey for work (and other destinations) and changing careers and lives.

Multiple dimensions of teaching and learning

Research tells us that teaching skills and knowledge for work is but one of many dimensions of teaching and learning in VET, albeit an important one. However, a key driver for teachers in delivering learning outcomes is the transformative nature of learning for many VET students, which can be small changes in what they know and can do or life changing. In some VET contexts, such as adult and community education (ACE) and community service training, changing students’ understanding of themselves and the world is a strong focus and a desired outcome.1

Illustration: iStockphoto

Article by Melinda Waters and Hugh Guthrie

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REFERENCES 1. Hodge, S. (2010), Trainers and transformation: Facilitating the ‘dark side’ of vocational learning. International Journal of Training Research, Vol 8, pps 53-62.

2. Davids, J. (2008), Have a Heart: challenges for lead vocational teachers in the changing VET landscape. Occasional paper, NCVER, Adelaide, p 16.

3. Mezirow, J. (1978), Education for perspective transformation: Women’s re-entry programs in Community Colleges. Center for Adult Education, Columbia University, New York.

4. Nilsen, P. and Ellstrom, P. (2012), Fostering Practice-Based Innovation Through Reflection At Work. In Melkas, H. and Harmaakorpi, V. (Eds) (2012). Practice-based Innovation: Insights, Applications and Policy Implications. Springer, pps. 155 - 172.

In the Quality of Teaching project, we found transformative dimensions in many teachers’ accounts of their teaching across several industry disciplines and VET sectors. Other researchers found similarly. Jennifer Davids in 2008, for example, found TAFE teachers are highly motivated by the ‘feeling’ they help students to transform their lives in a positive way.

This, she says, gives “meaning to their professional lives”.2 Steven Hodge in 2010 found teachers of VET youth work programs actively worked to change the values, outlooks and perspectives of their students, which they said, was essential to preparing them for youth work and was also what they did in their everyday professional work.1 This transformative dimension of learning in VET also presented in our project’s research with specialised community service teachers. Their teaching sits at the pointy end of transformative learning in VET as they, like youth work teachers, actively set out to change their students’ attitudes and perspectives in preparation for work in this sector. This is a very different proposition to transferring technical skills and knowledge as it particularly shapes personal and professional identities and involves very different teaching and learning approaches.

Illustration: iStockphoto

Transformative learning in theory

To better understand these approaches, we looked to Jack Mezirow’s 1978 transformative learning theory and the work of Steven Hodge, who studied it in depth in VET contexts. The theory was developed by Mezirow in the late 1970s after he observed women returning to study in community colleges in the US experiencing deep changes in their attitudes, perceptions and sense of identity related to their learning. This, he said, was very different to the acquisition of skills. 3 Mezirow suggested that learning is triggered when a person experiences a “disorientating dilemma” or “encounter with difference” (an event, story or difficult concept for example) that challenges their personal attitudes and beliefs. The dilemma becomes a catalyst

for discussions among students that help them to process and make sense of the information, hear the views of others and critically reflect on what they are hearing, their own views and the assumptions underpinning them and what it means for them personally.

The degree of transformation they experience depends on how well their views fit with those being taught, how willing they are to engage in the experience and how safe they feel to share personal views and experiences.

If students choose to (and some do not), they then formulate new perspectives on an issue, event or concept and, ideally, move towards a more inclusive, selfreflective and inquiring mindset. Once new perspectives are formed, students can plan and implement new practices and relationships based on them.

Transformative learning in practice

Community service teachers told us however, that transforming students’ mindsets is not this easy, ordered or sequential. Students can react in unpredictable and resistant ways when “pushed out of their comfort zone”. While their reactions offer rich opportunities for learning, teachers need great care and expertise to deal with negative and potentially unsafe situations and turn them into positive learning experiences.

The community service teachers we spoke to know how to do this because changing mindsets is integral to their professional work. They use a range of methods to engage students in transformative experiences, which are mostly conversational and actionorientated (role playing, simulations, problem-based learning, action research and work experience, for example), starting with a disorientating dilemma, to disrupt thinking and promote debate and reflection about the issue. Many utilise critical questions to expand the debate, maintain an acceptable degree of tension during it and deepen the learning. This requires trusting and supportive learning environments so that students trust the process and feel safe when going through uncomfortable learning experiences. It is the job of the teacher to guide and support them through these experiences.

Transformative ways of teaching are therefore about facilitating change,1 and students’ capacity for change, as much as developing their skills and knowledge.

We think they are more likely to encourage critical thinking, problemsolving and life-long learning than the surface and adaptive learning promoted in training packages. Surface learning is the passive acceptance of information without critical questioning and adaptive learning is obtaining basic skills to perform a task efficiently and reliably over time.4 Both perpetuate the status quo.

Conclusions

We are not saying that all VET teachers should be transforming the mindsets of students in the way some areas of community services training currently do. It takes exceptional levels of tenacity, resilience and professional expertise to do this work safely and effectively.

However, we heard from teachers in different areas of VET that transformative learning is occurring to some degree across the sector as they shape their students’ attitudes, mindsets and identities for an occupation, career and for life, although they do not name it as such. The way they do this depends on their industry expertise and ethos, teaching expertise, personal values and needs of students. This raises questions about the suitability of competencybased training (CBT), especially in some VET disciplines and its fitness-forpurpose for VET in the future.

We hope reforms to VET qualifications will consider the multiple dimensions of teaching and learning in VET, especially the transformative work teachers do and how their capacity and agency to do this important work can be strengthened. Nurturing a stronger teacher voice and active role in VET reform would be a positive step in this direction.

MELINDA WATERS and HUGH GUTHRIE are practitioners and researchers in the VET sector and writers for the VET Development Centre (VDC).

VDC prides itself on delivering quality, professional learning and relevant programs for the vocational education workforce across Australia.

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Upskilling

Keeping it Human:

AI and the future of teaching and learning at TAFE

Article by Rochelle Siemienowicz

Illustration: iStockphoto

Foundation studies, critical thinking, creativity and analytical skills will be the currency of a future for the AI-ready workforce – whether you work in trades or tech.

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e will all be ‘prompt engineers’ in the future. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools are poised to transform education, industry and society. They will affect nearly every aspect of work and life for TAFE teachers, support staff and students.

It is a matter of urgency, that the TAFE sector, with its focus on industry training, is properly informed, resourced and upskilled to use AI. Dealing with TAFE’s critical teacher shortage, and improving student access to the foundation studies that provide the basics, may not seem at first to have much to do with AI, but these are key elements in ensuring these new technologies will be used not only safely, ethically and equitably, but also with confidence so students can fully participate in economic and social life.

The very nature of these iterative technologies means that changes will be rapid and unpredictable. If unregulated, and driven purely by commerce, AI could further entrench the digital divide, emphasising the lack of access to basic communications and information technology (CIT) that’s still a problem in many of Australia’s regional and remote areas.

Students in Australia are already slipping down the OECD rankings in basic literacy and numeracy, but these, along with critical thinking, creativity and analytical skills, will be the currency of a future with AI, whether that’s in manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare, construction or mining.

Illustration: iStockphoto

The urgent need for new laws and educational frameworks With some studies suggesting more than half of all high school and university students are using ChatGPT, a tool only released in November 2022, there is clear need to get the legislative and pedagogical frameworks in place to deal with AI – and quickly, before the cat is completely out of the bag.

There were more than 90 submissions to the current parliamentary Inquiry into the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in the Australian Education System. These came from private and public schools, universities, teachers and unions, including the AEU. While many expressed excitement about AI’s potential to personalise learning and assist teaching, the general

“People lack confidence about trying it out for themselves. It would be useful if we could provide non-judgemental training on how to use the technology, and what its limitations are …”

tenor of submissions is cautious. There is a focus on protecting students’ data privacy, using ethically developed AI tools – including those that respect Indigenous data sovereignty, and most importantly of all, privileging the judgement of educators, and the essential human relationship between students and teachers.

privacy and protection laws.

Paterson says that privacy is the central issue for AI in education, and that part of CAIDE’s submission to the Inquiry into the Responsible Use of AI, calls for some kind of AI Safety Commissioner, along the lines of the Australian e-Safety Commissioner, which is a world-first initiative.

Stay calm, be curious

How AI affects the we way we teach and learn

“We owe it to students, many of whom are already experimenting with these tools, not to hide from AI,” says Jeannie Paterson, professor of law and co-director of the Centre for AI and Digital Ethics (CAIDE) at the University of Melbourne.

“As someone involved in teaching in the technology space, and lecturing about generative AI, I see a lot of anxiety and fear. People lack confidence about trying it out for themselves. It would be useful if we could provide non-judgemental training on how to use the technology, and what its limitations are, so people can work out where they stand in these debates and not just leave it all up to the so-called ‘experts’.”

Paterson, whose research covers consumer and data protection law with a focus on the ethics and regulation of new digital technologies, recently authored a report about automated mental health and wellbeing apps. She concluded that while these apps might offer limited support to some people in some circumstances, there was potential for great harm, including data harvesting of sensitive information, and providing non-professional ‘health advice’ to vulnerable people. She identified a need for scrutiny and oversight by trained human professionals, as well as the robust enforcement of relevant consumer

Generative AI uses computers to do things that traditionally required human intelligence, using vast data sets and algorithms. It’s important to remember that AI models are only as good as the quantity and quality of their training data, so existing biases or inadequacies will continue.

Tools including ChatGPT, DALL-E, Midjourney and Canva AI respond to human prompts, processing large sets of data, recognising patterns, making decisions and then improving from these interactions over time in a sometimes disarming ‘human-like’ way.

ChatGPT, for instance, can answer complex questions with convincing answers. It can write essays, which raises serious questions about cheating by students. It can draft lesson plans and assist with one-on-one tutoring, including rewriting existing software or pieces of text for different learning levels.

Image-generating AI like Midjourney also uses text prompts to create images, diagrams or animations, adapting and offering alternatives as requests are refined.

Smartcopying, the official guide to copyright issues for Australian schools and TAFE, gives the following examples T H E AU ST RAL I A N TA FE T E AC H E R • 2 5

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of how TAFE teachers may use AI to create new teaching works: • Multiple-choice quizzes as part of a Certificate IV in Laboratory Skills, with questions increasing in difficulty.

• Meal plans with step-by-step recipes as part of a Diploma of Nutrition.

• An image in the style of Andy Warhol as part of a Certificate III in Visual Arts.

Smartcopying suggests teachers might also use AI to restore and refresh older learning materials. For example: • Updating an accounting course.

• Supporting a struggling student with personalised tutoring assistance outside the classroom.

• Re-writing a piece of text in ‘easy English’ to assist a student with reading difficulties.

• Creating accessible versions of text for students with a disability.

In an ideal future, AI will help teachers mark assignments, draft emails to students and reduce admin so there’s more time for that precious face-to-face contact. Students will be educated as critical thinkers and ‘co-pilots’ with AI tools, using them with a dose of healthy scepticism rather than as some kind of ‘oracle’.

The not so rosy reality Any talk of upskilling TAFE teachers around AI seems fanciful when those teachers are already critically overworked and short-staffed and given so little professional development.

Elaine Gillespie, vice president of TAFE & Adult Education Provision at the AEU Victorian Branch says: “TAFE is very much applied learning and it’s relationship bound. A lot of students come to us for particular reasons, because they weren’t happy in other kinds of education, or they want to be hands on. You won’t get that with AI. We need to rebuild teaching in TAFE so we can support students better.

“A lot of the materials currently generated by AI are gobbledygook and just cause more confusion for students and teachers,” says Gillespie.

“Some TAFE campuses have used

“In an ideal future, AI will help teachers mark assignments, draft emails to students and reduce admin so there’s more time for that precious face-toface contact.”

AI-generated resources as a quick fi x, without running them by teachers.

I’ve been talking to a cross-section of different professions, from electricians, to nursing, to foundation studies, and most of them say that where their TAFE tried to create resources using AI, it’s actually created more work in the long run, in terms of fi xing inaccuracies, along with plagiarism and copyright issues. They say it would have been better for teachers to just be given the time to do it properly from the beginning.”

A highly experienced TAFE teacher, Gillespie also has special expertise in the disability sector. She worries about the use of AI in courses and industries where special care is involved.

“This is where people are at their most vulnerable – nursing, aged care and disability. I would hate to think corners were cut there," she says, cautioning of knowledge gaps.

“New technologies can be transformative, and we use them all the time – virtual reality simulations for welding, for instance, allowed students to practise without wastage

or danger. But as teachers, we need to be trained and given the time to learn how to use these new tools.”

Maintaining human supervision by qualified teachers in TAFE is essential, says Gillespie, not just for safety, but for maintaining the value of the qualifications themselves.

“I worry that disreputable providers might see AI as a quick cheap way to get students through courses. But the end result could be very harmful, both for the student themselves who has paid money for their course and won’t be employable, and for the field. We’re already seeing some of these issues in construction for instance, where buildings are so poorly constructed because you’ve got a firstyear apprentice being supervised by a second-year apprentice, instead of a fully qualified TAFE person.”

It’s not about cheating, but understanding bias Professor Paterson says we need to be very cautious about using ‘anticheating AI tools’ to detect the use of AI in student work.

“All the studies that I’ve seen say this won’t work, but it will discriminate against certain types of students because it looks at complexity of language. I’d just like us to remember that for young people, being accused of cheating can be devastating, so let’s exercise care on all sides,” she says.

For teachers, real concerns lie in the bias of how AI tools function, in that they are reflective of dominant cultures and skewed heavily towards male perspectives – so how can we ensure AI is a safe space for all students while preparing them for the jobs of the future? Teaching students how to use the technology safely, how to question it, how to recognise bias, to check their outputs, and critically understand how it is working will be essential for student success and for the workforce needs to come. And soon.

ROCHELLE SIEMIENOWICZ is a freelance writer and editor.

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Karen Noble AS bargaining continues, the message from members is clear about the proposed ACT Government/CIT offers – CIT teachers deserve more respect.

For months CIT teachers have watched the rebuilding and investment in CIT executive, governance, management and operational processes. They’ve continued the award-winning work of CIT alongside muchpublicised investigations and integrity commission reports.

Yet the needs of teachers are being ignored.

Our members told us that: • CIT teachers should not be paid less than their schoolbased counterparts.

• A proposal to pilot workload initiatives will not be enough to address teacher workloads.

• The exceptional performance of CIT teaching staff, first during COVID and then during the disruption to senior leadership, warrants more recognition in the pay and conditions offered to teaching staff.

• The investment in expanding CIT's executive structure should be matched by an investment in frontline staff.

• The package on offer from CIT does not show teaching staff the respect they deserve.

Members are frustrated by a lack of clear workload reduction initiatives and lack of additional resourcing for teaching areas. At the troubled Woden campus development, hotdesking is being proposed for teachers and far fewer car spaces provided than the number of staff on-site.

CIT teachers also noted the comparison between teacher pay at schools and CIT, noting that CIT teachers stood to slip further behind their public-school counterparts despite being dual-qualified professionals.

The ongoing issues that must be addressed, either through bargaining or other formal processes are: Teacher recruitment and retention • Pay and conditions must improve to attract people from industry, and especially when compared to teachers in schools.

• Teacher onboarding and continued professional learning and support must be strengthened and properly resourced.

• Succession planning as experienced teachers consider reduction of hours and/or retirement.

Workload • Current teachers are overworked, exacerbated by teacher shortages and the inability of CIT to recruit due to poor pay and conditions, while student waitlists grow.

• The required workload for training package updates and CIT re-registration is inadequately resourced resulting in teachers completing much of this essential work in their own time.

• Widespread shortage of experienced administrative and technical staff, leaving additional tasks to be completed by teachers.

• Reporting impacts due to multiple funding streams – apprentices/ traineeships, JobTrainer,

FFT, and students who may be international, profile, sponsored or commercial all have their own administration and reporting requirements.

• More support for students with disadvantage to study means more teaching support is needed in the classroom as well as via wrap-around services.

We are also still waiting for responses from the CIT Workload Committee, which received very specific feedback from teaching colleges.

NSW Phillip Chadwick DESPITE Minister for Skills, TAFE, and Tertiary Education Tim Crakanthorp being asked to resign four months in and the appointment of the seventh skills minister since 2017 (Deputy Premier and Education and Early Learning Minister Prue Car will take on the portfolio as an interim measure), in July the NSW Government acted on one of its key skills preelection commitments and commenced a review of NSW vocational education and training (VET). The Review is being conducted by the NSW Department of Education and led by three panel members:

Dr Michele Bruniges AM (Chair), The Hon. Professor Verity Firth AM and Jason Ardler PSM. A link to the Review’s web page can be found on the NSW DoE website at https://tinyurl. com/4p97d4dr The Review provides an opportunity to provide input to government decision makers and reverses the poor policy decisions of the last two decades, particularly in the areas of TAFE funding, access, equity and regional delivery.

The terms of reference cover the critical issues to effectively review the failed Smart and Skilled contestable funding model of the previous government. It is important the Review hears stories and case studies from TAFE teachers that teachers and students face every day.

The four key themes of the discussion paper are: 1. Boosting student success 2. Placing TAFE NSW at the heart of the system 3. Delivering VET in NSW 4. Preparing VET for the future.

Submissions to this discussion paper will close Friday 24 November 2023.

NSW TAFE teachers and students can also participate in the NSW VET Have Your Say Survey as an alternate method of providing feedback to the Review at www.haveyoursay.nsw. gov.au/vet T H E AU ST RAL I A N TA FE T E AC H E R • 27

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QLD David Terauds THE QTU has been continuing to pursue constructive outcomes in enterprise bargaining negotiations with both Central Queensland University (CQU) and TAFE Queensland (TAFEQ). CQU negotiations recommenced in July following a hiatus, which allowed the university an opportunity to consolidate its financial position coming out of the COVID crisis.

Upon recommencement the university made a substantially improved offer to the unions, amounting to 12 per cent over a four-year agreement.

It also factored in an initial administrative increase to be applied to VET educators’ salaries in order to provide parity with VET educators.

QTU TAFE council viewed the revised offer to VET staff favorably, however sought modifications to the dates for salary increases. The NTEU has been seeking a means to provide improved salary to those on lower pay scales and most affected by cost-of-living increases. They have continued to work with the university to provide solutions, which most likely involve flat dollars increases for some, if not all, of the scheduled increases.

Negotiations continue in a positive frame.

Negotiations with TAFEQ commenced early 2023 and have been stymied in producing productive outcomes in terms of workload by TAFEQ’s unwillingness to deal with anything it sees as a cost item.

Members’ concerns with workload continue to remain unaddressed in any significant way. The intransigence of the employer has meant the TAFEQ members have voted to take industrial action. This has seen a two-hour stop work meeting held and a series of

‘work bans' implemented.

A 24-hour stoppage is being planned in the absence of a significantly improved offer.

Cost-of-living increases have been a significant sticking point, with QTU arguing for front-loading the state government’s Cost of Living Allowance (COLA), which was provided to most other government employees in the 22/23 financial year. With inflation continuing to drop, if the COLA remains payable at the end of the first full year of the agreement as per TAFE’s initial offer, it is likely a COLA will not be payable at all in FY23/24, leaving TAFE educators 4.5 per cent behind their colleagues in administrative and support roles. QTU is expecting a revised offer.

The Queensland Government has been conducting a series of reviews into the status of vocational education in the state. The most recent is the QVET review for which the QTU is providing a detailed submission. The QTU will be urging the state to adopt the policy settings of the federal government in allocating at least 70 per cent of all government funding to public

provision and winding back the fully contestable market that is destroying public provision in the state.

SA Angela Dean THE Roadmap for the Future of TAFE SA was released on 7 August, which repositions TAFE as the leading provider of vocational education and training in South Australia.

The Roadmap is developed from a comprehensive set of proposed actions framed around six goals.

• GOAL 1 – Transforming South Australia The 2023-33 Roadmap covers a period of economic transition and social transformation as South Australia heads into economic re-alignment, zero carbon emissions by 2050 and continues to increase equity through social and economic inclusion. The contributions of First Nations cultures, histories, knowledges and skills to South Australian society are recognised and celebrated as TAFE SA works respectfully with First Nations communities

to ensure equitable participation to gain the benefits of employment, economic and social inclusion. TAFE SA is the foremost and the public provider of, and advocate for, vocational education and training (VET) and further education. TAFE SA is highly respondent to government economic development and social equity policy directions, planning and funding.

TAFE SA leads in anticipating knowledge and skills needs at a statewide and regional level in proposing job-focused training solutions and further education.

The structure and operations of TAFE SA enables this broader ambit and ambition.

• GOAL 2 – Industry Partnered Employers across businesses and industries can expect supportive, transparent, collaborative, good faith negotiated relationships with TAFE SA to ensure that courses fulfil current employer and student needs.

TAFE SA collaborates with government, business and industry in identifying, developing and providing current and future vocational training and further education programs focused upon job outcomes, utilising resources to connect employers, community, unions, employment facilitators and government.

• GOAL 3 – Job Outcomes Students access job and career advice from their initial query and throughout their courses, towards a successful employment outcome upon course completion. TAFE SA-hosted job centres are developed in partnership with employers and communities at TAFE SA sites across the State.

• GOAL 4 – Student Centred All students experience

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ongoing prompt and expert support from their first contact through to successful outcomes.

Administrative processes, communication, personal and learning services, amenities and facilities supporting student learning are designed and maintained for student wellbeing, engagement and course completion.

• GOAL 5 – Place-Based The provision of courses and support services respond to regional and local economic and social development.

Decision-making processes are representative and inclusive of all interests, recognising the diversity of expectations and needs across local areas, including First Nations communities.

Organisational structures and operations reflect a place-based approach of recognising the uniqueness of the local, while sharing wider knowledges and experience.

• GOAL 6 – Future Focused Learning programs are designed for current and future knowledge and skills needs with flexibility to provide learning opportunities as needed.

Students and expert educators are supported with up-to-date innovations in learning techniques and technologies.

The Roadmap outlines 96 recommendations to be implemented across the next 10 years to ensure that TAFE is responsive to local economic demands in rural and remote communities and will foster more equitable outcomes for students.

In the media surrounding the Roadmap’s release, the Education Minister acknowledged that the corporatisation of TAFE SA was a mistake, and has signalled a shift that will return TAFE SA to its role as a key public

education institution, rather than a for-profit business.

This is welcome news for our members who have faced years of excessive workloads, due to the organisation's focus on making profits as a Statutory Corporation.

The next step for the government is to seek a change on the TAFE SA Act to redirect TAFE SA away from corporate operations. TAFE SA has also been directed to develop a 10-year strategic plan, which will provide a guideline for implementation of the recommendations in consultation with key industry, community and union stakeholders.

TAS Simon Bailey WE won again! The AEU and the United Workers Union (UWU) have won a second round in the Fair Work Commission, with the Full Bench dismissing a TasTAFE appeal in a decision that protects workers’ conditions from cuts and broken Rockliff government promises.

The AEU and UWU took TasTAFE to the Fair Work Commission in November, contesting that new TasTAFE employees should be employed on the same working conditions as current workers. The Commission agreed and the entitlements fought for by union members were shared to all staff. Dozens of TasTAFE teachers employed since 1 July 2022 will see their pay remain the same but will have their hours dropped from 38 to 35 per week, bringing this in line with employees on the old Agreement.

New TasTAFE teachers will also receive an extra week of leave – creating equity with existing workers – all with no loss of pay. The Fair Work Commission has maintained a view that it was

in the public interest that TasTAFE staff conditions are made consistent. The ruling, upheld with the dismissal of TasTAFE’s appeal, is the first of its kind in Australia, with a contested application for a consolidation order having never been previously granted.

After refusing an offer to resolve pay inequities, in enterprise bargaining, TasTAFE is now seeking to rush negotiations and pretend the Fair Work Commission decision protecting all conditions never happened.

Negotiations are crawling along due to TasTAFE being unable to articulate what they want and/or provide written clauses which cover certain proposals. A main point of conjecture is pay progression based on performance outcomes.

TasTAFE has proposed that unions support the notion that the clauses that will govern performance-based management be developed after the agreement has been registered. Negotiators are having none of this.

The AEU launched a new campaign, urging the Rockliff government and TasTAFE to keep their promises and deliver a fair go to all TasTAFE employees. The Fair Go at TasTAFE campaign aims to address growing concerns among teachers and support staff, who feel undervalued and unsupported after being privatised out of the public service. AEU members are calling on the government and TasTAFE to deliver the promise to improve wages and conditions for current and future TAFE teachers, starting with a 7 per cent wage increase.

If TasTAFE and the government want to turn around staff morale following the move from public service to government company, they need to rule out any cuts to wages and conditions and

support the positive proposals put forward by AEU members for a fair go at TasTAFE. On a positive note TasTAFE opened its $27 million water and energy Trade Centre of Excellence on Hobart’s eastern shore. The centre will train more than 1,250 TasTAFE water and energy apprentices for the plumbing, electrotechnology, air conditioning, refrigeration and emerging renewable energy sectors.

Northern and northwest trades teams are also reaping the benefit of a $7 million equipment fund boost, which is allowing areas to update equipment that in some cases are over 40 years old. This state money is warmly welcomed; however, teams in the south of the state are receiving no such funding.

VIC Elaine Gillepsie NEGOTIATIONS continue for a new agreement that covers the 12 standalone TAFEs in Victoria. More than a year into these negotiations, our members' key claims remain to be addressed. From the commencement of the negotiations, our members were very clear in their intent to change the form of our agreement from an outdated multi-employer agreement (MEA) to a single interest employer agreement (SIEA), which gives our members in the standalone TAFEs the ability to take protected action. For too long our members have had excessive workloads, insecure work, had their professionalism and capability questioned without the ability to take protected action. An SIEA will give these members the power and a voice to address these major concerns.

The AEU Victorian Branch launched a Majority Support Petition to bring all the T H E AU ST RAL I A N TA FE T E AC H E R • 2 9

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standalone TAFEs to the bargaining table to negotiate an SIEA. Over several weeks our TAFE organisers, reps and members have been having conversations with TAFE teachers, senior educators and education managers across all campuses of all 12 standalone TAFEs, explaining the importance of having an SIEA and gathering signatures.

The petition was lodged at the Fair Work Commission late August and it is anticipated that it may take 12 weeks to get an outcome.

Negotiations for a new RMIT Vocational Education Teachers Agreement commenced in May this year.

Although bargaining is still in its early stages there have been significant challenges. Our members at RMIT have been clear in their wish to bargain, and their preference to have an agreement that covers all vocational education teachers and managers at RMIT, as the current agreement does.

Unfortunately, this is not the position of other parties at the table. Therefore, while we try to continue to bargain in good faith for our members, the negotiations have been disruptive and slow moving.

Management at Victoria University (VU) approached the AEU earlier this year seeking discussions around a rollover agreement. The initial VU offer was not acceptable, as the proposed duration of the rollover agreement was too long and the salary offer too low. After several weeks of discussions, we have an improved position to put to our members.

Federation University’s Log of Claims process is currently being finalised, ready to be submitted in the coming weeks.

The staff shortages in Victorian TAFEs means most teachers are experiencing

dramatic and unsustainable increases in their workloads.

Many departments can only continue to run courses by existing teachers working well above their contracted hours.

Teachers, no matter the sector, are expected to do more, to cover the teaching shortages and to do this with less class time and less time to prepare.

Class sizes have increased dramatically, and more so in the female-dominated teaching areas. We have reports of class sizes in nursing increasing from 20 students per class to 60. This increase does not just massively increase the workload of these teachers but negatively impacts the students’ learning experience. TAFE teachers are actively choosing to leave teaching and go back into industry, to get better pay, a manageable workload and a better work-life balance.

The Victorian Government’s attempt to attract new teachers into TAFE through a teaching scholarship program was doomed to produce quality TAFE teachers from the beginning. Designed to have 200 potential industry professionals paid to undertake the TAE Certificate IV in training and assessment as well as a $10,000 payment if they remained in TAFE teaching for two years, required insufficient training and qualification for teachers to lead a classroom. The qualification on offer in the scholarship needed to be higher, it needed to include teaching methodology, curriculum design and development and the scholarship needs to be longer, and the scholars need effective support, supervision and mentoring throughout their scholarship program.

The current program uses the ASQA requirement for supervision, which enables each TAFE to decide what

that looks like. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that it varied drastically from the very good, team teaching, to the very bad no supervision. Although touted as a success for enrolling 200 people in the program, the learning experience or experience of the scholars or the students they taught or the number of participants that did not complete has not been communicated.

WA Gary Hedger BARGAINING is about to commence on a new agreement, with the SSTUWA Log of Claims finalised by TAFE committee and endorsed by the union. We have asked for a two-year agreement with wage increases of 7 per cent in the first year and 5 per cent in the second year.

Although this position for wages in all unions that will commence bargaining for replacement agreements with the government, the new treasurer has stated that the wage policy of 3 per cent increases per annum for public sector employees will remain in place, despite the government recently giving an 18 per cent pay increase to juvenile detention sector workers.

There has been consistent growth within the TAFE sector with significant increases in student demand leading to an overall student activity increase of 13 per cent.

This year-on-year increase can be attributed in part to government incentives such as Fee-Free TAFE. Along with increased student activity there has been an increase in Employment Based Training (EBT) of 19 per cent compared to July 2022. While this surge in EBT has placed added pressure

on the apprenticeship activity pipeline, it is seen as an encouraging indicator of a strong second semester in delivery.

While increased TAFE enrolments and increasing student numbers is fantastic for the sector, there is a corresponding increased workload placed on TAFE teaching staff that has not been addressed. TAFE’s difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff due to poor wages and workload (excessive hours of red tape and compliance documents) is further adding to that pressure.

We are waiting to see where the current review of foundation skills run by the federal government will land in providing increased funding and direction for the state for its CAVSS and USIQ programs, which are currently set to expire at the end of 2024.

This is especially important given the increase in Fee-Free and reduced-fee courses, and that in Western Australia only one out of three students enrolling in a foundation skills course. CAVSS and USIQ programs supported by the state government offer in-class support for students, and involves a literacy or numeracy lecturer team-teaching with the vocational lecturer to assist all students with the learning process and make a huge difference to student outcomes in classrooms.

The remainder of 2023 in Western Australia will see implementation of our current General Agreement whilst negotiating its replacement, along with responding to permanency issues and long service leave for casual teachers (current and past) calculations and entitlements.

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As part of the Rebuild with TAFE campaign, the AEU is conducting a survey of members’ experiences of the current State of Our TAFE to find out what the most important issues for members working in TAFE today.

The survey will take around 15 minutes to complete and will provide invaluable data on the current pressures facing TAFE staff and students, on working hours, workload, wellbeing, course provision, infrastructure, funding and resourcing.

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