Aligning vocational and higher education will generate the combination of skills and knowledge that workers will need to be successful in the job market, according to the latest report from Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA).
The JSA report, Opportunity and Productivity: Towards a Tertiary Harmonisation Roadmap, makes 19 recommendations across three categories to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our tertiary education sector and better meet Australia’s workforce requirements. The categories are:
- Enabling the tertiary harmonisation roadmap. This includes foundational initiatives such as developing a governance framework to facilitate the development of a roadmap, including a potential role for the Australian Tertiary Education Commission. It emphasises the importance of the 2 sectors being on an equal footing.
- Early priorities for the roadmap. These recommendations cover areas where work is already underway such as a credit transfer system and mechanisms to encourage innovative course design. It also includes recommendations relating to Commonwealth Supported Places funding for TAFEs and collaboration between VET and higher education providers on a systematic approach to enabling qualifications that are nationally recognised and portable.
- Medium term horizon roadmap priorities. These recommendations consider longer term ambitions such as the development of JSA’s National Skills Taxonomy, Australian Qualification Framework reform; digital resources for students to help them navigate the system and the creation of a Tertiary Education National Data Asset.
“Improving coordination and cooperation – or ‘harmonisation’ – of the tertiary education sectors will fuel Australia’s productivity, address skill shortages and achieve economic benefits by better matching skill supply with skill demand,” said JSA Commissioner, Professor Barney Glover.
Industries need new combinations of skills and knowledge from school leavers and those reskilling and upskilling. Tertiary harmonisation will result in a more flexible and adaptive tertiary system that is better placed to respond to changing industry needs.
“A harmonised system will provide a much-needed workforce for emerging occupations, greatly benefiting the jobs of the future such as care work, clean energy and digital transformation,” said Professor Glover.
JSA’s recommendations include mechanisms to encourage innovative course design and the creation of a national credit transfer system.
The report also identifies some of the barriers to harmonisation, including different governmental and regulatory requirements, and differences in curriculum and qualification frameworks.
However, Professor Glover was clear that overcoming these barriers is not about merging or integrating the university and vocational education sectors.
“Tertiary harmonisation is about creating better connections between the education sectors whilst retaining their distinctiveness and independence,” said Professor Glover.
“The VET and university sectors will need to work together as equal education pathways for tertiary harmonisation to be successful.”
The full report can be accessed here.
