Businesses are being encouraged to partner with new TAFE Centres of Excellence (TCoE) to address their skills needs and boost innovation.
While industry has been working with TAFEs and RTOs in general for many years, the new Centres offer a consistent approach to learning and training by forming a TAFE national network.
Ai Group Centre of Education and Training (Ai Group CET) Senior Policy Consultant Anne Younger hosted a webinar last week to find out how businesses can get involved and benefit.
She welcomed industry experts:
The Centres are being established by the Australian Government, states and territories under the National Skills Agreement to meet national workforce challenges beginning with strategically important industries.
They will:
Six TCoEs have been fast-tracked, each focusing on a priority industry sector:
Up to 20 centres will be established around the country within a five-year period.
“Ai Group is excited to see these Centres unfolding as we have — for some years through our policy work for industry — advocated the introduction of multi-partner education, training and research hubs that include industry and co-design akin to the Centres of Vocational Excellence in Europe,” Ms Younger said.
Among its work in this area, Ai Group has been collaborating with industry, university and TAFE partners to establish higher and degree apprenticeship pilots.
A challenge these pilots have faced is bringing the different tertiary education sectors together to combine the skills industry needs.
It is hoped the new TAFE Centres of Excellence will become environments in which innovative delivery models can be supported.
“From our perspective representing industry, we are keen to explore how businesses can benefit and how our member companies will be able to connect with the Centres," Ms Younger said.
“One key promise from the partnerships is the notion of networked solutions for skills shortages, and I think that's an idea many of our member companies will jump at.”
“This national network is one of the most significant pieces of change for us as a network of TAFEs,” Ms Dodd said.
“So, while Centres will begin in the state or territory in which they are established, they will be further expanded through a national response,” she said.
“States and territories that have TCoEs will lead for the country in terms of establishing partnerships with industry and opening the door for industry to become involved.
“They will also lead in terms of partnerships with universities, starting with local universities in the first instance.
“The initial leadership that comes from the states and territories in getting the Centres established is vital.”
The 10 Australian Government Jobs and Skills Councils (JSCs) are responsible for supporting the Centres in the design and delivery of training aligned to industry needs, Dr Lind said.
His JSC, the Mining and Automotive Skills Alliance, is a key industry partner to the EV TAFE Centre of Excellence.
Mr Lindsay added: “With the initial kick-off for the Cert III (Certificate III in Automotive Electric Vehicle Technology (Light Vehicle) AUR32721), and even the skill sets you need to ensure you're hitting the mark for industry, you've got to work with industry.
“And they (businesses) were a big reason why we’ve had the success we've had with the program.
“Being a new industry, we had to receive the skills ourselves, and leveraging off industry was the way to do that.
“The skills the EV industry requires now didn't exist previously, so it was in their best interest to work with TAFE to create these skills.
“It was a hand-in-hand project to get us to this point, and that's the way it'll be moving forward.
“Every week there's another industry representative coming on board or another meeting here on site to talk about their needs and how we could possibly partner with them to create a similar outcome to what we have achieved so far.
“At the end of the day, the outcomes required are governed by the needs of a particular time, and being an emerging industry, that changes from week to week, depending on their customer base.
“Even industry’s projections on when they need the skills by has been fast-tracked.
“The EV industry had thought it had a number of years to upgrade its workforce, but at the moment, one in four new cars registered in the ACT is an EV.
“Everything is developing at a fast rate.
“We need to be there to help support other TAFEs in other areas of the country that may not have had the funding to be able to create their programs from scratch.
“This information-sharing will help fast-track their ability to support industry.”
The key challenge for TCoEs is uptake and industry relevance, Dr Lind said.
“In the case of EV training products, apprenticeships and graduate pathways, we expect the Centres will achieve this by investing in and increasing scalability," he added.
“We’ll be keenly looking at what the future priorities are.”
TCoEs are all about delivering the hands-on practical training and education that workers and industry need, Ms Dodd said.
“If we look at the University Accord’s implementation process, for example, Minister Clare says we’ll need 80 per cent of people with a tertiary education qualification by 2050,” she added.
“The important word there is ‘tertiary’, which implies vocational or higher education.
“The complexity of skills people need is changing.
“For example, our trade-qualified people are going to need continual learning in post-trade qualifications to be effective in the clean energy space.
“Similarly, if we look at the significant outcomes that have occurred in aged care and early childhood education and care in the past six months where there has been recognition of the importance of a professional workforce and remunerating and rewarding people in those industries appropriately, they, too, are going to need ongoing learning.
“Those skills are vocational skills.
“What makes these TAFE Centres of Excellence important is that they're led by TAFE; it's about delivering the practical and hands-on skills, knowledge and education required by workers and industry into the future.”
Strengthening TAFE’s existing relationships with industry is important, Mr Lindsay said.
“Industry has been working with TAFEs and RTOs in general for a long time, but what they really need is a consistent approach.
“These Centres are helping design and implement that. There is a lot of work to be done over the five-year duration, but it's super exciting so far.”
Ms Dodd added: “The very deliberate partnership approach to these Centres is fundamental, but there will also be higher levels of integration with industry in terms of workplace projects relating to the applied research that TAFEs do.
“All of those aspects will be part of a new organisational design.
“Teaching and learning are also crucial.
“We’ll see the best of teaching and learning come to the fore, and from that, we will develop new models of teaching and learning excellence to better meet the needs of industry.
“Meeting the needs of emerging and established industries where we absolutely need a focus on delivering better outcomes in a quicker timeframe for those critical industries is key.
“We want students to be well-equipped to work in those industries while they are students but also once they enter the workforce.”
Mr Lindsay says much can be learned from the Centres already established.
“It was all new ground that we had to cover,” he said.
“In these first 12 months, we had to build a workforce to support the CIT EV TCoE and procure resources required for delivery in Canberra, as well as on a national scale.
“We're only a couple of months into it so far, but we can use some of the ground we've covered to help other Centres fast-track to get to this point.
“As time goes on, the Centres will get stood up a lot quicker than the initial one.
“There's a huge need to make sure all TAFEs have the ability to deliver the skills and knowledge needed in the EV space to help industry on its transition to Net Zero.”
Register your interest without delay, Mr Lindsay advises industry.
“That way, we can have your details on the database and our stakeholder engagement specialists can make contact and explore different ways of partnering.
“The more we know about different needs and partners willing to come on board, the more that knowledge can fast-track and even shape projects.
“It’s super important to reach out as soon as you can.”
Register here for next month’s Ai Group CET webinar on Wednesday, October 23, 11am-noon: Addressing low levels of literacy and numeracy in the workplace.
Wendy Larter is Communications Manager at the Australian Industry Group. She has more than 20 years’ experience as a reporter, features writer, contributor and sub-editor for newspapers and magazines including The Courier-Mail in Brisbane and Metro, the News of the World, The Times and Elle in the UK.
