Review - Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research

As well each of the countries has different histories and cultures of political administration and
economic policies. These cultures have an influence on the nature of their VET markets and
regulatory systems.
Australia
Australia is a federation with a specified set of powers allocated to the national government and the
residual to the states. The governance structures based on the British model at both national and state
levels have encouraged adversarial and party based politics, and the constitutional goal of having state
advocacy through the Senate has not been realised.
These features together with the significant shift in financial and legislative power to the national
government have meant that the original objectives of a collateral and cooperative federalism have
been weakened in favour of a more competitive federalism. More recently however, there are signs of
a growing degree of coordinate federalism with a more prominent role for intergovernmental and
ministerial councils. This development is especially relevant to the VET sector as it has effectively
shaped the curriculum and governance structure of the sector over the past two decades. However, the
tendency towards centralism in VET governance has been demonstrated in the recommendations of
the Bradley Review of Higher Education (2008).
Economic policy in Australia has been market oriented. Australia has among the highest levels of
private investment in education and training among OECD countries and the rates of increase in this
investment over the past two decades has been the highest among OECD countries (OECD, 2008).
However, the levels of private investment in formal VET have been moderate and relatively stable.
Nevertheless Australia was among the first countries to adopt policies of an open and competitive
training market and to encourage the establishment of private training providers.
Canada
Canada is a federation of 11 provinces with a significantly weaker central government in comparison
to Australia. The limited role of the national government has not required any direct (see Germany) or
indirect (as in the Australian Senate) representation of the regions within the central government. The
reasons for the limited role of the national government are due to the cultural independence of the
English and French speaking provinces and the economic differences between the industrial eastern
and resource rich western provinces. Differences in the links between provinces and the USA and
several constitutional crises have also acted as break on centralism.
Canada therefore has a type of collateral federalism and until recently, a federalism that has had
virtually no impact on education and training. There is no federal department of education or training
and no national VET system. While Canada has tended towards the relatively free market approach of
most Anglophone countries, there is a degree of variation across the provinces. As a consequence the
strength of the private training market is variable.
Germany
Germany also is a federation. The role of the national government is relatively strong, and unlike most
other federations this was a deliberate construct. However the German Landers have a direct role in
the central government through formal representation in the upper house, the Bundesrat, where the
members are appointed by the Lander governments rather than being elected through popular vote.
Furthermore the upper house has relatively equal power to that of the lower house.
The governance system in Germany locates the policy making role with the national government and
the administrative role with the Landers. As a consequence of these constitutional and administrative
characteristics, Germany is a strong example of coordinate federalism. This coordinate characteristic
is strengthened by the role of the stranding conferences of Lander ministers, including that of
ministers for education. Recently governments have decided to devolve all responsibility for school
education to the Landers and locate responsibility for VET at a national level. As a consequence, the
responsibilities for much of the initial VET, which is located in schools, and continuing VET are
located at different levels of government. However, both of these roles are mediated by the role of the
industry partners (business and unions) and their industry and occupational chambers.
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