10.07.2015 Views

Keeping it real - the Queensland VET Development Centre

Keeping it real - the Queensland VET Development Centre

Keeping it real - the Queensland VET Development Centre

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School teachers may be disadvantaged in not having <strong>the</strong> industry background and contactsrequired to be industry current. This can make <strong>it</strong> difficult to find appropriate industry experienceopportun<strong>it</strong>ies.Schools have add<strong>it</strong>ional issues in backfilling teachers because of <strong>the</strong> specialist skills andregulations involved in working w<strong>it</strong>h children. Finding replacement teachers and appropriateindustry experience opportun<strong>it</strong>ies is especially difficult in regional areas. The school sector,particularly in regional areas, can also have a high turn-over of teaching staff.Addressing barriersMany of <strong>the</strong> barriers are related to conventional thinking about industry currency and lack ofplanning. Adopting more flexible and innovative approaches will improve accessibil<strong>it</strong>y to andrelevance of industry currency activ<strong>it</strong>ies.Key Finding 16More innovative approaches and planning are required to overcome <strong>the</strong> barriers to trainersmaintaining industry currency.RTO policies and processes that support industry currencyAll RTOs responding to this consultation process have policies and processes in place to support<strong>the</strong> industry currency of training staff.In some RTOs staff were not aware of <strong>the</strong>se processes and policies or how to access <strong>the</strong>m. Thework arrangements of casual and workplace trainer staff appeared to lim<strong>it</strong> both formal andinformal sharing of information, leading to a lack of knowledge of RTO policies and opportun<strong>it</strong>ies.Some stakeholders believe that <strong>the</strong>se processes aren’t considered important until preparing foraud<strong>it</strong>.Trainers familiar w<strong>it</strong>h <strong>the</strong> processes were more likely to report that <strong>it</strong> was easy to access industrycurrency activ<strong>it</strong>ies if <strong>the</strong>y worked for a supervisor who valued industry currency. In some teamsindustry currency activ<strong>it</strong>ies are not regularly undertaken by all team members. Some trainersreported that only <strong>the</strong> staff who proactively plan and manage <strong>the</strong>ir industry currency regularlyundertake activ<strong>it</strong>ies.Industry currency was often planned for in individual achievement plans, documented in staffprofiles and recorded on human resource management systems. However, feedback indicatedthat in some RTOs individual achievement plans were not reviewed and mon<strong>it</strong>ored. This wassometimes due to turnover of management staff. When <strong>the</strong>se plans were not reviewed ormon<strong>it</strong>ored some of <strong>the</strong> industry currency activ<strong>it</strong>ies were not undertaken.Staff profiles were generally reported to be centrally managed in both public and private RTOs.This removes ownership and responsibil<strong>it</strong>y for <strong>the</strong> maintenance of <strong>the</strong>se documents from <strong>the</strong>trainer. Centrally managed profiles were reported to be updated retrospectively e<strong>it</strong>her annuallyor six-monthly, ra<strong>the</strong>r than progressively updated and <strong>the</strong>refore may not accurately capture allindustry currency activ<strong>it</strong>ies.Key Finding 17Industry currency opportun<strong>it</strong>ies should be allocated equ<strong>it</strong>ably amongst team members topromote <strong>the</strong> currency of <strong>the</strong> whole team.16 <strong>Keeping</strong> <strong>it</strong> <strong>real</strong>

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