VET Teacher Training in Australia: Preserving Australian VET ...

Level 5 / Diploma: specialised knowledge and skills for skilled/paraprofessional work and/or
further learning;
Level 6 / Advanced Diploma or Associate Degree: broad knowledge and skills for
paraprofessional/highly skilled work and/or further learning;
Level 7 / Bachelor Degree: broad and coherent knowledge and skills for professional work
and/or further learning;
Level 8 / Bachelor Honours Degree or Graduate and Vocational Graduate Certificate or
Graduate and Vocational Graduate Diploma;
Level 9 / Masters Degree: Specialised knowledge and skills for research and/or professional
practice and/or further learning;
Level 10 / Doctoral Degree: systematic and critical understanding of a complex field of
learning and specialised research skills for the advancement of learning and/or for
professional practice.
Although not necessarily worrying, it may come to pass that VET as we visibly know it in Australia
evolves (contracts) to Australian Qualification Framework (AQF) levels 1, 2 & 3 being delivered –
more so than is presently the case ‐in secondary schools; and AQF level 6 being serviced by
universities more so than is presently the case. In these respects, it may come to pass that TAFE
Institutes move away from low AQF levels and move more, than is presently the case, into the higher
education domain along with larger private providers getting larger through, amongst other
strategies, acquisition of smaller providers; and smaller private providers, who choose to remain,
forming partnerships with secondary schools which are increasing their VET in Schools 13
engagement. Even beyond increased activity at AQF 6, there is also the possibility that universities
will become more active in the VET arena in response to TAFE Institutes and larger private providers
moving into the university domain – there are presently four dual sector (i.e. serving both higher
education and VET) universities in Victoria.
The effect of the foregoing being that, although the volume of VET delivery is likely to expand, the
visible (as previously known) VET sector will shrink. If this does happen, the need for VET teachers to
be adequately trained in accord with the particularities of VET will still exist, but the seeming
location of VET teachers will change; and, hence, they may require additional qualification to the
Certificate IV in Training and Assessment as is appropriate to their location of engagement. Some
will be engaged with secondary schools and others will be engaged with universities; and hence a
diffusion of VET identity at both ends.
Notwithstanding the correctness of my prediction, the number of VET teachers is likely to increase
and the requirement that they are professionally prepared to contribute with varying levels of
autonomy in learning design and innovation capacity will expand. My sense is that VET in Australia
has much alignment with the supposedly Swedish proverb “the afternoon knows what the morning
13 Vet in Schools (VETiS) was introduced to the Victorian secondary school system in 1994 And in other States
around this time) as a strategy to add to learning pathways for senior secondary students and thus increase
the number of students completing Year 12 (the point at which secondary education finishes in Australia). The
students undertake recognised VET studies (typically at Certificate II or Certificate lll level) which count toward
either their Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE – academic pathway) or Victorian Certificate of Applied
Learning (VCAL). School Based Apprenticeships, where the student has one day in the workplace and part of
their learning facilitated by a VET provider, are an aspect of this initiative.
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