Transcript Slide 1

Entrepreneurial VET
Educators
VISTA Conference
Productive Pathway Partnerships
Melinda Waters
TDC
Topics for discussion
 Why be an entrepreneurial VET educator?
 What does it mean?
 What does it look like?
 How do I do it?
Challenges for Australia
• Competing in a rapidly moving global economy
• Ensuring enough skilled workers into the future – quantity and
quality (additional 5.2 M Cert III and higher by 2025).
– Increasing workforce participation
– Raising/deepening skills and higher qualifications levels
• Skills shortages:
– trade, engineering and health professions
• Ageing workforce
• Building innovative in the workforce
• Addressing environmental and social challenges for a sustainable and
inclusive future.
Australia’s Ageing profile – 2002 - 2042
Index value (2002 base=100)
Index value (2002 base=100)
450
450
400
400
350
350
300
300
250
250
200
200
150
150
100
100
50
50
0
0
0 to 14
15 to 54
2002
55 to 64
65 to 84
2022
85+
Total
2042
Treasury
Challenges for Australia
It is innovation and entrepreneurship that
are the heart of success for individuals,
enterprises and nations.
Burns, 2007
We believe that a vibrant, high performing
and world class VET sector lies at the heart
of the challenge.
Skills Australia
National policy directions
 Council Of Australian Governments (COAG):
 Greater participation and attainment in the workforce
 Social inclusion including people from low SES backgrounds &
Indigenous Australians
 Halving proportion of Australians without a Cert III
 Bradley Review of Australian Higher Education
 Demand driven system
 Better pathways between VET and HE – a merged tertiary
sector
 20% participation in HE from low SES backgrounds by 2020
National policy directions
 Skills Australia – Skills for prosperity roadmap:
 Higher skilled and educated population (3% growth in tertiary
enrolments to 2025) – funding aligned to skill needs
 Unacceptably low levels of LL&N skills in the workforce
 More rigorous regulation for VET
 More training within enterprises & sustainable apprenticeships
 Building depth and breadth of VET workers qualifications
 Productivity Commission – Study of VET Workforce
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Delivery to disadvantaged learners
Delivery of higher education qualifications
Significant gaps in ICT skills, RPL and workplace delivery
Gaps in management and leadership skills
Gaps in innovation capability.
Victorian perspective
 Securing jobs for the future reforms:
 Increase participation and attainment levels
 Increase the number of people undertaking training in areas
where skills are needed
 Increase flexibility and responsiveness of VET through
competition, demand driven and a contestable funding regime
 Merging of delivery across tertiary education – closer
relationships between schools, VET and HE and changing
program types
 Strong regional focus
 Increase preparedness and ability to innovate.
What does it mean for providers?
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Being competitive in a contestable, demand driven market
Attracting and retaining students (uncapped HE sector)
Providing high quality, flexible and responsive services
Moving from ‘traditional’ business models to new ways of
working
Meeting equity & diversity targets
Stronger relationships and partnerships with industry, community
and other providers
Pathways between VETiS, VET and HE
Developing a culture of pedagogy and scholarship
Meeting changing regulatory requirements
Ensuring quality of teaching . . . the competitive advantage.
What does that mean for practitioners?
Changing industry
contexts & practices
Government policy
reforms
Sustainability and
the environment
Changing Training
Packages and AQTF
Demand driven
funding models
Change and
innovation
VET Practitioner
Greater diversity in
the client group
Merging of the
educational sectors
Language, Literacy &
Numeracy skills
Rapidly changing
technologies
A flexible and
responsive VET
system
Globalisation and
competition in the
marketplace
Aging VET workforce
Increasing reliance
on Industry
partnerships
“Email is for
old people”
– A student, A digital native
© 2006 Marc Prensky
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The VET Educator
Has the ability to be innovative,
entrepreneurial, adaptive and collaborative an industry specialist and a highly skilled
educator - with capability to work with
partners and to practice across the merging
tertiary sector.
New skills and knowledge
 High level teaching, learning and assessment skills and knowledge to
practice across VET boundaries and contexts
 Industry currency – new and emerging trends and skills
 Engaging a wide range of learners
 Building partnerships and working with industry, community and
providers
 Ensuring high quality and continuous improvement
 Commitment to ongoing learning and development
 Commercial acumen, entrepreneurial skills and innovation capability.
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What is innovation?
. . . is about creating new products and services to meet
customer demand. . . exploiting new markets
. . . applies to all industries, high-tech and low-tech,
manufacturing and services, retailing and agriculture. . .
(Charles Leadbeater, 1999) and education and training.
. . . a process of creative destruction (Schumpeter)
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What is entrepreneurship?
Entrepreneurship is the commercialisation of an innovation . . . Bringing
ideas into being for the benefit of others (Hutton, 2008).
The changes entrepreneurial activity makes every time a new process,
product or company enters the market.
What is an entrepreneur?
An innovator . . . . a highly creative individual who sees opportunities in
the market, imagines new solutions and generates profit or reward or
improvement.
An entrepreneur is the person who is accountable for the inherent risks
and the outcome of an idea, or business activity (Deakins & Freel, 2009).
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What does that mean for VET?
Two implications for VET educators:
1. Being entrepreneurial and
innovative ourselves to
contribute to our own, our
institute's and the sector’s future
success
2. Producing entrepreneurial and
innovative graduates for the
future.
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Entrepreneurship in education
. . . seeks to provide students with the knowledge, skills
and motivation to be entrepreneurial in a variety of
settings. Education should develop awareness of
entrepreneurship . . .
. . . introducing young people to entrepreneurship
develops their initiative and helps them to be more
creative and self-confident in whatever they undertake
and to act in a socially responsible way (European
Union).
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What is an entrepreneur…
 Thinks outside the square, is creative & results oriented
 Understands the market & look for opportunities
 Challenges the status quo
 Not afraid of change
 Re-frame issues and ideas in new ways
 Appetite for risk (a balance between being a gambler and
overly cautious)
 An early adopter of ideas and technology- absorptive
capacity for new things
Peter Graves, Strategon
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The entrepreneurial personality traits …
 Ambitious & competitive
 Self sufficient & independent
 Comfortable with ambiguity & uncertainty
 Persistent and optimistic
 Responsive and flexible
 Collaborative
 Excellent communciator
 Opportunistic and resourceful
 Has to ability to be reflective and learn from mistakes.
Peter Graves, Strategon
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Where are you in the picture …
1. That’s not me
2. That’s me sometimes
3. That’s me often
4. That’s me always!
Why not?
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Myths about innovation
1. You have to be Houdini to be an innovator
/entrepreneur
2. Innovation requires a pervasive ‘creative culture’
3. Innovation is all about technology
4. Innovation is the commercialisation of science
4. Innovation has to be new and big and world shattering
5. Innovation is a planned and ordered process that
requires R&D and funding
6. Innovation is something you do by yourself.
(Jonathon West, Australian Innovation Research Centre)
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Where to start – firstly as an entrepreneur?
 Ask yourself- what can I do differently?
 Talk to your peers- talk about the itches- those things that
bug or interest you
 Understand your market- how can I differentiate what I do
from the competition?
 Think value creation and competitive advantage
 Start to look for opportunities – you may be surprised!
 Don’t lose those ideas for new programs, delivery models,
learning products. . . . or ways to do it better
Peter Graves, Strategon
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Where to start?
 Assess your products / services /processes - identify the
best one
 Focus on what customers say- look closely at those
evaluations and feedback and respond
 Build a business case – have a go - test the market
 Take a course, find a mentor, find a partner
 Start small but think big and into the future!
 Don’t expect that someone else should be doing it and
 Have a go . . . .
Peter Graves, Strategon
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Secondly - entrepreneurship in education
 Re-examine programs and delivery models to incorporate
entrepreneurial/innovative skills
 Use innovation/entrepreneurial case studies
 Invite successful entrepreneurs /innovators to talk to
students
 Set challenges and have prizes for innovative &
entrepreneurial activities
 Challenge learners to re-frame and look at and
issue/subject/problem differently
 Encourage learners to take responsibility for their
learning and work
Mary O’Kane
Mary O'Kane & Associates
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TDC entrepreneurship programs
 Building sustainable industry partnerships (2 day)
 Successful approaches to working with enterprises,
understanding the market and developing entrepreneurial
skills in a workplace project:
 9 September and 4 November
 Building an entrepreneurial culture (1 day)
 Strategies to drive change and engaging people in thinking
bout the market, how to position their programs and how to
create greater value and competitive advantage:
 14 October
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An entrepreneurial culture?
 Encourages new ways of thinking, doing and believing
 Helps an organisation build, change and generate a return
from innovation
 Drives better service and value for customers
 Gives freedom to experiment and to fail
 Protects and supports the entrepreneurial endeavor
 Developments commercial acumen.
Peter Graves, Strategon
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Thank you
Questions
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