Transcript VET practitioners for the Service Industries: What they do well and how they could do better Erica Smith (UB), Ros Brennan Kemmis (Charles Sturt University),

VET practitioners for the
Service Industries:
What they do well and how
they could do better
Erica Smith (UB), Ros Brennan Kemmis
(Charles Sturt University), Lauri Grace (Deakin
University) & Warren Payne (UB)
Project funded by Service Skills Australia
How we researched the Service
Skills VET workforce
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9 industry focus groups in 5 States - 60 participants
International benchmarking via interviews and email
conversations with senior UK experts in VET teacher
qualifications, & in retail and hospitality sector skills councils.
33-question survey of all Registered Training Organisations
(RTOs) delivering Service Skills qualifications, a return of 208
valid responses (13.3%). The survey covered the RTO, its
workforce, and its staff development strategies and needs.
Case studies in 8 RTOs, one public and one private in each of
the following areas: retail and floristry, hospitality, hair and
beauty, fitness and community recreation.
Interviews with managers in 3 enterprise RTOs, and analysis of
international student issues (4 interviews plus case study data)
Validation by 2 UK experts & 2 Australian focus groups
What Service Skills RTOs are
like
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Almost three-quarters of Service Skills RTOs are micro or
small in size (with fewer than 500 students enrolled).
Service Skills RTOs are quite diverse, with some evidence of a
bimodal distribution in delivery mode - those who deliver
primarily in the workplace and those who deliver primarily in an
institutional setting.
Most Service Skills RTOS do not deliver in more than two
industry areas.
Smaller RTOs have the opportunity to control their
teaching/training staff better than larger RTOs do. It is easier
for them to monitor teaching/training quality and to enforce
requirements such as those for industry currency. Links with
industry are more straightforward.
What do VET practioners do?
There are different types of practitioners, which within themselves vary
among type of RTO, size of RTO, Training Package area and so on).
There are 4 main types:
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Employed by an institutional RTO, delivering primarily in an
institutional setting;
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Employed by an institutional RTO, delivering primarily in employers’
workplaces;
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Employed by an enterprise RTO, delivering nationally recognised
training;
4.
Employed by an enterprise, delivering non-nationally recognised
training.
The project focused on the first three although we did receive
comments about the latter group. Each type of teacher/trainer
needs a different set of skills and attributes, and has varying
development needs.
What are VET practitioners like?
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More likely to be female than male (56% of RTOs reported that
51% or more of their staff were female).
About as likely to be full-time as casual/sessional ((50.8% of
RTOs reported that 51% or more of their staff were full-time).
However RTOs seemed to be quite differentiated, with 20.8%
having no full-time teachers/trainers/assessors, 51.8% having
no part-time staff, and 42.6% having no casuals or sessionals.
They were somewhat more likely to be older than younger. Only
10% of RTOs had 51% or more of their staff under the age of
35 while 54.9% had 51% or more of their staff between the
ages of 35 and 50.However, very few RTOs had 51% or more
of their staff above the age of 51. This seems to contradict a
belief about the ‘greying’ of VET practitioners or perhaps
indicating that Service Skills is an atypical area.
How well qualified are VET
practitioners?
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Considering the huge expectations placed on VET practitioners,
it is a challenge that teaching/training staff are generally
qualified at a fairly low level in teaching – predominantly
Certificate IV level in Training and Assessment (TAA).
Most respondents (but not all) thought that higher level teaching
qualifications were desirable
There was also a general dismissal of the Certificate IV
qualification as being in itself poorly delivered.
However a small number of respondents in the focus groups
and case studies felt that the Certificate IV TAA set too high a
bar and discouraged participation of enterprise in VET.
In the UK there are multi-modal qualification levels for VET
practitioners including special arrangements for certain
enterprises; it would be worth considering these as possibilities
Desired nature of VET practitioners
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Flexibility
Effective communication skills
Regular accessible reporting on student progress
Rigorous attention to detail
Monitoring students’ progress
Respect for students
Exchanging ideas on teaching and training
Disposition towards constant learning and improvements in teaching and
learning
Passion
Teaching/training (pedagogical) skills
Balance between industry currency and educational qualifications
Flexibility
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to be able to be nimble and fast in the VET environment. You can
build your processes all around a so-called great course and it
becomes airtight, and the funding falls into place. It all moves
perfectly, but that’s not the real world. The whole ideal approach
needs to have this in built wobble board (Teacher).
So it’s not about being a people person, it’s about understanding the
multiple clients that you are meeting the needs of in the one
scenario. … and maintaining a level of professionalism and
credibility in all layers of those relationships (Training manager)
Effective communication skills
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…..from a trainer’s perspective, they’ve got to have the ability to
relate to people and have that natural flair and enthusiasm and
ability to communicate and lead a group of people. The
technical side is, again, important, but nowhere near as
important as the soft skills and the teaching skills. I see a good
teacher is someone who can stand up in front of a group and
inspire them and motivate them and to give them the teachings
that are really important to be able to stand them in good stead.
(Training manager)
Reporting on student progress
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The reporting mechanisms were very strange and it was difficult
to get back to the employer and make real recommendations. I
think we became very generic with our reporting structures and
just about said nothing of help. And so employers were saying
to me: ‘I don’t understand what these mean. I mean this is a
computer print out….what does it mean? I want to know what
they are like’. So now we have introduced a portfolio system
and it is much more helpful. (Educational Manager).
Rigorous attention to detail
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The RTO is an example of good practice, the
environment is great, the are good at finishing
everything - they take no short cuts. My staff
who come out of [this RTO] are thoroughly
trained and I have no problem with them at all.
[The RTO]has thorough industry awareness
and very good reporting (Partnering
enterprise).
Monitoring students’ progress
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So they don’t necessarily need to wait til the
end of the semesters to get that (student
feedback), because we are constantly
assessing different things, different criteria,
developing different matrixes, learning like
different ways of assessing. (Teacher)
Respect for students
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I feel there are some good teachers here that
are very good at showing you how to do
something and they don’t mind if you ask a
question and they’ll go over it but they won’t
skip it. (Student)
A good TAFE teacher was “somebody who is
committed, who actually cares about the
students, who has done the preparation so the
students are getting the most out of it.”
(Teacher)
Exchanging ideas on teaching /
training
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Communication amongst the staff members is so
crucial. We have morning meetings every month
Friday fortnight, but you know, I’m in the hub as
well in that office and that’s where the teachers
come up through to their staff room. If they’ve had
any issues, they often throw it on my desk and we
discuss it. We need to keep communication open,
it’s very important for the education as
well…Communication is the number one key in
keeping the training going. (Operations Manager).
Disposition towards learning &
teaching
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Through our research we looked at what we
were going to make of these competencies
and we went out there and did the training,
worked in the salons. And we’ve come back
and taught other staff members and now
they’re going out there and working in industry,
as part of work experience. This has made us
innovative and outstanding training providers
(Beauty Coordinator)
Passion
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I think it’s really important to have a teacher
who is passionate about it. I suppose being
amongst, you know, students and teachers
who absolutely have a love of this industry it
will hopefully, naturally, translate across to the
student. I think that’s probably what I would
prefer … as opposed to having teaching skills.
Yeah, I think it’s definitely important to have
someone who is really passionate about the
industry. (Student)
Teaching/training (pedagogical)
skills
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I love education and I love being educated, like
I love being open to the fact that, you know,
every day that you wake up you can have the
opportunity there to learn something wonderful
and for me I would hate to… one of my
trainees said to me today, you can’t teach an
old dog new tricks and I said I never want to
wake up being that old dog that can’t be taught
new tricks, you know? (Traineeship trainer)
Balance between industry currency
and educational qualifications
Overall, respondents felt that industry currency was
more important than educational qualifications
 The expert in the field is not necessarily going to be
the best trainer and the best trainer is not going to
necessarily be the best if they don’t have (industry)
skills or the knowledge with it. (Teacher)
 I think you can convert a retailer into a trainer if
they’re the right personality, but I don’t think you can
convert a trainer into a retail trainer as easily.
(Training manager)
‘Good RTOs’
RTOs with effective teaching/training workforces had:
 A strong individual or champion (or team) driving an organisational
culture in RTOs that encourages high quality among teachers;
 Involvement by senior managers and departmental managers with
industry liaison;
 An evangelical approach to quality in VET;
 An overarching communication of the importance of passion for the
industry among teachers;
 Good learning resources;
 Regular team meetings;
 Tight performance management and quality systems;
 A culture encouraging innovation and risk-taking (within parameters).
 RTOs with international students need additional structures and
features to achieve high-quality teaching/training.
Contact details
Erica Smith 03-5327 9665,
[email protected]