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TAFE to offer degrees |
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TAFE to offer degrees
August 22, 2010
TAFE institutes are to offer bachelor degrees and could compete with universities for students under a bold plan aimed at combating skills shortages.
The government-owned institutes want funding from next year to offer degrees in areas such as accounting, community services, finances and information technology, The Sun-Herald newspaper says.
In February next year, TAFE's Sydney Institute will begin offering a bachelor of design through its Enmore Design Centre. More bachelor degrees are expected to be offered by TAFE's Northern Institute and Western Institute in 2012.
NSW TAFE was last month accredited by the state government, under national guidelines, to become a higher-income education provider, allowing it to follow Victoria's TAFE, which is already offering a limited number of degrees.
The head of TAFE in NSW, Pam Christie, said TAFE wanted to extend opportunities to all communities to gain the sorts of degrees industry was demanding.
"We're not trying to compete with universities; we're trying to build relationships with them," she said.
This would include associate degrees offered in conjunction with universities across many of TAFE NSW's 10 institutes and 130 campuses, as well as bachelor degrees.
Let's work on partnership
LAST WEEK, the vice-chancellor of Swinburne University of Technology, Ian Young, expressed his worry about the expansion of bachelor programs in TAFE.
He suggested this would put at risk the reputation of our degrees and damage Australia's reputation for providing quality education.
There are numerous reasons Young need not worry and even more reasons TAFE can make a substantial contribution to Australia's national tertiary targets.
TAFE NSW is Australia's leading vocational training provider and proud of its track record of working with industry to deliver the skills needed to keep our economy strong.
Since its beginning in 1891 two universities have been born out of its diploma programs: the University of NSW in 1949 and University of Technology, Sydney in 1965. TAFE NSW has recently been approved as a higher education provider and will offer its first bachelor of design from next year.
Other degrees will follow in areas supported by our industry partners.
Emeritus professor Mark Wainwright is chairman of TAFE NSW's Higher Education Governing Council with responsibility for overseeing the quality of our higher education programs. Wainwright served as the seventh vice-chancellor of UNSW. He tells me he considers the process TAFE NSW has been through to achieve higher education status to be extremely rigorous.
"TAFE is not trying to be a stand-alone university. Rather, TAFE is working from its areas of strength in applied learning and building new tertiary pathways to support all communities," Wainwright says.
"There are many models of degree pathways overseas which Australia can learn from, including the UK, California and Singapore and Malaysia. These very successful models are providing many disadvantaged students with effective pathways to a university qualification."
I believe there are many reasons TAFE should offer degrees. As a society we need more people with higher qualifications. It makes them more employable, gives them more interesting work with better wages, and makes the Australian economy more productive. It also helps us to compete in a global economy.
This is why the Bradley review called for more young people, especially from low socioeconomic backgrounds, to have degrees.
To meet the ambitious Bradley targets we need to reach out to people who are not traditionally university students, and this will require different approaches.
TAFE has a proud tradition of providing quality training for educationally and vocationally disadvantaged groups.
In 2009, 5.4 per cent of our 500,000 enrolments were Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, an increase of 42 per cent since 2005; 23.7 per cent were unemployed; and 22.6 per cent were people from a language background other than English. About one-third of all our students are from low socioeconomic backgrounds, compared with 14 per cent to 16 per cent at universities.
Restricting government-supported HECS places to universities when TAFEs are offering degrees will make it harder, not easier, for people from low socioeconomic groups to participate.
TAFE has a broader footprint than universities, including facilities in many rural and remote communities.
About 50 per cent of our students in TAFE NSW are outside the Sydney metropolitan area. It makes good economic sense to use this public infrastructure to expand opportunities for people to access higher education.
But, most significantly, TAFE's strong links with industry ensure our training aligns with economic priorities and our graduates are ready for work when they graduate. What is needed if our tertiary education sector is to be recognised as truly world class is more collaboration between universities and TAFE.
The traditional model of collaboration has been by articulation, where a university and TAFE map their qualifications and TAFE graduates are granted credit for part of a degree course.
TAFE NSW has more than 600 arrangements like this, but this approach has problems.
In most cases entry is not guaranteed, information is complex and difficult for students to access and credit given across universities varies significantly.
Only about 10 per cent of students enter university with a TAFE qualification, that's about 5000 a year in NSW.
However, about 50,000 people who already hold a degree qualification come to TAFE NSW to study each year because they know a TAFE qualification will help them get a job. This is also a testament to TAFE's quality teaching environment.
New models of collaboration between universities and TAFE need to be explored.
TAFE NSW is at present developing a new pathway degree approach that is a three-way partnership between employers, universities and TAFE.
TAFE offers the first stage of the degree program in partnership with a university with employers offering a work internship along the way. There is additional support built in for learners who need help and exit points along the way.
The Bradley review has brought university and TAFE relationships into sharp focus.
If we are serious about increasing the number of Australians with degrees and other high-level qualifications, it's time we embraced new approaches and started to collaborate as true partners.
Pam Christie is deputy director-general TAFE and Community Education with the NSW Department of Education and Training.
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