Vocational Training

Vocational Education and Training (VET) enables applicants to acquire skills for a wide variety of job openings, as well as specific talents to aid them in the workplace. In general, institutions of higher learning, technical schools, business, and commercial training providers, industry competence centers, government associations, and private educational agencies continue to offer VET (Bandias, Fuller, and Pfitzner 2011, p.588). Agricultural schools, community, and adult education centers, and other VET providers are also available. Furthermore, VET is available at a few colleges and universities. In Australia Vocational Education and Training are offered through a system of eight state and local governments, alongside industry, private, and public education providers. These associations cooperate to give a uniform training all over Australia. The VET sector is pivotal to the Australian economy; both for the advancement of the national workforce and as primary export industry (Bandias, Fuller and Pfitzner 2011, p.594).

Australian unions have had a longstanding involvement with training but the focus of this has changed over time as different approaches to union renewal have been used. In the late 1970’s Australian unions sought renewal through improved servicing of members (Cooney and Stuart 2013). Unions focused upon the professionalisation of union development training to provide more highly skilled organizers and officials. Many unions have their own training departments and are engaged in state’s training and education regulation systems. Further most of the unions have policies concerning occupational skills training, workplace health and safety training and workplace training. Training has regularly featured as part of the industrial campaigning of unions and it has been a part of their broader social agenda (Nusche et al. 2011).

There are several different dimensions to union interest in training and it is worthwhile exploring two of these dimensions. Firstly, unions are interested in training because of its role in union development. Union training can underpin the development of union organization by training union officials and union representatives for their industrial and organizational roles (Framework 2013, p.40). The training of union shop stewards or occupational health and safety representatives, provides a good example of traditional union training and this is frequently supported by general member education in the socio-political aspects of unionism. Unions thus provide their own in-house training to develop cadre, union activists and to promulgate the social and political principles of unionism (Cooney and Stuart 2013).

Besides unions engagement in social issues and education internally, unions additionally have an enthusiasm for vocational training due to their function as labour market participant and controller for their registered members. Unions have for several years been worried about the improvement on the progress of the members right from entry level to full professional levels. In addition, the unions have been interested in the accreditation of skills that their members pick up at work. With regards to changing skills prerequisites at work and to the development of new professional capabilities, unions have a mechanical enthusiasm for VET issues (Chesters, Watson and Hagel 2013).

Vocational training is a labour market good for union members because it offers them the opportunity to develop higher skills and transferable skills. Whether the focus is upon the internal or the external labour market, vocational education and training offers union members access to more highly skilled and highly paid employment and it enhances their ability to deal with redeployment and redundancy (Chesters, Watson and Hagel 2013). Thus, union concern with vocational training as a labour market good for union members stimulates union interest in the regulation of training at the workplace as part of the employment relationship. Unions are interested in how training is conducted, whether it is in paid time or unpaid time, whether it is for a recognised qualification or not. Unions are also interested in how skills are defined, assessed and accredited at work, and they are interested in how these skills are related to pay and job classification systems.

Moreover, unions in the workplace also have an interest in how changes in the workplace (changes due to technological, organizational or process restructuring) effect the skills required at work. Further they establish whether such changes require up skilling, down skilling or skill maintenance and how the new skills are acquired, recognised and compensated. Therefore, unions have a broad interest in training issues (Kuczera et al. 2008). They are interested in training for internal union development, they are interested in training as social actors and they have an interest in training at the workplace. These interests are not mutually exclusive and most unions undertake a number of different activities to support their interest in training. What has been observed, however, is that one interest tends to dominate union interest in training. This has been the case historically in Australia (Kuczera et al. 2008).

The two main areas that interest unions in Australia results into the unions facing two main challenges in the engagement with VET. First, the challenge of getting the balanced number of trained and qualified persons (Sheldon and Thornthwaite 2005, p.404). Unions face this challenge due to youngsters in the institutions settle on decisions of handling technical subjects such as advanced mathematics, foreign languages, decisions which are hard, and can have everlasting consequences to the student and to the labour market. In some instance the students are compelled to undertake such causes because the choices that ensure perfect match are not accessible or not supported by government. Employers and student preferences may overlap yet there will likewise be a few contrasts (Sheldon and Thornthwaite 2005, p.411). Employers and unions always anticipate that VET will furnish them with the best candidates equipped with desired attitudes. VET policy makers (with respect to different sectors of education) must choose how far to allocate the students courses of their choices based on the demands of the employers (and choose how those necessities ought to be evaluated). Furthermore, Australia as a country can only offer vocational training in areas that they have facilities, trainers and teachers necessary to the course offered.

Moreover, the challenge of preventing oversupply of skills in the Australian labour market rests mainly with the VET and trade unions. Unions face this challenge due to the direct link among supply, wages and unemployment. If for instance labour market experience an oversupply, wages will decline and thus resulting into unemployment. With unemployed qualified workers in the economy unions face a decline in the number of members. The efficiency of unions lies on the number of members they have (Sheldon and Thornthwaite 2005, p.425). Therefore, unions face the challenge of developing sufficient transferable skills in their members to ensure that they have the requirements to enable them shift between related occupations. In addition, such mobility is aimed at improving the power of workers in bargaining for improved wages and salaries. Further limiting new entrants to a profession in order to maintain high wages is a challenge to the unions.

The second challenge is that of getting the right combination of skills in courses offered in the VETs. Unmistakably businesses are in a solid position to judge what blend of aptitudes is ideal for specific occupations and it accordingly bodes well for employers to assume a key part in setting up the educational modules (Lindorff 2011, p.252). Be that as it may, if businesses have excessively influence on the courses the programs offered may overestimate the significance of occupation-particular aptitudes and give inadequate consideration regarding the non-specific abilities required for mobility amongst firms and between occupations. For these reasons the unions face the challenge of controlling the influence of the employers on the modules offered. However, attaining the perfect mix proves challenging.

In conclusion, there are several interests that trade unions have in the Vocational Educational Training (VET) sector, but only two are discussed in this essay. The union officials at one-point need trainings which are offered in the VET. For this reason, the unions have a direct link to the VET. Second, VET is a labour market good which the sellers may be trade unions and the buyers’ employers. The unions trade on workers and all their businesses depend on the labour market. However, the interest that unions have in VET is accompanied with two main challenges that is controlling oversupply of skills and finding the perfect combination of skills desired by employers and the courses offered in the VET.

References

Bandias, S., Fuller, D. and Pfitzner, D., 2011. Vocational and higher education in Australia: A need for closer collaboration. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 33(6), pp.583-594.

Chesters, J., Watson, L. and Hagel, P., 2013. A half-open door: pathways for VET award holders into Australian universities. National Centre for Vocational Education Research.

Cooney, R. and Stuart, M. eds., 2013. Trade unions and workplace training: Issues and international perspectives. Routledge.

Framework, A.Q., 2013. Australian qualifications framework. Australian Qualifications Framework Council.

Kuczera, M., Field, S., Hoffman, N. and Wolter, S., 2008. Learning for jobs. OECD Reviews of Vocational Education and Training: Sweden.

Lindorff, M., 2011. Skills gaps in Australian firms. Journal of vocational education and training, 63(2), pp.247-259.

Nusche, D., Earl, L., Maxwell, W. and Shewbridge, C., 2011. OECD reviews of evaluation and assessment in education. Oslo: OECD.

Sheldon, P. and Thornthwaite, L., 2005. Employability skills and vocational education and training policy in Australia: An analysis of employer association agendas. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 43(3), pp.404-425.