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From the Desk of the CEO – December 2019 Newsletter Address

Welcome to the last newsletter of the year 2019 before we shut down operations for the Christmas break.

This month, we wrapped-up the School Leaders Learning and Development  program in Fiji, which was successfully delivered between November 2018 and August 2019 by our team of qualified education consultants comprising Mike Prime, team leader, Cate van der Vossen, Maria Doyle, and Clinton Glendinning, and coordinated by our Director International Development Services, Lee Jackson.

Another important achievement of the year 2019 has been the workshop on TVET systems delivered in June by Bob Paton. Sustainable Skills was appointed by the Australian High Commission (AHC) in Nairobi to deliver a 5-day workshop about TVET Governance, Monitoring and Evaluation to 20 local TVET coordinators selected by the Kenyan Ministry of Education. The activity was well received and we are glad to share here a video interview to James Onyango, Assistant Director at the Kenyan Department of Vocational Education and Training, talking about his positive experience with the workshop.

Recently, Sustainable Skills was contracted to conduct a review of the Karrayili Adult Education Centre in Fitzroy Crossing. The Marra Worra Worra Aboriginal Corporation owns the facility and is keen to utilise it fully to benefit the community in the Fitzroy Valley. Lee Jackson spent time there talking to the key stakeholders, and is finalising a report recommending the type of role for Karrayili that will most benefit the community.

Drawing on our two-year experience working with the Indonesian Government to improve their TVET system, in September, I was asked to testify before a Senate Committee about the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA). Signed on 4th March 2019, the IA-CEPA creates a framework for Australia and Indonesia to unlock the vast potential of the bilateral economic partnership, fostering economic cooperation between businesses, communities and individuals.

I am currently in Jakarta to consolidate the strong position developed by our organisation in Indonesia. In April, President Joko Widodo won a second term election. Mr. Widodo has placed the reform of education and training as a priority of his campaign to improve the quality and competitiveness of his country’s human resources. Over the past five years, the Widodo Government has focussed on an ambitious plan to expand energy supply, transport and shipping and logistics and to rapidly increase the supply of international standard tourism resources. The program requires millions of skilled people that are not currently available in Indonesia. Sustainable Skills continues to explore opportunities to support Indonesia with capacity building and TVET projects.

Once again, I would like to thank all the Sustainable Skills team for their commitment to the organisation, our local and international consultants, our Board, and all our stakeholders and partners who followed and supported us over the course of this year.

Sustainable Skills will shut down operations over the Christmas and New Year period. Our last day of work will be Friday 20th December and returning to work on Monday 6th January. The Sustainable Skills team wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2020.

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From the Desk of the CEO – November 2019 Newsletter Address

This month, our CEO, Nigel Carpenter visited the Lombok Tourism Polytechnic.

This month, our CEO, Nigel Carpenter visited the Lombok Tourism Polytechnic.

Global economic uncertainty has increased the focus on fundamental economic levers, including skills. Uncertainty is being acutely felt in industry, where business confidence is low and capacity to invest in skills has been reduced. At the same time, governments have also been directly impacted.

Governments globally are focused on the policy challenges associated with lifting the productivity of markets, companies and individuals and have set ambitious targets to rapidly develop the skills of its
future workforce. Across the globe there has been an increasing focus on improving the outcomes of technical vocational education and training (TVET). However, there are significant hurdles to overcome in making this transition.

In a lot of countries, during the past 10 years, the focus has been on access not quality which has resulted in a large number of people being trained without having the skills industry needs. TVET is often delivered in the same way as class based with teachers who don’t have the experience or understanding of the skills they are teaching. The focus has been on access not quality.

One reason for high youth unemployment across the world, and particularly in developing countries, is a mismatch between the supply and demand for skills. Domestic skills shortages mean that countries rely on foreign labour to fill high demand for skilled personnel.

The emerging productivity challenge is forcing governments to invest in structural change focusing on developing systems to move TVET towards industry led skills development.

TVET in different countries has very different natures, organisation, strengths and challenges. Different countries structure peoples’ transition from education to work very differently, giving TVET very different positions in the transition system. Understanding these factors is essential in establishing a framework to support policy learning in developing TVET in different contexts, rather than policy borrowing and policy lending which reproduces policies from one country to another, with little regard to the differing social, economic and cultural contexts. A successful means of managing TVET in one country cannot be copied by another country.

The principles of successful TVET must be focused on whilst understanding the various social, economic and cultural contexts in different countries.

The six principles for a sustainable TVET ecosystem are:

  • Competency based
  • Industry led; stakeholder friendly
  • Flexible, scalable and customisable
  • Integrated soft skills
  • Data driven
  • Focused on vocational outcomes

TVET provides knowledge and skills for employment and is recognised to be a crucial vehicle for social equity, inclusion and sustainable development. Industry engaged TVET systems must be implemented to ensure that graduates are job-ready yet adaptable to changing skills requirements.

At the interface between the education and training system and the world of work, TVET faces the challenge of tackling these changes, of making a constructive contribution to solving the problems posed by the transition from education to employment, and of ensuring that the next generation has the skills that the economy needs.

Quality and relevant technical vocational education and training can provide people with the knowledge, skills and competencies required for the jobs of today or tomorrow. The provision of relevant job skills can therefore empower people to seize employment opportunities.

Better skills training can help support decent work, more equitable and inclusive growth and be the bridge between education and the labour market, supporting the transition from youth into adulthood.

The close involvement of industry is necessary to ensure that training is in line with labour market needs and opportunities.

Without proper investment in skills, people will languish on the margins of society, technological progress will not translate into increased productivity, and countries will struggle to compete in an increasingly knowledge-based global society.

Sustainable Skills understands the complexity of international relationships and structures and has helped governments and other stakeholders in a number of countries improve the management of industry engaged TVET.

Sustainable Skills continues to explore and develop capacity building projects in Africa, South East Asia and the Pacific. During the past month we have met with industry and government representatives in Fiji and Indonesia working towards improving TVET in those countries to meet global skills needs.

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From the Desk of the CEO – October 2019 Newsletter Address

Human capital development is the highest priority for the 2nd term of President Jokowi’s Government.

To build Indonesia’s skills the President has placed a particular focus on technical vocational education and training (TVET). The emphasis is on creating work-ready graduates through vocational education & certification and matching vocational schools education with industry-relevant skills.

Sustainable Skills has been working with several Indonesian Ministry’s responsible for managing the TVET system with a focus on building the skills and knowledge of the Ministry’s so they can better understand how to develop an industry engaged system.

With this in mind it was a pleasure to be invited to speak at the 1st Indonesia Vocational Education and Training Summit 2019 (IVETS) held on the 9th and 10th October in Jakarta.

I was asked to speak on the work Sustainable Skills has been doing with the Ministry of Research Technology and Higher Education (MoRTHE) to create Indonesia’s National TVET Centre of Excellence (CoE). These CoE’s will be established at leading Universities responsible for preparing students to be TVET teachers at High Schools (SMK).

The design of a ‘World Class’ Centre of Excellence is based on pursuing five key objectives to enable the CoE’s to lead and support reform of the national TVET system:

Objective 1: Drive Indonesia’s TVET reform agenda

  • As a capacity builder of TVET teachers for SMKs, the CoE should be a driver of Indonesia’s TVET reform agenda.
  • The CoE should provide research, policy advice and operational standards to stakeholders and government to promote ‘best practice’ vocational training and management of the TVET system.
  • The CoE’s influence in policy making will be maximised by remaining current with industry needs and skills advancement, supporting national development of contemporary skills.

Objective 2: Industry led competency-based training system

  • Industry led, competency-based training ensures industry standards and delivers “job-ready” results, supports world best practice standards and allows regular reviews to adjust for new technologies and business needs.
  • Competency standards are specific requirements of the job or tasks required for the workplace that ensures students are able to do what is expected of them from industry, business and the community.

Objective 3: Quality training and assessment

  • Effective assessment is a key to quality outcomes. Quality training and assessment is underpinned by consultation with industry. Assessment processes must ensure people who are trained have the skills industry needs.
  • Because there are many journeys students can take to reach their destination, training and assessment needs to be flexible and responsive. Modular course design is a key to that flexibility.

Objective 4: Teacher professional development

  • Teachers of vocational education must have practical experience of the skills they teach.
  • Assessment of teachers and students against workplace competency standards must be performed by competent and capable teachers with effective industry engagement.

The CoE’s will be driven by industry collaboration in six areas

  1. Research and policy
  2. TVET teacher capability building
  3. Training and assessment
  4. Competency standards and course development
  5. Training infrastructure
  6. Continuous improvement

Sustainable Skills has been working in Indonesia for 3 years, largely because of the scale of the opportunity for Indonesian people. In our experience, there is no doubt whatsoever that a focus on Industry engaged TVET is a fundamental plank in meeting the Presidents objective to significantly develop Indonesia’s human capital and productivity

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From the Desk of the CEO – September 2019 Newsletter Address

This month, I was asked to testify before a Senate Committee about the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA). Signed on 4th March 2019, IA-CEPA creates a framework for Australia and Indonesia to unlock the vast potential of the bilateral economic partnership, fostering economic cooperation between businesses, communities and individuals. Full transcripts of my hearing are available here.

This invitation followed a written submission made by Sustainable Skills to the Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCOT) in August, which outlines the importance of IA-CEPA in enabling a much improved understanding of how Indonesia’s workforce skills opportunity is central to Indonesia’s social and economic development. Australian experience in delivering industry-based training can help Indonesia to deliver job-ready trained workers. Our organisation welcomes the significant opportunity IA-CEPA opens for world-class Australian training providers to contribute to skilling the Indonesian workforce into the future.

In recent years, Sustainable Skills has had a particular focus on Indonesia, largely because of the scale of the opportunity for Indonesian people. In our experience, there is no doubt whatsoever that a focus on vocational education and training is a fundamental plank in delivering to Indonesians a valuable outcome from improved relations with Australia.

Between 4th and 6th September, I travelled to Perth to attend the 17th edition of Africa Down Under. Drawing on our previous experience as the Industry Skills Council for the Resources and Infrastructure Industries, the largest African mining-focused exhibition outside of the continent itself is a must attend for our organisation. In the past years, Sustainable Skills delivered TVET programs in a number of African Countries including Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, Zambia, and two cross-countries projects with the African Mineral Skills Council, and Bigen Africa.

Lately, our team has worked on new tender submissions and an education project led by Sustainable Skills Director, International Development Services based in Perth, Lee Jackson, which underpins our recent experience with the ‘Head of School’ Skills Development project in Fiji to develop innovative e-learning programs. Watch this space to find out more about Sustainable Skills upcoming projects.

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From the Desk of the CEO – August 2019 Newsletter Address

Indonesia’s President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo recently called for greater cooperation between Indonesia and Australia in vocational education. Jokowi said such a collaboration would be in line with Indonesia’s plan to focus on human resource development in the next five years.

In recent years Sustainable Skills has had a particular focus on Indonesia, largely because of the scale of the opportunity for Indonesian people. In our experience, there is no doubt whatsoever that a focus on vocational education and training is a fundamental plank in delivering to Indonesians a valuable outcome from improved relations with Australia.

President Joko Widodo has said repeatedly that skills development is a first order priority of his Government and that theme is evident in the policy views of leading policymakers such as Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati. As the efforts to improve investment and performance on fundamentals such as infrastructure have proceeded, we have noticed a tangible shift in view among Indonesia’s Ministries and State Enterprises – an understanding that Indonesia’s progress and their performance relies on improved skills development. We have also noticed that the Government has looked to Australia – explicitly – as an ally in this effort.

Sustainable Skills has invested two years’ consistent effort in developing in Indonesia an understanding of how quality outcomes can be delivered. The emphasis has been on practical design, careful assessment and assurance and a strong relationship between training and workplace. Australia’s modular, competency-based vocational training system is coupled with strong employer engagement to allow flexibility and practical accessibility to people who often cannot afford a dedicated full time course of study. These principles are now well understood and accepted in both the key Ministry of Research, Technical and Higher Education and in other Ministries and agencies where active vocational reforms are either under way or in planning. Sustainable Skills has driven many of these activities as a partner with the Indonesian authorities and has been directly involved in the formulation of two new centres that will lead change in the Indonesian system. Sustainable Skills has also developed plans to establish an Australian led Indonesian managed training centre which has gained the support of Indonesia’s Government.

In our view Australia has a strategic opportunity to build a link directly with the Indonesian community through support for its vocational training reform. While improved capital flows, trade flows and related material events will go some way to building value in our relations, we believe that the fundamental need that Australia can help to meet is the need to raise broad levels of expertise and skills in that country. Realistically, any effective support will be altruistic in the short term. But the benefits to be gained from a greater level of confidence and capacity in Indonesian society will undoubtedly rebound to Australia’s benefit. Creation of a skills-based link will also inevitably improve the flow of Indonesian engagement with Australia’s broader education system and society. Ultimately, an Australian-designed vocational system in Indonesia is more likely to become by that means a default standard in the wider region, compounding mutual benefit.

We have observed at close range the two sides of a discussion around Australian engagement with Indonesia on education. In our view it often misses the point of the issue, which is a fundamental need. As President Widodo has said on numerous occasions, the skills issue is a system issue. The point being that it will not be fixed with incremental improvements. Yet in our view much of the discussion about education has focused on the introduction of an Australian college or university to Indonesia or something similar or the recruitment of Indonesian students to Australia or the delivery of online training from Australia which shows a lack of understanding of the challenges facing the Indonesian education sector and in any case it is the broad Indonesian fundamentals – starting at the technical high schools – that must be improved. In any case we do not see a great interest on the part of Australian education and training institutions to invest in Indonesia.

We recommend a focus in the Australian relationship on what President Widodo describes as “human capital”. Initially, this might be a focus of aid and other strategic support that aims to build broadly in Indonesian society a greater capacity to engage with economic and social opportunity. Today’s needs are basic: the skills required to build contemporary standards of infrastructure, operate modern equipment and execute processes to international standards; and the expertise to manage complex technical and conceptual issues in industry and in public sector tasks. Great value can be created if Australian expertise can be conveyed to Indonesians who then go about refocusing Indonesia’s vocational institutions. A simple, yet essential component of that is to demonstrate methods by which industry can be engaged directly to ensure that the value of skills is understood and the quality of education matches workplace demands. Critically, the system delivered must be an Indonesian system, suited to Indonesian needs and its realities.

In our view the development of Indonesia’s broad expertise and skills is a necessary pre-condition to the expansion of relations with Australia. One could see that reality as a handicap or a hurdle; either way it is an opportunity that in our view should be the first priority in Australia’s creative engagement with Indonesia.

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From the Desk of the CEO – July 2019 Newsletter Address

Between 24th-28th June, the workshop on TVET Systems, Competency Based Training, Governance, Monitoring and Evaluation organised by the Australian High Commission in Kenya and Sustainable Skills was successfully delivered by our senior TVET consultant, Bob Paton, to 20 local TVET coordinators.

Over the course of the workshop there were many in-depth discussions on the current TVET arrangements in Kenya and on how they, based on the Australian experience, could be improved to gain efficiencies and improve effectiveness. Participants were very engaged and we received some terrific feedback indicating that the workshop was well received. We’re glad to share a video interview to Mr James Onyango,  Assistant Director at the Kenyan Department of Vocational Education and Training, who talked about his positive experience with the workshop.

This month, our team leader in Fiji, Mike Prime, had the last in-country meeting with the Fijian Government, Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts (MEHA), before flying off to Perth and complete the rest of the project remotely between now and mid-August. The meeting was very positive and feedback focussed on the excellent quality of the online learning module designed by the Sustainable Skills team to develop the skills and abilities of local school heads, as well as on the commitment and passion shown by our team.

On 15 July 2019, we celebrated the World Youth Skills Day designated by the United Nations General Assembly to create greater awareness of the importance of TVET for youth around the globe. This year’s theme, “Learning to learn for life and work”, advocates for skills development to improve young people’s access to decent work, in line with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 4) which aims at “ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”.

The World Employment Social Outlook recently published by International Labour Organization (ILO) reports that global youth unemployment rate is 13 per cent, compared to an adult rate of 4.3 per cent. TVET can play a crucial role to ensure young people around the world develop skills and competencies to access the labor market as well as contribute to a more equitable and sustainable society .

 

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From the Desk of the CEO – June 2019 Newsletter Address

This week our TVET consultant, Bob Paton, travelled to Kenya to facilitate a workshop on TVET Systems, Competency Based Training, Governance, Monitoring and Evaluation organised by the Australian High Commission in Kenya and Sustainable Skills, which will take place in Nairobi from 24th-28th June and will be delivered to 20 local Government officers.

I am glad to introduce Clinton Glendinning who recently joined our team in Suva (Fiji) as Assessor Specialist for the ‘Head of School’ Skill Development Program awarded to Sustainable Skills in November 2018. Clinton has worked for over 36 years with the Department of Education Western Australia in a range of positions and has acted in the Fiji education sector for seven years. In the coming weeks, Clinton will provide additional value-add support to assist in the training and assessment of the selected Fijian Assessors who will be assessing all Modules that current and future Heads complete.

The Fiji project team recently ran an Implementation Facilitation workshop in Suva to ensure successful roll-out of the program. The two-day session involved all key project’s stakeholders including participants from Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts (MEHA) Learning & Development, IT, HR teams, Development Advisors and external guests from other local institutions. An update on this project can be accessed here.

Between 1 and 12 July 2019, UNESCO-UNEVOC  International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, which assists Member States develop policies and practices concerning education for the world of work and skills development for employability, will organise a virtual conference on ‘Inclusion in technical and vocational education and training’ to discuss and identify suitable measures to support inclusive TVET, focussing on inclusion of people with disabilities as well as of other groups who are vulnerable to exclusion.

In line with the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 4 on Quality Education aiming to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”, UNESCO has made equity and inclusion one of the three priority areas of its Strategy for TVET (2016-2021). The insights and evidence gathered in this virtual conference will also contribute to the 2020 UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report.

The virtual conference will take place on the UNESCO-UNEVOC TVeT Forum and can be accessed by registering for a UNEVOC account.

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From the Desk of the CEO – May 2019 Newsletter Address

Sustainable Skills CEO, Nigel Carpenter, with William Sabandar and Eka Simanjuntak in Jakarta, June 2019.

May has been a busy month at Sustainable Skills with a number of trips and promising announcements for our team.

Early this month, I met with William Sabandar, Director of the newly opened Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Jakarta, who wanted to discuss how our organisation can help develop TVET programs for the first underground railway system in Indonesia. Eka Simanjuntak, Managing Director of Willi Toisuta & Associates, our Indonesian collaborator, also joined the discussion. During the meeting, we drew on our previous experience as partner of the Sydney Metro Northwest rail link project, which between 2014 and 2016 saw our organisation working closely with Transport for NSW and major contractor to map the skilling needs of the project and create a transferable pool of workers to support the civil infrastructure and construction sectors.

A new exciting project will be managed by Sustainable Skills as we  recently signed a contract with the Australian High Commission in Kenya to deliver a week long workshop in Nairobi on the attributes of a best practice national TVET system, with a focus on governance and monitoring and evaluation. The workshop will be delivered at the end of June to 20 local Government TVET officials by our vocational education expert, Bob Paton, who has over 40 years’ experience across multiple industry sectors and has managed projects in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, India, Vietnam, Korea, PRC, ROC, Thailand, the Philippines, Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Mexico.

In Uganda, we had a change in the team who is delivering the Due Diligence and Technical Evaluation project, with Simon Elsy being appointed as the Team Leader of the project sponsored by the World Bank. Over the past  two years, this role has been effectively managed by Lisa Giammarco. We thank Lisa for her outstanding contribution to the project and welcome Simon in this new exciting role.

We are proud to announce that our ‘Head of School’ Skill Development Program is highlighted as one of the five key results achieved by DFAT as part of the Australia’s aid program to Fiji. Our team of education experts is currently designing a 10-module online course to upskill current and future principles of over 900 schools in the Country, with the first module having been successfully trialled and development of all the modules about half completed.

Over the past two years, we have worked hard to create new business opportunities worldwide, resulting in our teams of TVET experts currently delivering projects in Fiji, Kenya, and Uganda, as well as in promising opportunities in Indonesia which we hope to share in the coming weeks.

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From the Desk of the CEO – April 2019 Newsletter Address

General elections were held in Indonesia on 17 April with over 190 million eligible voters. After quick count results, current President Joko Widodo appeared set to win a second term over his challenger, former general Prabowo Subianto. Official results should be notified next month but that might be delayed in the likely case that Mr. Prabowo decides to lodge an appeal to the Constitutional Court.

Mr. Widodo has placed the reform of education and training as a priority of his campaign to improve the quality and competitiveness of his country’s human resources. Over the past five years, the Widodo Government has focused on an ambitious plan to expand energy supply, transport and shipping and logistics and to rapidly increase the supply of international standard tourism resources. The program requires millions of skilled people that are not currently available in Indonesia.

Over the last two years, Sustainable Skills has developed a strong position in Indonesia. Our organisation has worked closely with several Indonesian ministries including the Ministry of Research Technology and Higher Education, Ministry of Manpower, Ministry of Education and Culture and the Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs to help develop TVET reform plans.

As part of the national TVET reform, Indonesia is establishing a new national TVET Centre of Excellence to address the fundamental mismatch between training outcomes and industry needs. Our organisation is helping the Indonesian Government to explore how the Centre can influence the broader national TVET system and develop the skills needed to support students in finding the ‘right training’ at the ‘right time’ for the ‘right job’.

The Centre will be established at Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI) based at Bandung and Universitas Negeri Padang (UNP). This month, I met with UNP Rektor and team in Jakarta and we reached an important milestone in this process as the Rektor accepted Sustainable Skills proposal to support the establishment of the TVET Centre of Excellence. UNP has integrated our proposal into their submission to Bappenas and the Ministry of Research Technology and Higher Education.

During my trip to Indonesia this month, I visited the Ministry of Manpower’s training centre BBPLK Serang to learn how the country is delivering renewable energy training. Australia could play an important role by supporting Indonesia in the development and execution of a training strategy to effectively build local skills in the renewable energy sector.

I also have the pleasure of moderating a session on education at the Island Tourism Forum, being held in Mataram Lombok on the 29-30 April and organised by the Australian Consulate Bali. In a bid to strengthen the tourist industry in Lombok, the forum aims to bring together government, academics, businesses, NGOs and communities to share experiences, encourage partnerships and explore investment and commercial possibilities related to the province.

Sustainable Skills has nearly twenty years’ experience shaping and maintaining effective TVET systems and frameworks in Australia and around the world. Our TVET experts have helped a number of countries to improve their TVET system. I am pleased to share a table of all the projects we have managed over the past years and we are confident that new opportunities will become available soon.

ProjectCountryDescriptionValue (USD)Duration
Workshop on TVET Systems, Competency Based Training, Governance, Monitoring and EvaluationKenyaSustainable Skills was engaged by the Australian High Commission in Nairobi to prepare and deliver a workshop for 20
Kenyans, drawn from various roles in TVET in Kenya.		15,000June 2019
School Leaders Learning and Development ProgramFijiDesign a scalable model able to develop the skills and abilities of current and future school heads to provide excellent leadership and management for all schools295,000November 2018 - August 2019
Due Diligence and Technical Evaluations UgandaDesign a model of due diligence and capacity assessment to address prevailing skills imbalances and shortages in Uganda297,000July 2017 - July 2019
Vocational Education and
Training Qualifications Benchmarking and
Development Project		Vietnam, PhilippinesCapacity building of counterpart public sector organisations
(PSO) to develop vocational education and training programs
linked to industry needs		140,0002015-2016
(18 months)
Twinning Activity with TVETA - Construction SectorZambiaBuild TEVETA’s capacity to develop industry-led occupational
standards and assessment toolkits		600,0002014-2016
(18 months)
Twinning Activity with PIREP
(Vocational Education reform program) -
Construction sector		MozambiqueBuild PIREP’s capacity to develop industry-led occupational
standards
250,0002015-2016
(12 months)
Design of a Pan-Africa Skills CouncilAfrican UnionDesign options for a pan-African skills council including a
potential skills development fund		30,0002014
(2 months)
Southern African
Regional Capacity Building
Workshops		Mozambique, Tanzania, ZambiaFacilitation of a series of workshops focused on TVET systems,
and promoting collaboration between African governments on
TVET policies		35,0002016
African
Government Study Tour to Australia		20 African CountriesTVET Advisory services for three skills
development study tours to Australia		Total value
2,000,000		2013-2014
Vocational Training Program - Construction sector Uganda,
Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania,
Namibia,
South Africa,
Zambia		Set baseline for evaluation of a vocational training program in
line with industry needs		40,0002013
(6 months)
Human Resources MappingEast TimorSupport the East Timor Human Capital Development Fund in
identifying skills limitations and make reccomendations for a
workforce planning framework		70,0002015-2016
(9 months)
Training Package - Resources and Infrastructure Sectors AustraliaDevelopment and continuous improvement of the occupational
standards in consultation with industry		2,250,000 per
annum		2012-2016
National Workforce Development Fund AustraliaManagement of an industry-government training fund. Assistance to companies in identifying appropriate training outcomes for fundingFund value:
55,000,000		2011-2014
(3 years)
Regional Integrated Training Project Agriculture and Mining sectorsAustraliaSchool-based training program to enable pathways into
productive economic sectors in rural communities		150,000
Cross-Industry training program - Agriculture, Construction, Fisheries, MiningAustraliaTraining program to build sustainable
workforces that could work across industries in line with seasonal
and economic fluctuations
1,300,0002012-2015
(3 years)

 

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Message from the Chair – March 2019

An Australian who has led one of our largest and most successful international companies very recently described our environment as a “walled garden”. It was not a compliment on Australia’s horticultural skills. In fact it describes a crippling characteristic.

For a couple of decades the global markets and industrial integration have been the drivers of change. Opportunities have abounded, creating and recreating enterprises in the mature economies and transforming nations as diverse as China, India and Indonesia. In the education sector Australia has had a flood of foreign students into its universities and colleges. Yet it is quite hard to find a sign of any integration of Australian enterprise, including those in education.

The experience with Sustainable Skills in working with a variety of national authorities, many of them near neighbours, has defined a tangible and relatively simple means of delivering what sales folk call a win-win. Both Australians and the citizens of neighbours have the opportunity for considerable benefit if we can work to build a higher standard of vocational training across the region.  Australia has good standards and a lot of knowledge in what works and Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar and possibly India demonstrate both the potential and desire to take advantage of Australian expertise.

My own learning from the experience in recent years with Sustainable Skills is that “walled garden” thinking is holding back what is a golden opportunity. Our leaders in vocational training are very often driven solely by a single dimension of the potential of their resources. That is, they want to fill the channel of students to their Australian facilities. In effect, there is no distinction between domestic and foreign students. Yet the scale of demand is massively greater than that.

If we take Indonesia as an example, the national priority is in building infrastructure. The Widodo Government has been wholly focused for at least three years on an ambitious plan to expand energy supply, transport and shipping and logistics and to rapidly increase the supply of international standard tourism resources. Very early in that process the Government discovered that the supply of skilled people was nowhere near the scale required and now the upgrade of Indonesian vocational education and training is a personal priority of the President.

The opportunity for Australia is to help Indonesia to create an Indonesian vocational education system. Sustainable Skills has found – in Indonesia and quite a few other countries – that the fundamentals of the Australian approach are both well suited and pragmatic solutions to what is often a complex problem. The flexibility of a modular competency-based system has many practical attractions and accommodates the need for people to acquire skills incrementally. The strong industry involvement in competency design and assessment is hugely important in assuring an effective outcome for workers in training and in building commitment and engagement in labour markets where skills standards have been patchy.  In short, it is quite possible that a strategic effort to build capacity in the region would create a higher standard of skills across our neighbourhood, sharply improving economic and social progress and establishing a strong and healthy basis for social and economic exchange. In commercial terms, Australian TVET would create a natural client base through pathways that allow foreign students to acquire specialised skills.

While many Australian institutions have invested heavily in international programs there is very little evidence of anything that is much more than extensions of Australian activity. That is, in our experience, where the greater value and opportunity is located. While many have been entranced by the opportunities that emerged in Japan and China over the past 50 years, somehow Australians have overlooked our nearest neighbour – a country that is expected to rank fourth globally in the size of its economy by 2050.

It’s way past time that Australian leaders knocked down any walls and let the roses run free for a while. There are risks, but the prospective rewards are almost immeasurable.

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