Professional Development in the Vocational Education and Training Workforce. Occasional Paper

This paper is based on one prepared for South Australia's Training and Skills Commission. It comes at a time of strong interest in the quality and professionalism of the vocational education and training (VET) workforce. This interest is underpinned by research into what constitutes quality teaching, as well as initiatives such as the strategic audit of the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment under the auspices of the National Quality Council. The author argues that professional development is just one approach to improving the quality of the VET workforce. A strong professional culture in the workplace and better approaches to recruitment, job design, industrial relations, workplace and performance management also need to play their part. Whatever the approach, professional development needs adequate resourcing if it is to be effective. He does not shy away from two areas surrounded by controversy--the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment and the registration of VET practitioners. On the former, the author's view is that the certificate IV is a sound qualification as long as it is taught well and adequate support is provided. On the latter, he opposes mandatory registration but notes that under the Australian Quality Training Framework it is possible to audit so that providers not only have staff with the necessary qualifications and skills profile but also have an ongoing professional development program in place that helps the organisation run--and improve--its core business of teaching and learning. Perhaps these audit requirements should be particularly rigorous for providers issuing teaching qualifications. (Contains 22 footnotes.)