The Impact of Training Packages: What Might We Learn about Substantial System-Wide Change Processes?

This account reports on a commissioned strategic evaluation undertaken for the Australian National Training Authority on the qualitative impact of the introduction of Training Packages on vocational education and training clients. The research involved collecting the views of over 200 VET practitioners, bureaucrats and administrators, industry personnel, and students from all Australian States and Territories. The data collected provides a snapshot of conflicting views about Training Packages. An activity theory approach was used to analyse the data. This resulted in the identification of key contextual issues which act against the adoption of Training Packages and their innovative use by VET practitioners. These issues are systemic in nature and provide an explanation for the polarity of views which, inevitably, result from any discussion of Training Packages. The focus of this paper is the nature of the substantial, system-wide change process that the introduction of Training Packages initiated, and the views of research participants on some of the issues emanating from the lived-through experience of this change.