CEET Annual National Conference
Friday 31 October, Ascot House, Ascot Vale, with the theme:
The expansion of education and training: ensuring relevance, quality and inclusion
Speakers will include Tom Karmel, Peter Noonan, Chandra Shah, Gerald Burke, Phillip McKenzie, Fran Ferrier, Sue North, Rob Fearnside and Jack Keating
Details and draft program

CEET reports

Industry demand for higher education graduates in Victoria 2008 to 2022 a report prepared for OTTE, DIIRD by Chandra Shah, Lenore Cooper and Gerald Burke. 
If current trends continue 78 per cent of employed people in Victoria will have qualifications in 2022, compared to 59 per cent in 2006. Workers with higher education qualifications will be in particular demand. To meet this level of qualified workers, and accounting for growth in employment and turnover of workers, over 400,000 new entrants and nearly 300,000 existing workers will need to acquire qualifications from 2008 to 2022. At current levels of higher education course completions and migration, a shortfall in the number of people with bachelor and postgraduate (masters and doctorates) degrees is projected.To meet the requirements, Victoria would need to increase higher education course commencements by more than 10,000 each year.

Skills development for a diverse older workforce Fran Ferrier, Gerald Burke and Chris Selby Smith, NCVER 2008
The study is based on a review of research on effective skills development for older workers and seven new case studies of the delivery of training to a primarily older workforce. It finds that as long as good practices for the teaching and learning of adults are in place only small adjustments to training programs and activities will be required to meet the needs of older participants. Differences among older workers, however, mean that skills development to support and encourage their participation in the workforce should be targeted to the needs and circumstances of specific sub-groups. Different learning preferences, motivations and expectations should be considered when planning the type of training to be provided and how it is to be delivered. Trainers, as well as employers, need to take account of the barriers (including age discrimination) affecting some older workers. The provision of effective skills development for older workers needs to go hand-in-hand with flexible arrangements which encourage continued working, such as semi-retirement arrangements  that enable older workers to combine employment with increased leisure.

Recognition of skills and qualifications: labour mobility and trade in services Chandra Shah, Michael Long and Joel Windle,  prepared for the Office of the Pro Vice Chancellor (Planning) Monash University
A skilled and flexible workforce is increasingly identified by governments as a key to economic development. With the emergence of a global market in both educational services and labour, agreements on mutual recognition and transparency of skills and qualifications have become important elements of international co-operation. They are often included in broader bilateral and multilateral trade agreements. Some of the agreements which have implications for the provision of education and the accreditation of skills are the Australia-New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Trade Agreement (CER), the North American Free Trade Agreement, the General Agreement in Trades in Services (GATS), and a number of bilateral Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). Recent FTAs that Australia has signed with the United States, Singapore and Thailand, have included skills recognition. Agreements are currently being negotiated with China, Malaysia and Japan.

Conference presentations

Early Childhood  Peter Dawkins
Professor Dawkins, Secretary of Victoria’s Department of Education and Early Childhood Education (DEECD) spoke at the 2007 CEET conference about the place of early childhood education in the national human capital reform agenda.
Evidence from research in health in education shows that investing in early childhood education leads to substantial social and economic benefits for individuals and societies. Economic returns to early interventions are higher than for later interventions because of the technology of skills formation. Skill begets skill and early skill makes later skill acquisition easier. The approach to early childhood development adopted in Victoria links early childhood services with school education, recognising that children’s development is a continuous process from birth to adulthood. The creation of DEECD enables more effective tracking of the progress of individuals and interventions and supports where necessary. It will also enable improved co-ordination and transition between stages of development

Schooling and young people John Ainley and Phillip McKenzie, 2007 CEET conference
Longitudinal data was used to examine how schooling influences young people’s educational intentions, their likelihood of completing secondary school and participating in post-school education and training. Engagement in school and positive attitudes towards school contribute to the completion of secondary school and participation in tertiary education, over and above the effects of literacy and numeracy. Most of the social background factors associated with school completion influence intentions that are formed relatively early in secondary school. This means that policies to increase school completion rates need to focus on what happens before Years 10-12.

The economics of quality schooling Gerald Burke and Phillip McKenzie, Conference on  Universal Quality School Education Conference, Educational Technology and Management Academy (Director Prof Marmar Mukhopadhyay), New Delhi November 2007
This paper looked at how countries can organise and plan their educational systems to promote Education for All. Issues considered included: the level of public expenditure on education and its distribution in relation to need; where expenditure can yield most benefits; the incentives, system level organisation and guidelines to ensure that expenditures are used effectively. A book based on the conference is to be published shortly.

Financing VET in Australia Gerald Burke and Peter Noonan. CEDEFOP Agora Conference Investing in people: Strategies for financing VET, Thessaloniki  May 2008.
This paper considers key aspects of the financing of Vocational Education and Training (VET) in Australia against the major policy objectives for VET. The paper provides background information on the development of the current system, the size of enrolments and the sources of revenue. It considers the major development in funding and associated regulatory arrangements: provisions for contestability for public funds, quality assurance of providers of training, a system of qualifications based on industry determined competency standards and financing arrangements affecting employers and individuals. Further information

Appointments

Skills Australia
Gerald Burke has been appointed to Skills Australia, an independent body established under the Skills Australia Act 2008, to provide advice to the Australian Government on emerging and future workforce development and skill needs. Skills Australia is to be chaired by Philip Bullock, former Chief Executive and Managing Director of IBM Australia and New Zealand. Other members are Sharan Burrow ACTU President, Heather Ridout Chief Executive Officer Australia Industry Group, Marie Persson, Deputy Director General, TAFE and Community Education, NSW, Keith Spence, Executive Vice-President of Enterprise Capability Woodside Energy Ltd and Michael Keating AC former head of the Prime Minister’s Department and now Chair of the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal NSW.  Further information

Higher Education Review
Peter Noonan, of Peter Noonan Consulting and Associate of CEET, has been appointed to the Higher Education Review Expert Panel.  It is chaired by Professor Denise Bradley AC. Other members are Dr Helen Nugent AO  Director of Macquarie Bank and Chair of Funds SA; and Bill Scales AO,Chancellor of Swinburne University of Technology and Chairman of the Port of Melbourne Corporation. The panel will report on the current state of the Australian higher education system against international, best practice and assess whether the education system is capable of:  contributing to the innovation and productivity gains required for long term economic development and growth; and ensuring that there is a broad based tertiary education system producing professionals for both national and local labour market needs.  The panel released a discussion paper in June 2008.