Part 3 The Asquith Group Case Study: Eleven Themes

4. Workforce strategy - including professional learning

How do we ensure that the range of professionals who are involved in the education and support of young people, who help facilitate pathways and transitions – and the organisations they work for - are suitable, are the best that we have? This question encompasses many issues, among them the suitability, training and management of people, as well as about the organisations (eg not for profits and government) in which front-line staff work. We pose these questions as they are part of the discussion about improving outcomes for young people.

What are the right levels of staffing and workloads? Who determines them? Being able to attract and retain highly skilled staff is an obviously important aspect of providing the highest quality schooling and education, as well as further training, welfare support, youth and employment services. What are the impacts of federal, state and even local government funding? And of contractual arrangements?

In not for profits, in training organisations, in schools too, we increasingly hear about burdens and pressures. There are funding shortfalls and uncertainties, which may follow a change of government or Minister, or whenever another government review is called. There are greater expectations, eg around generating income and cutting costs. There are greater compliance measures and costs associated with this. A range of stakeholders and providers can experience real tensions between these burdens and expectations and the efforts to fully meet the needs of young people, either as students or clients.

We also hear of varying levels of funding for and access to professional learning, and of varying workloads (eg caseloads) for teaching staff, Principals, trainers, youth workers, compliance staff etc.

We also know that work pressures (including caseloads) can overshadow the capacity to attend professional learning, contribute to staff turnover burn-out, and so impact on the quality of work being done. For example, in a report and survey of staff carried out by the Australian Services Union in 2011 two of the top three issues that respondents selected as having an impact on their preparedness to stay in an organisation were ‘inadequate staffing levels’ and a ‘lack of training’.

It is commonly acknowledged that some areas of work – eg those working in child protection, personnel employed in employment services – have had caseload levels contributing to a higher staff turnover than compared to other workers and sectors. For example, turnover rates for the employment services sector in 2008 were estimated by the industry to be between 25% and 30%.

In the ASU report two of the three major impediments to receiving training (as highlighted by employers and employees in the research) was “lack of time to attend training” and “the cost to an organisation to have workers attend”.

Whilst this paper cannot fully explore all the issues, we would highlight the need for further policy development and research in the area of workforce development, and practical measures (including adequate funding) put in place to both ensure sufficient staffing levels are present, and access to relevant professional learning/training can occur.

More work needs to be done by government, schools, training organisations, and not for profit organisations to ensure that staff are able to do the best job possible in teaching, supporting and or transitioning young people. This includes staff at more senior levels who oversee those in the frontline.

Management style and management’s expectations of workers matter, as do organisational cultures – whether we refer to government departments, schools, training organisations, and not for profits.

5. Partnerships – including with industry

School systems, industry, RTOs, training package developers, curriculum bodies and VET regulators need to collaborate to ensure the quality, value and relevance of vocational learning and VET delivered to secondary students. This collaboration needs to occur at all levels, from local to national.

Vocational orientation for young people, career education, work exploration and work-related curriculum are all vital to help students explore career options and understand the nature and expectations of different jobs and industries. Interested students also need to be able to begin acquiring workplace skills while still at school, through nationally recognised training that provides a clear line of sight to a job.

Students reap greater benefits from vocational learning programs when these are based on strong collaboration with employers. Contact with employers gives students a real-world insight into what jobs exist (and may exist in the future), what those jobs are like, and what skills and qualifications they require.

A central characteristic of good transactional and integrative corporate/community partnerships is a determination for each party to understand the operations of the other, including culture. For example, the need to strengthen understanding between NFP organisations and business was a common theme in all consultations reflected in a 2008 report “Relationship matters: not-for-profit community organisations and corporate community investment”.

There are today numerous examples of programs, services and initiatives which involve partnership arrangements and/or collaboration (between and among not for profit community providers, LLENs, RTOs, business and industry and education providers), and these include:

- workplace visits / industry tours and general workplace “exposure”

- career pathway forums

- work experience and student placements

- job and career expos

- mock job interview panels (conducted within or outside learning settings)

- trade taster programs

- informing the delivery of VCAL and VET

- School Based Apprenticeships / Traineeships (SBATs); and

- Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs.

Partnerships and collaboration between and among key stakeholders (e.g. education and training providers, business and industry, all levels of government, and not for profit organisations) are increasingly cited for their importance. However a stronger and more committed co-operative effort between all stakeholders is still needed. There is value in partnerships and collaboration amongst stakeholders at all levels: national, state, regional and local.

A best practice model of how partnerships can be established, supported and co-ordinated can be seen in the example of Local Learning Employment Networks (LLENs), which have been operating,

largely through state government funding, for just over a decade. LLENs now have a solid track record in facilitating or fostering partnerships and effective collaboration, locally and regionally, to improve outcomes for young people.  LLENs varied work has included:

- the establishment of school-industry-community partnerships at a strategic level,

- facilitating and co-ordinating various networks, including around applied / flexible learning,

- supporting alternative and/or non-mainstream education providers / options,

- the provision of new programs / networks for specific “at risk” cohorts,

- data gathering, analysis and local research.

LLENs are incorporated associations, and whilst funded by government, also work independently, andso are well placed to support co-operation, partnerships and collaboration among diverse, sometimes competing stakeholders, for a “common agenda”. e2e would also like to acknowledge the current Victorian government and its foresight in its commitment to LLEN funding for four years.