Reframing the Future allocated funding for project teams to conduct staff development and change management activities to assist in the implementation of the national training system from 1997 to 2008.

Project funding of between $10,000 and $23,000 was allocated to approximately 200 projects per year.

Applications were open to organisations within the vocational education and training (VET) sector to access dollar-for-dollar funding to conduct professional development or change management projects.

Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) and VET organisations sponsoring a project were required to at least match the funding provided through Reframing the Future. This could be in the form of in-kind contributions.

The design of Reframing the Future's funded projects.

The program in 2008 was organised around seven national priority areas which enabled VET organisations undertaking a project to achieve at least one of the three goals of the Reframing the Future program. Each of these goals and priority areas supported the implementation of the national training system. Projects used one of the eight methodologies which the program supported.

Priority Areas

1. Quality: using effective approaches to implement the Australian Quality Training Framework (AQTF 2007) essential quality standards and indicators
2. Training Packages: innovatively and flexibly implementing a new, recently revised or rationalised Training Package
3. Assessment: developing the quality and consistency of competency based assessment practices
4. Employability skills: strengthening provider capability in teaching, learning, assessing and reporting in relation to employability skills.
5. Skills shortages: increasing the responsiveness, quality and quantity of training in skills shortage areas, particularly for trades occupations
6. Partnerships: developing partnerships or new ways of working between RTOs, industry, enterprises and/or communities to develop more responsive approaches to training
7. Diversity: enhancing practitioners' capabilities to work with an increasingly diverse client base, in particular with aboriginal, disability and other equity groups.

Goals

• To develop staff capabilities to continuously improve the quality of competency based training and assessment
• To be innovative in responding to the needs of students, and the emerging skill needs and workforce development requirements of industry and communities
• To increase the productivity of the VET workforce and contribute to the productivity of the Australian workforce

Methodologies

• Methodology 1 Action Learning. Action learning is a professional development technique for learning from current activities and involves the use of the cycle of experiencing, reviewing, concluding and planning. See Action learning in the VET sector: core ideas.
• Methodology 2 Appreciative inquiry. Appreciative inquiry is a methodology for influencing change that concentrates on the positives within an organisation and on a vision of what is possible rather than an analysis of what is not. It is based on asking questions at four stages of inquiry: the discovery stage, the dream stage, the design stage and the destiny stage. See Appreciative inquiry in the VET sector: core ideas.
• Methodology 3 Communities of practice. Communities of practice are groups of people bound by a shared experience and a common sense of purpose, such as the pursuit of a solution to a problem. Sometimes communities are formed within the one organisation or group, and sometimes they stretch across organisational boundaries. See Communities of practice and the national training framework: core ideas.
• Methodology 4 Networking. Membership of a network implies a commitment to a group and its work and to cooperation. Networking implies a group connection, based around trust, understanding, and mutuality, that supports collaborative action. A network often takes a member beyond his or her own workplace, and involves interacting with members from other organisations. See Networking and the national training system: core ideas.
• Methodology 5 Knowledge management. Knowledge management focuses on processes such as acquiring, creating and sharing knowledge. A key aspect of knowledge management in the VET context is knowledge transformation, which includes the process of internalising information and research and then applying the new knowledge to practice. See Knowledge management and the national training system: core ideas.
• Methodology 6 Strategic management. Strategic management is the process of identifying, choosing and implementing activities that will enhance the long-term performance of an organisation. See Strategic management and change management and the national training system: core ideas.
• Methodology 7 Change management. Change management is the process of modifying or transforming organisations in order to maintain or improve their effectiveness. See Strategic management and change management and the national training system: core ideas.
• Methodology 8 Change agency. The term change agent refers to anyone involved in initiating or implementing change. Change agency refers to the ability of an agent of change to affect the way an organisation responds to change. See Change Agents and the national training system: core ideas.