John Mitchell's 'INSIDE VET' column

There is a tension in VET between compliance and creativity, in meeting the requirements of the Australian Quality Training Framework (AQTF). Resolving the tension needs changes at all levels of VET, according to the final report of the High Level Review of Training Packages: at the level of government systems, at the level of training providers and at the level of the VET practitioner.

How the individual VET professional can resolve this tension was the focus of a recent series of forums on professional judgment, organised by Reframing the Future. The forums were conducted in Townsville, Newcastle, Perth and Melbourne and were attended by over 170 VET practitioners representing public and private providers from many different industry areas.

A primary aim of the forums was to enable VET practitioners "to develop more confidence in making professional judgments," says Reframing's National Project Director Suzy McKenna.

The opening speaker at the forums, Dr Anne Jones from Box Hill Institute of TAFE, reported on her interviews with VET educators about their assessment judgements. "What I found was that assessment judgements are not always simple," says Jones. "Individual educators and teams make judgements within a personal and an historical context and a range of problems need to be solved during the assessment process."

Her research uncovered the difficulties that professionals traverse: "I asked participants to tell me about times when it had been difficult to make an assessment decision about a learner's level of competence and the stories poured out," says Jones. "The difficulties included ethical, political and personal predicaments, lack of resources and social issues."

Jones concludes that, in successfully making professional judgments, VET practitioners are characterised by "a seriousness of purpose, an ability to deal with predicaments and an appropriate use of pragmatism."

Jones was one of four speakers at the national forums, each of whom tabled 'think pieces' on different aspects of professional judgement. Fellow presenter Andrea Bateman, an assessment specialist and auditor from Victoria, noted that the validity of assessment is at the core of the VET system, and that the assessment of competence is challenging.

Bateman believes there are multiple reasons why assessing competence is challenging: the AQTF compliance regime may hinder innovative approaches; the emphasis on auditing may impact on the confidence of assessors; and some assessors may need improved initial assessor training as well as additional support and on-going professional development.

VET PROFESSIONALS
" Start with a base of vocational and educational knowledge
" Learn more on the job, especially through specific cases
" Incorporate publicly available knowledge with their personal practice
" Use tacit knowledge to read a situation
" Reflect on practice as a basis for making difficult judgment calls
" Make sound judgments based on experiences of similar cases
" Do the best they can
A. Jones 2005

Another experienced auditor and forum presenter, Dr Russell Docking from Western Australia, pointed out that professional judgement also has to be exercised "on matters where the AQTF is silent", such as the evaluation of training delivery.

My presentation at the forums addressed this issue of professional judgement in training delivery. I put the case that VET practitioners need to make numerous judgments about teaching and learning, including how to customise and personalise training, how to analyse an individual's learning style, how to support different learner groups, how to facilitate learning in a variety of workplaces and how to address the needs of both the employer and the employee.

Based on their demonstrated ability to make professional judgements, "it is clear that VET educators undertake professional work," concludes Jones. But whether or not they are part of a profession "is another question", she says: "A profession exists where members have the time and space needed to engage in professional conversations, to share reflections and turn private experiences into public knowledge."

To build the VET profession and to provide further space for conversations and reflections, Reframing's McKenna announced at the forums that the topic of professional judgment would be a major focus of the national 'New Ways of Working 2 Forum' to be held in Adelaide in November.

Access the think pieces and November forum details at http://reframingthefuture.net

Dr John Mitchell is a VET adviser on strategic planning and change management. Contact johnm@jma.com.au or go to www.jmablog.com