TAFE NSW Workforce Development Guarantee: Susan Hartigan
INTERVIEW | Wendy Wyatt, TAFE NSW ICVET
Susan Hartigan, Institute Director, TAFE NSW – Western Sydney Institute and currently Relieving General Manager, TAFE Business, is acutely aware of the crucial role TAFE NSW plays in the future of NSW. Susan spoke about the way in which this awareness drives her passion for seeing TAFE positioned to meet its future challenges. She talked about the fundamental changes being made in TAFE NSW and the guarantee it is making to its staff to carry the changes forward.
Why did you choose your current role?
I’ve been relieving in the position of General Manager, TAFE Business since January this year. I took on this role because I have such a strong belief in the difference vocational education and training (VET) makes. We know in TAFE we are getting a lot right, because people are telling us so. We have a huge responsibility to keep on getting it right.
I chose to be here too, because I think TAFE NSW is in the enviable position of having leadership in our Director-General and Deputy Director-General that is passionate, coupled with incredible strength. Also, in our Deputy Director-General we have a person who is nationally acknowledged as having immense expertise. This strength centrally is teamed with the capacity of our Institutes to respond and deliver the products and services needed to meet our requirements.
Susan referred to the following facts and figures:
- The Australian Bureau of Statistics census identifies that over 9% of working age people in NSW were enrolled in TAFE NSW in 2007
- Allen Consulting Group `The Complete Package' - The value of TAFE NSW, found that TAFE NSW will contribute $196 billion to the NSW economy over the next 20 years – providing a 640% return on investment.
What are some of the highs and challenges in your current role?
The challenges: I’ve found some of the greatest challenges have also produced the greatest highs. These are challenges where I’ve been faced with big issues that will impact on TAFE’s future. And this means the future of our State, because TAFE NSW plays a truly critical part in the future of NSW. Look at the TAFE enrolment figures compared to the NSW population and the massive amount we are predicted to contribute to the state’s economy in the next 20 years. The responsibility that is resting on our shoulders is getting it right for NSW.
The highs have been working with a dedicated professional team and organisation, listening and communicating with stakeholders, coming to solutions that will have enormous positive implications for TAFE NSW.
The most exciting example I can give is the TAFE NSW Workforce Development Guarantee, which has been through a process of development, consultation, revision, further consultation and then approval at all levels. It is now ready for implementation. To me, the Guarantee is most exciting because it’s about a whole of organisation approach to meeting our challenges.
What do you see as the challenge for TAFE NSW?
The challenge facing TAFE NSW is huge. Times have changed – economically, in the workforce, within occupations and skills areas, in the labour market - and accordingly our client and stakeholder needs have changed. To remain the best at what we do, we need, as a system, to find new opportunities and new ways of working with industries, new ways of influencing how skills are used at work. We need to adapt, and encourage a culture of continually adapting.
Our challenge is to build a dynamic organisation for the future – one that can have the nimbleness to move quickly and be proactive in being able to keep changing our practice to suit the circumstances and opportunities of the time - and at the same time meet our responsibilities. We have a clear picture of where the Commonwealth and industry want us to be and we are being strategic in our response to the future reality.
Our challenge, too, is to give our people the flexibility they need to be adaptive. To build on the capacity and strengths they already have. That’s where the TAFE NSW Workforce Development Guarantee sits in our response to the future.
What do you see as the future directions for TAFE NSW?
The future direction I see is one where, in TAFE NSW, we don’t just provide training, but we support enterprise workforce development as a core service. The workplace will increasingly become the site of learning. We will be adapting Training Packages to suit customer needs, and be actively engaging employers in designing skill solutions. We will be focused on service to customers and offer wider choices of modes of delivery, enrolment and completion flexibility and personalised learning pathways.
We will continue to lead the way in providing learner support services and in meeting diverse individual needs. We will be increasingly blending technology-based learning with our face-to-face and work place delivery.
Key aspects of a vision for TAFE’s future direction are that it will involve:
- customer responsiveness
- broader product and services vision
- personalised learning solutions
- faster response.
What is the TAFE NSW Workforce Development Guarantee?
The TAFE NSW Workforce Development Guarantee gives a commitment to our stakeholders that we will develop our workforce to meet their needs and a promise to our own staff to develop their capabilities to meet this commitment.
How is it different?
The Guarantee is not a program but a series of capabilities and competencies that can be customised for every individual. In the past we would have put people through `a course’. Now we are saying, `these are the competencies the organisation needs to move forward – in consultation you choose what is right for you now, next year you can add to that’. All of the competencies are aligned to national qualifications.
The Guarantee advantages both TAFE NSW and staff – it is built around a framework. It is concrete (in that it links to a qualification) and it offers the flexibility to be adapted by individuals to meet their needs and the needs of the organisation. The Guarantee tells everyone we are serious about what we deliver; therefore we are serious about our capacity to do that delivery.
One of the other great things about the Guarantee is that its implementation will link to measurable outcomes - qualifications that we can track, so as an organisation we will be able to see and define the changes.
What commitment is made to staff?
TAFE NSW will invest an additional $1million per annum in building capability for 3,500 staff each year for three years.
Professional Development will focus on five capability areas:
- delivering workforce development services to enterprises
- using technologies to do business
- meeting the needs of diverse learners
- interpreting and customising Training Packages
- leadership.
Each capability is linked to a national qualification. TAFE NSW will support staff to develop and gain formal accreditation for these important professional skills, giving them the confidence to work differently.
Who worked on this Guarantee?
The TAFE NSW Workforce Development Guarantee was one of the significant projects to come from the TAFE NSW 21st Century consultations. Elizabeth McGregor, Institute Director, TAFE NSW - North Coast initially led the team in its development. All the projects from Century 21 have been led by an Institute Director. Elizabeth was informed by a reference group which had representatives from all Institutes and central support units and was supported by ICVET staff. A reference group will continue to work with the new workforce development team to oversee and ensure implementation.
What are you proud of about this process of change?
I am really proud that we have done this – we have identified the need, we have driven and developed the document - we asked, we led, we drove and we will do. It’s not something that has been done to us.
When the consultation for Century 21 first came out I heard a staff member ask `what management consultant dreamed this up?’ I said to the person, `no management consultant, this came from within. If you want to talk with someone about this, talk to me or to any of the other Institute Directors’. I think this is the great thing about the way we are moving forward.
What’s needed to drive ongoing cultural change?
You need to be passionate, provide support and be patient to see the full impact of change to occur. Some change will happen quickly. But ongoing cultural change will be slower. In my experience, there always comes a pivotal point when you are suddenly able to look and say `we have crossed the line’. Once that point has been crossed, the changes create the momentum to create more change.
What’s next for the Guarantee?
Staff can work towards a nationally recognised qualification by enrolling in a relevant course or units of competency. A personal professional development plan may also involve building a portfolio of evidence towards recognition against units of competence within a specific qualification.
What’s next for you?
To make it happen. And to see the fruits of the TAFE NSW Workforce Development Guarantee reflected in the changed culture and patterns of changed work practices and the continuation of a vibrant and strong TAFE NSW.
The challenge was never that it wouldn’t happen. We know it will - we have so much good will and capacity. Our challenge is to direct this momentum and to keep on adapting and adapting again.
You can read the TAFE Workforce Development Guarantee on the Department of Education and Training’s website.