Offshore delivery of Australian qualifications: lessons from the VET sector

Transcription

1 Offshore delivery of Australian qualifications: lessons from the VET sector Claire Field, Chief Executive Officer Background A growing area of activity for public and private VET providers An area of opportunity for institutions, but also significant potential risk to: reputation providers and Australia too commercial interests 1

2 Knight Review recommendations Recommendation 34 That Austrade be asked to prepare a more detailed outlook document that provides effective business planning intelligence demonstrating the opportunities, for offshore provision of vocational education. Recommendation 35 That the highest quality Australian VET providers including TAFEs, be encouraged to explore offshore market opportunities. Knight Review recommendations Recommendation 36 That the Australian Government, through programs such as the Export Market Development Grants Scheme and other forms of assistance, support high quality Australian vocational education providers in expanding their offshore training services. 2

3 Is VET for sale? NQC Good Practice Guide Go / no go Objective Initial decision Exit strategy Improvement/ act Quality assurance Approach/plan Preparation Go / no go Deployment/do Delivery Project management Ongoing monitoring & review Exit strategy Results/check Assessment Exit strategy 3

4 Objective 1. Initial decision Should we be involved in offshore delivery? If so, why? capacity? where? what programs? Go / no-go decision Preparation 2. Project inception / business case approval regulatory authorities, legal considerations, capacity 3. Partner choice / due diligence especially third party references 4. Business planning financial aspects 5. Partner contracts & relationship management value of contracts in partner s culture 4

5 Delivery/1 6. Select appropriate offshore delivery models if Australian qualification, must comply with AQTF and be managed through quality delivery implementation 7. Set requirements for offshore facilities for VET CBT and assessment, work placements 8. Staff skills and qualifications local current industry competence Australian cultural sensitivity Delivery/2 9. Student information, selection and outcomes entry requirements, motivations, handbooks 10. English language competence do the offshore students need the same English language levels? English of trainers 11. Contextualisation of (VET) programs challenge of balancing Australian qualification with context of local learner 5

6 Delivery/3 12. Provide learning resources to what extent provide them to offshore partner intellectual property and QA considerations 13. Determine provision of student information and support access to information and student support 14. Document educational leadership, coordination and support Assessment 15. Assessment and validation must be consistent with Australian qualification for VET workplace competence is core, yet often problematic offshore competency based assessment can also pose a challenge deal with this challenge through continuous monitoring and improvement 16. Certification maintain strict onshore control of credentials issued in provider s name 6

7 Quality assurance 17. Monitoring, review and continuous improvement collect and act on data from the full range of stakeholders about operation and progress of teaching manage risks through internal and external audits benchmarking performance across offshore and onshore operations clear governance arrangements (e.g. internal governance committee) Ongoing monitoring & review 18. Project management mitigate risks such as turnover of staff and training package/curriculum changes responsibilities and resources defined 7

8 Lessons for other sectors Commonality of principles The most important factors are: identifying the motivation for delivering offshore basing the go decision on a sound business case picking the right offshore partner managing the project well Role of national regulator ASQA legislation to implement fee regime Identification of need for offshore audits When/where/how/by whom? 8

9 The quality stamp 9