The first is to play the role of trade organizations in the formulation of professional competence standards.
Under the coordination of the National Training Bureau, there are 265,438+0 national industry training consulting institutions in Australia. These institutions predict the employment demand, analyze the occupations in their industries, formulate professional competence standards, and provide professional, curriculum and teaching basis for TAFE universities and other education and training institutions. The general conclusion drawn by industry training consulting institutions after research is that many new employment opportunities are professional, technical and applied jobs, and the development of vocational education is very important to improve Australia's international competitiveness; The forecast shows that in the next decade, the demand for employees with professional qualifications will continue to increase. In the field of employment, employees with corresponding qualification certificates and high technical level are replacing those without corresponding qualification certificates and low technical level. These make the industry enterprises have higher recognition of vocational education, and the graduates of vocational education have better employment prospects, thus improving the social status of vocational education. Some college graduates even go to TAFE College to receive vocational education, so that they can have wider employment opportunities. Some TAFE colleges have a history of more than 100 years, and have a solid foundation for running schools, but they have not been upgraded to universities, which has a lot to do with the high status of vocational education, meeting the needs of industry enterprises and being recognized by industry enterprises.
Due to the acceleration of economic globalization and the need for enterprises to participate in international market competition, some industries (such as accounting) are in line with the professional competence standards of international related industries. Therefore, since the 1990s, the Australian government has established a certificate system of equivalence between general education and vocational education, and the corresponding competency standards have been formulated in the field of vocational education.
Two, the establishment of a unified national certificate, diploma and degree framework, so that vocational education becomes an organic part of the national education system.
Australia has established a national unified education and training certificate system, which corresponds to the education and training posts after ten years of compulsory education. Including: certificate 1: semi-skilled worker, certificate 2: senior operator/service worker, certificate 3: skilled worker, certificate 4: senior skilled worker/supervisor; General diploma: professional assistant/technician, advanced diploma: professional assistant/manager; First education: professional/manager; Advanced degree: senior professional/manager. In this certificate system, there is a connection between the lower level certificate and the upper level certificate (diploma and degree): after obtaining the I-level certificate, students can learn several modules to obtain the II-level certificate; And so on.
This unified certificate system and modular curriculum content structure make vocational education connected with general education and higher education; Linking pre-service education with post-service education embodies the idea of lifelong education. In the stage of ordinary senior high school education, students can freely choose the vocational education courses required by Certificate I and Certificate II; After graduating from high school and entering TAFE College, the vocational education course credits obtained in the high school education stage are recognized, that is, you can learn the subsequent course modules directly without having to start from scratch. After graduating from TAFE College, students can also enter the university, and all (if the major of the university is practical) or part (if the major of the university is theoretical) of the courses they have studied in TAFE College are recognized. This creates conditions for TAFE university graduates to continue their studies and obtain university degrees. 1996, 1 1.2% of the freshmen are graduates of TAFE College. Because the courses are generally modular, students can study full-time or part-time after employment, so that pre-employment education and post-employment education can be organically combined. Judging from the number of students, 60%-70% TAFE students are part-time students and receive vocational education after employment.
Three, according to the professional ability standard and certificate framework to develop courses and organize teaching.
The major and curriculum of vocational education in Australia are based on the professional ability standards formulated by industry organizations and the national unified certificate system. The specific contents and arrangements are jointly formulated by enterprises, professional institutions, universities and education departments, and are constantly revised according to changes in the labor market. Whether TAFE College can offer a major must be strictly examined by local education departments and industry organizations. The teaching of vocational education generally adopts the guiding ideology of competency-based, and the teaching process emphasizes students' subjective initiative. Students can study according to their own conditions and the teaching organization is extremely flexible. Therefore, the focus of teaching work is to cultivate students' practical work ability, and the focus of assessment is to emphasize what students should be able to do, not what students should know; Relevant professional skills acquired by students in their work and life are also recognized in the evaluation. Usually, students can start working immediately after graduating from TAFE College.
Four, the establishment of high-quality vocational education teachers.
TAFE college teachers generally have at least 3-5 years of professional experience in the industry. This is achieved through teacher recruitment standards. Teachers in TAFE College are recruited from professional and technical personnel with practical experience. For example, teachers in accounting courses are recruited from certified public accountants. In Australia, there is no direct recruitment of vocational education teachers from university graduates. While teaching, newly recruited teachers must go to the college of education of the university for l-2 years of part-time study, and the college will award the teacher qualification certificate. After the application, teachers are also members of relevant professional associations, participating in the activities of professional associations and accepting new professional knowledge, skills and information. In the management of teachers, there are fewer and fewer teachers who are employed for life, and more and more teachers who are employed on contract (l-5 years) and temporarily.
Fifth, give play to the role of market mechanism and make full use of educational resources.
Although the government is the owner of TAFE College, when allocating funds to TAFE College every year, it appears as a "buyer" of education and training, that is, it adopts an efficient commercialization method. The government will allocate funds to colleges whose education and training meet the economic and social needs, with high quality (high student consolidation rate and high graduate certification rate) and low cost (low per capita funding). This funding mechanism has become a baton for the development of vocational education in Australia. Enterprises and private education and training institutions also actively participate in the competition in this market. This management mode urges the college to meet the needs of local economic and social development to the maximum extent and make efficient use of educational resources. At present, the mutual merger of TAFE colleges is one of the manifestations of the college's efforts to reduce management personnel, improve the scale efficiency of running schools and make full use of educational resources. It is also worth mentioning that the government encourages TAFE College to enter the market and get financial support from enterprises and other social sectors. Take Canberra Institute of Technology as an example. 1997, government funding accounted for 74% of the college's funds, and social training and service income accounted for 26% of the college's funds. The government requires the latter's share to be increased to 40% in 1998. In a sense, TAFE College is not only a government education and training institution, but also a "commercial entity".