Flexible Industry Pathways program to overhaul VET in schools for SA

Want to build games, look after animals or fix cars? You can start in school under a new nation-leading program to keep kids in education - on a pathway to real jobs.

Port Lincoln High School students Simeona and Tarli getting real experience in the kitchen. Picture: Robert Lang

Major changes to vocational education in schools will aim to stop thousands of young South Australians falling into a black hole of having no job and ending their training and education.

As many as 50,000 South Australians aged 15-24 are at risk now of not transitioning after school to work or further education, the State Government estimates.

A carefully structured program will guide students to follow trade and trainee pathways while at school to specific sectors where industries say there are lots of job opportunities.

The overhaul of vocational education and training (VET) in schools will take effect next year, with an initial 26 sectors identified for jobs’ growth.

Sectors include aged care, building and construction, electro-technology, horticulture and screen and media production for gaming and visual effects.

Called Flexible Industry Pathways, the program has been designed “with industry, for industry” to provide a pipeline of skilled workers, Education Minister John Gardner said.

“This is the biggest overhaul of VET in schools in a generation,” he said.

“It will provide students with more certainty that they are learning the skills required to pursue their future career goals.

“We don’t expect all Year 10 students to know what career they want to follow, but we can help guide them on the right path to industries with long-term growth potential.”

Education Minister John Gardner. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Flexible Industry Pathways will replace the existing VET in schools system. In 2019, some 12,235 secondary students undertook some VET in schools but the system has been heavily criticised.

Education Department director of further education and pathways Clare Feszczak said the existing system was ad hoc.

“We’ve never had pathways that are endorsed by industry that will say for an entry-level job, these are the steps a student needs to take,” she said.

For each sector, students will be shown potential jobs they could get straight out of school, or after further technical training or after university.

These will be plotted against Certificate II and III courses they can do in school, options such as on-the-job training, and other requirements that may be needed such as first aid, driver’s licence, or working with children checks.

The new system would bring industries much closer to schools, including giving a taste of the sector, she said.

“So, for example, we’re working with Masters Builders Australia during the school building program to get contractors to provide three hours a month of immersion activities such as a site tour, or to talk about what it’s like,” she said.

“Our ambition is to excite young people, get them to understand the options that are available.”

Ms Feszczak said schools would specialise in a particular sector and collaborate with neighbours so a student at one school might go to another school to attend a course they want to do.

At the moment, VET can be offered off the school campus by a registered training organisation (RTO), including TAFE SA, on campus by an RTO or by a teacher whose work is audited by an RTO.

The Innovation and Skills Department buys the training, paying through a program called the Training Guarantee for SACE Students.

This program will be scrapped and its funding rolled into the new system. All RTOs will have to renegotiate their arrangements with only the designated courses listed by the Department for Education to be subsidised by taxpayers.

“Over and above the repurposed funds, the need for additional funding to government schools is still being determined,” a government spokesman said.

Ms Feszczak said the Department expected enrolment numbers to increase but schools would not necessarily need significant funding increases because RTOs often had their own equipment and facilities.

Before being accepted into a pathway, each student would need to undergo a VET readiness orientation assessment.

“We want the student, their family, the school to fully understand what the pathway is,” she said.

“It’s not just a filler in the timetable.”

The changes – which will be nation-leading – follow several years of consultation by the Education Department which found:

SOME students took VET courses as an easy way to lift their SACE result to “game” a better Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) not to get a job.

MANY students viewed a VET pathway as inferior to university.

PARENTS held outdated views of the range of jobs where VET qualifications were needed.

A survey for the Innovation and Skills Department of 1300 businesses found many industries thought VET in schools was a good concept but students emerged with qualifications that didn’t lead to a job.

BAE Systems Maritime Australia chief executive Craig Lockhart

Master Builders SA chief executive Will Frogley.

The unemployment rate in SA was 7.1 per cent in January, seasonally adjusted – the worst in the country, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported last week.

For 15-24 year olds looking for full-time work in SA, the unemployment rate is 20.4 per cent.

A Productivity Commission report this month found only just over half (53 per cent) of 2019 SA school leavers went on in 2020 to full-time work, full-time study or part-time work combined with part-time study. This was dramatically down from the 78 per cent two years earlier.

The Department has been trialling its VET pathways at several schools, including Port Lincoln High School which has focused on hospitality.

Year 12s Simeona Rawles and Tarli Absalom were among the first students involved.

Tarli has done a Certificate II in kitchen operations and is now doing a Certificate III in catering.

“It’s shown me what I’m capable of and taught me a lot of techniques and terms,” she said.

“It’s a very positive experience because they help you to learn rather than expecting you to know things.”

Industry sector leaders are backing the change.

BAE Systems Maritime Australia managing director Craig Lockhart said thousands of jobs will be created in shipbuilding over the next few decades.

BAE has already taken on 36 school-based apprentices who are working on the Hunter class frigate program.

“It’s a great example of what can be achieved through collaboration between, schools, industry and government,” he said.

Master Builders Association SA chief executive Will Frogley said the first step was “winning the hearts and minds of young people”.

Improved promotion and accessibility would open up the “extensive career opportunities” in the sector.

VET courses can count for up to 150 of the 200 credits a student needs to achieve their SA Certificate of Education.

“VET is an important and integral part of the SACE, and is just as valuable a pathway as academic SACE subjects,” SACE Board chief executive Martin Westwell said.

The Education Department is building a website where students and families can see the sectors and pathways proposed for next year.

Ms Feszczak said this would be a starting point with other sectors such as accounting potentially to be added in future.

Opposition education spokesman Blair Boyer said the changes were ill informed.

“The use of ‘flexible’ in the name of this new program is clearly tongue in cheek,” he said.

“In actual fact it will limit the ability of individual secondary schools - who know their young people best - to provide choice for those students.

“In just three years the Marshall Liberal Government has presided over a drop of almost 25% in the number of school leavers going on to full-time work, full-time study or part-time work combined with part-time study. “