A new AQF could do it

The O’Kane Accord’s discussion paper refers to “harmonising” VET and HE and the “need for a non-hierarchical and flexibly applied qualifications framework that encourages recognition of credit and prior learning,”

Sally Kift points out in her O’Kane submission that there’s a way to do that, set out in the Noonan Review of the Australian Qualifications Framework.

Problem is government does not quite know how to impose it on the present arcane anarchy of accreditation. As Department of Education officials told a Reps inquiry, “although many stakeholders agree with the overall reform intent of the AQF Review, stakeholders have varying perspectives about how some of the more complex review recommendations should be addressed” (CMM March 22).

‘Twas ever thus in codifying qualifications, but as Professor Kift, a member of the Noonan review panel, points out, they set out a three-stage way to reform the AQF – which will provide a process; “a tool for qualification design that allows generic descriptors for qualification types to be developed specifically into learning outcomes that are relevant and appropriate for individual qualifications.”

While the VETocracy may not like it – perhaps as, Noonan proposed, a new governance body” could be established to ensure that what O’Kane recommends for VET and HE in combination happens.