Industry wants new skills for existing workers – which means micro-credentials, Jenny Dodd from TAFE Directors Australia says

Question is where quals should come from. Ms Dodd argues TAFE has always delivered short courses and skill sets (“micro-credentials by another name”) “where there was demand.”

But as for universities – the previous government funded them to teach certificates which were often marketed as alternative to a vocational diploma even though they “were ways of attracting students into a degree programme” and “were generally not built to meet the skills demands of industry.”

“If that policy is to be sustained, then there is a real risk that the value of the vocational diploma will diminish,” she warns.

Which would not be good.

“Long term prosperity requires both investment in VET qualifications, including those at the higher levels of VET such as diplomas, and new solutions for re-skilling existing workers, such as microcredentials,” Ms Dodd says.

With the Jobs and Skills Summit a month away it makes sense for TDA to make its case.