The humanities stand to benefit if Acting Jobs and Skills Australia Commissioner Megan Lilly gets her way in advocating for new, national approaches to skills recognition.
In a new JSA paper, Ms Lilly argues we need a “a tertiary system that makes skills visible, portable and trusted, while preserving the enduring value of qualifications.”
Australia needs a tertiary system that is skills-first, with stronger connections between skills and qualifications to boost the transferability of qualifications and mobility of learners, as well as workforce participation and productivity.
The challenge is not to choose between skills or qualifications, but to better define and connect both, the paper says. It is an important contribution to the Accord’s plan to better connect VET and HE.
The paper calls for changes to the Australian Qualifications Framework and the creation of a national skills taxonomy, so that the broad competencies in a qualification are clear, as well as common standards for recognising prior learning, as well as the definition of skills – creating an opportunity for the humanities.
“As AI and automation expand, routine technical tasks are increasingly automated, elevating the value of uniquely human capabilities such as complex problem-solving, creativity and ethical judgement,” Ms Lilly writes.
Which rather sounds like the case HASS lobbyists make for the study of disciplines with no direct connection to employment. Except that students are not taught such skills directly but pick them up through studying content.
Higher Education in general is “characterised by institutional accreditation and comparatively opaque labour market signalling, (and) would benefit from the disciplined application of a skills-first lens,” she writes.
“Stronger, more consistent articulation of industry need and workforce relevance in degree design, learning outcomes and graduate attributes would improve the legibility of university qualifications for employers, learners and intermediaries.
“This is not about narrowing higher education to immediate job outcomes, but about making the skills and capabilities embedded in degrees more visible, transferable and comparable across contexts.”
Selling humanities degrees based on skills acquired might assist students and employers and support the value proposition for choosing high-fee humanities degrees. Of course, this may not go down well with scholars who have dedicated their working lives to aspects of research and scholarship beyond the teaching realm.