Opinion
This week’s Universities Australia Solutions Summit is a timely reminder of the power of education in contributing to our national prosperity.
While the sector grapples with consistent reform, political uncertainty and other external factors, we must not lose sight of our core duty, which is to educate our students and prepare them for success in their working lives.
In the face of serious issues, like a productivity slowdown and skills shortages, universities need to be at the forefront of finding the answers.
We live in rapidly changing times and, as a sector, we need to change with them if we’re going to help reduce the impact of the national skills crisis.
Workforce priorities have shifted, and we need smart, innovative ideas to stay ahead of the game.
In all the uncertainty, there is a clear call for a unified approach – state and federal governments, industry and education institutions, working in lockstep to ensure we tackle this problem.
Universities should be steering the way forward and, as a dual-sector institution, RMIT has the knowledge, systems and existing programs to arm Australians with the in-demand skills they need to start or pivot a career.
But to identify a solution, we must first define the problem, and this is a good place to start: Our education system, by design, still better accommodates the prototypical school-leaver.
We will never lose sight of the importance of educating the younger cohort, but it’s abundantly clear that we need to level the playing field and make education more accessible, to more people, at every stage of life.
We know that the notion of a ‘job-for-life’ is a thing of the past. It’s increasingly necessary for people to return to further education throughout their working lives and, because the skills in demand are also changing at pace, there is this perpetual need for the system to adapt in response.
The Australian Universities Accord lays down the challenge for universities to increase participation in tertiary education, and to help the country meet its current skills needs by providing flexible, equitable education to enable Australians to succeed in the industries that need them the most.
Matching jobs and skills is how we support participation on the one hand and satisfy employers on the other – it’s an ecosystem in the truest sense.
Employers shape demand. Educators innovate supply. Governments contribute to the conditions for equitable participation and for productivity. However, this often leaves the learner caught balancing competing life demands.
Industry-based learning models are just one way to directly address skills shortages and provide education opportunities for those who need to work alongside their studies.
At RMIT we refer to this as ‘Earn and Learn’ – nationally recognised work-based-learning qualifications that act as a natural pathway between Vocational and Higher education, co-designed and delivered with industry.
We’re also focussed on educational transformation through higher apprenticeships and modular short-form learning, including skill sets.
This is how to rethink the steps toward, and between, employment to meet pressing skills shortages.
To succeed, we must converge on a shared view that we can – and we should – open up the opportunity of education in a way that has never been done before.
Professor Alec Cameron is Vice-Chancellor of RMIT University