Quality Public Education Coalition (QPEC)
RNZ reports that Transpower did not follow standard practice and did not provide sufficient training on the job (Midday Report, Wed 25 Sep),
There is a disturbing parallel currently taking place in vocational education. Learning on the job is the. mantra of Te Pūkenga, the umbrella organisation of polytechnics and ITOs.
Te Pūkenga relies heavily on shipping students out to work-sites, for industry and businesses to “train” the learners. There is a real question whether such enterprises have the time, interest and ability to train novices properly.
But a major issue confronting learning on the job is that trades and professions are becoming increasingly complex, and the world is becoming more demanding and threatening – climate change, new technologies, AI, ethical issues, pressure on resources, coercive employment practices, corporatising.
Staff in the polytechnics insist that there simply has to be intensive, comprehensive and thorough education off-site.
It’s not that staff don’t want on-site experience for their students. They have always supported practicums and practical experience as in nursing, house construction, engineering, health technology.
But they want to avoid proposals like this story from a QPEC Forum in June 2021. A polytechnic lecturer reports a question from an industry contact:
Why are you teaching your students everything about plumbing – hot water, fluid pressure, all that? All we need is for our students to join pipes, because that’s our main activity, as the biggest employer.
The staff member is adamant that students need far-sighted, comprehensive education in their trades and professions, as a base for life-long learning.
Providing vocational education
The Transpower issue raises two problems.
One, learning on the job is not infallible. Transpower apparently delegated job learning to Omoxon, who did not carry it out. Transpower then played Blame-the-Contractor, to try to avoid the public outcry.
The pylon toppling cost millions and Transpower’s failure suggests that business can’t be the vehicle for reliable job preparation. That lies outside the primary task of running a business or industry, and points to the second issue.
To serve the best interests of vocational education, we must avoid short cuts like relying heavily on work-based learning. Instead, we need to insist on the importance of polytechnics for off-site, institutional education., integrated with work experience.
That means providing well-designed programmes in polytechnics that are very stable. richly resourced and feature well-supported, professional educators – the teaching staff.
David Cooke, National Chair, QPEC
