How to build greater national self-reliance

The current pandemic has exposed Australia’s reliance on goods made and knowledge developed elsewhere. The scarcity of rapid antigen tests produced overseas is but the latest example of this reliance. These and growing geopolitical tensions, have emphasised the need for greater self-reliance in producing the goods and services to meet our population’s needs.

These needs extend to securing ongoing employment, private and public sector enterprise viability and maintenance of our national sovereignty. Central to meeting this challenge is developing the occupational skills and workplace capacities to create and provide those goods and services. This necessitates having an effective, well-equipped and attractive vocational education system to support working age Australians’ initial occupational preparation and ongoing development across their working lives. It is a challenge that also requires workplaces to encourage, support and sustain innovations, and engage employees’ contributions in doing so. Of course, the ability to innovate can be difficult in a country with a relatively small population, and the fact that free markets can undermine national sovereignty and self-reliance. Regardless, self-reliance in key areas need to be secured through having a more skilful and adaptable workforce. Much of that depends on effective worklife learning.

Linking workers' worklife and workplace innovations

Much is made of the phrase ‘lifelong learning’, albeit largely directed towards adults’ participation in education programs^[1]. Yet, much if not most of the occupational learning across adults’ working lives derives from experiences in their workplaces^[2][3]. It is these experiences that are central to the development of the capacities that support workers’ employability – remaining employed, securing advancement and applying their knowledge to other kinds of work and workplaces. A key source of that learning is workers’ frequent responses to problems, emerging challenges, new technologies and customer or client requirements^[3]. These responses comprise innovations of the kinds that workplaces rely upon to maintain their viability and secure their advancement. It is also through engaging in these activities that workers capacities is extended and transformed (i.e. learning), and they remake and transform their occupational practices, as we have seen in the pandemic era. Consequently, when considering how Australian private and public sector enterprises can become more self-reliant, the dual processes of workers learning and changes to work practice can arise through engaging workers in initiating and enacting workplace innovations.

Recent research on the integration of workers’ learning and innovation in small to medium size enterprises^[4] found that workplace factors were reported as more important than those outside of the workplace, such as government edicts, policy, support and, to a degree, educational programs. Instead, it was supervisors', managers' or co-workers' actions in providing an environment in which workers were encouraged to suggest, trial and implement innovations. That is, factors close to the point of production or provision of services. Educational programs were reported as being helpful when they aligned with the challenges employees were engaged with (e.g. 3D printing). A second study found workers’ engagement and involvement in their learning was dependant on the kinds of innovation being undertaken, as this shaped the degree by which workers could initiate them^[5]. Three types of innovations were identified – strategic, workplace practices, and procedural innovations – with workers’ contributions and learning being essential in all three to achieve the intended changes. All this suggests that two important goals associated with national self-reliance can be achieved through integrating workers’ learning and participation in initiating and enacting innovations. There is nothing particularly new here. Evidence suggests that the two countries that built the strongest post-war economies (i.e. Germany and Japan) did so through these kinds of processes^[6]. That is, engaging and utilising workers’ capacities and direct collaborations with specialist skills at the local level achieved those outcomes. Adopting and enacting such processes offers a way forward for Australian enterprises through their own practices and those of tertiary education institutions.

The role of tertiary education

That way might be distinct than in those earlier instances. The requirements for contemporary work are different and more in need of specialist expertise, such as the 3-D printing example. This is where Australian tertiary education (i.e. vocational and higher education) can play a key role. Support may be required to optimise learning in the workplace, particularly where the required expertise within it is limited or absent (i.e. something new). Hence, there is a key role for tertiary education. However, that educational provision is not necessarily ‘classroom-based’ or the type of taught experience that is associated with support for learning through educational institutions. Instead, it may be about supporting and augmenting learning arising in the workplace. Secondly, there may be greater scope for public and private sector enterprises to engage with university partners to undertake applied inquiry. This does not need to be constrained to research projects secured through external funding agencies. Instead, those inquiries can be realised through activities and engagements such student placements and research engaging in applied projects, as has occurred elsewhere ^[7][8]. Here, it was local partnerships between tertiary education institutions, built on mutual understanding and trust, that leads to these kinds of outcomes. In these studies, those outcomes led to building and sustaining the partnerships between the workplaces and the university. Engaging tertiary education in these activities of supporting learning and applied research is not about distorting or particularising their activities. Instead, first, it is about focusing on the applied educational experiences that we know promotes rich learning. It is also about aligning research activities and findings with important social and economic goals and embracing enterprises and communities in those activities. Together, these may assist addressing some of the key existential challenges we face as an independent nation state. Importantly, many of the components to make it work reside in each enterprise, and tertiary educational institutions can address those that are not.

References

^[1]. T. Schuller and D. Watson, Learning through life: Inquiry into the Future of Lifelong Learning, National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, Leicester, UK, 2009.

^[2]. S. Billett and S. Hodges, in Supporting learning across working life: Models, processes and practices Supporting learning across working life: Models, processes and practices, eds. S. Billett, D. Dymock and S. Choy, Springer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 2016.

^[3]. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Journal, 2013.

^[4]. S. Billett, S. Yang, A. Chia, J. F. Tai, M. Lee and S. Alhadad, in Creativity and Learning: Contexts, Processes and Impact, eds. K. Collin, V. Glaveanu, S. Lemmetty and P. Forsman, Palgrave McMillan, London, UK., 2021, pp. 219-244.

^[5]. S. Billett, J. Tan, C. Chan, W. H. Chong and J. Keat, in International Handbook of Education Development in Asia Pacific, eds. W. O. Lee, P. Brown, L. Goodwin and Andy Green, Springer, Dordrecht, 2022.

^[6]. R. Sennett, The Craftsman, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2008.

^[7]. M. Andersson, L. Bernhardsson and L. Norström, 2020.

^[8]. L. Bernhardsson and M. Andersson, 2019.

Stephen Billett is Professor of Adult and Vocational Education in the School of Education and Professional Studies, Griffith University. His research interest are in learning the capacities required for paid work, through experiences in and across working life, educational institutions and their integration.