Groundbreaking institutes to build generations of job-ready graduates

According to TAFE NSW’s chief strategy and commercial officer, Vik Naidoo, the institutes are part of a four-year pilot funded by the NSW Department of Education designed to experiment with new education models.

Naidoo says the pilot grew out of a recommendation in a 2021 report on the NSW vocational education and training sector by former University of Western Sydney chancellor Peter Shergold and business leader David Gonski.

In that report, Shergold and Gonski recommended the establishment of an Institute of Applied Technology (IAT) which “delivers fully integrated theoretical and practical employability skills, provided through a number of constituent colleges, with curriculums designed in collaboration with industry and focused on the state’s emerging labour market needs”.

The pilot has just reached its halfway point after it began with all the partners sitting down together and collaborating to “co-design and co-innovate the curriculum” as well as co-locate on the same campus.

Getting onboard

For Naidoo, innovating a series of courses with different partners involved challenging conversations at the start to make sure all the right partners were onboard.

“We really invested in identifying partners that were willing to listen and not just say ‘I’m a professor of computer science, I know better,’ because our industry partner Microsoft might be saying what you’re teaching is wrong and you should be teaching Y and not X,” Naidoo says.

And the results so far suggest the pilot and its co-designed curriculum is working a treat with more than 15,000 people completing microcredential courses in a range of digital skills since the Institute of Applied Technology – Digital opened in Sydney’s Meadowbank last November.

The Institute of Applied Technology – Construction will open at Kingswood later this year.

According to Naidoo most of those who have completed courses thus far have been people looking to upskill in their current careers rather than school-leavers or undergraduates because “most young people are very focused on traditional pathways of acquiring Australian qualifications as opposed to short courses”.

He says companies such as Westpac, BT Financial Group as well as foundation partner Microsoft have also had their people enrol and complete courses.

“And now after seeing the success of the course, we have additional corporates joining such as SAP, SAS and Salesforce, and there are a few others coming as well,” Naidoo says.

BT Financial Group’s chief executive, Matthew Rady, says the microcredential and certification program offered by the IAT has a “natural fit with our financial services business and the development of analytical and critical thinking skills needed for a future-ready workforce”.

“Initially, we offered 100 places to our people and were quickly oversubscribed, which demonstrates that these vocational courses have hit the right mark in the skills our people are looking to develop,” Rady says.

Asia-Pacific vice president of Salesforce’s Trailhead Academy, William Sim, says the company was attracted to the IAT “because it allows us to reach new talent we wouldn’t otherwise be able to reach, especially in regional and remote areas of NSW”.

Coaching and mentoring

“It also means we can support the delivery of courses that bundle technical skills with business skills and allow learners to access direct instruction, coaching and mentoring.

“We work with educational institutions like the IAT to co-develop learning pathways that increase awareness of job options and equip career starters or career switchers with the skills they need to succeed in the Salesforce ecosystem,” Sim says.

The important role the IAT can play is highlighted by the fact the digital skills gap has accelerated and the world is facing a growing digital skills crisis, with Sim’s highlighting Salesforce research showing only one in 10 global workers has in-demand AI skills.

NSW Minister for skills, TAFE and tertiary education Tim Crakanthorp says the IAT is delivering for corporates who want unique skills in the emerging digital economy.

He says beyond delivering digital skills in the likes of cybersecurity and AI, we’re also seeing micro skills and credentials being delivered in the construction sector where there is a huge demand for up-to-date learning in areas such as project management, CAD drawing and contract administration.

Moreover, Crakanthorp says the feedback on the IAT model has been very positive because of its nimble model and every other state is now interested in exploring establishing their own institutes.

“In many ways, it’s the way of the future – it will give TAFE a boost and help revitalise the vocational sector,” Crakanthorp says.