A featured contribution from Leadership Perspectives: a curated forum reserved for leaders nominated by our subscribers and vetted by the Construction Tech Review Advisory Board.
Industry Curriculum Manager at Wodonga Institute of TAFE
Navigating the Future of TAFE with Innovative Strategies
Travis Sandeman
From an Electrotechnology trade background, after 12 years, I moved into the adult learning sector. I first started as a trade teacher delivering enterprise-specific skill sets. I later moved into an educational manager position in the electrotechnology stream, managing a medium-sized team of amazing teachers. My most recent move was to a sole education consultation-focused role, solving education-related problems for large enterprises and registered training organizations.
2. What are the most significant trends and technology advancements that you believe will impact the education industry?
The ability to innovate will be the biggest contributor to the future success of TAFEs in the education industry. Due to the high costs of labor in developed nations, the need to innovate with AI, data analytics and automation in every aspect is a must for education and support staff and save student’s time. The education institutes focusing on this will see alignment with Industry 5.0 around social value and well-being and be prepared for the transition. A shortage of skilled teachers nationally will require a focus on collaboration from institute to institute.
3. What do you see as the biggest challenges in the TAFE landscape over the next decade, and how are you preparing to address them?
The changing mindset around the value of innovation and AI is the biggest internal challenge for TAFE institutes. AI integration will not be an option but a necessity. The ability to maintain the engagement of future students and prepare them for Industry 5.0 is my biggest challenge. We have seen in recent years that TAFEs can successfully remove the geographic barrier to access education with remote delivery. With student time and well-being more critical than ever, I focus on engagement and transformational learning by fostering a culture of innovation and translational research amongst stakeholders.
4. What advice would you give to other education institutes looking to adopt emerging technologies and consulting approaches? What are the key considerations and potential pitfalls they should be aware of?
Education clients are very good at alerting consultants to a problem or focus that requires rectification or transformation. Their ability to convey exactly what the issues are is often lost in translation and tied to views only from a certain perspective or level of management. A holistic perspective is a key stakeholder in this situation, backed by directed questions, enterprise research, collaboration and consultation. I don’t mean a holistic perspective of the consultant that is a necessity for a successful consult. I mean to provide a holistic perspective to the client’s key decision-makers. You need their strategic support and finance advocacy to drive any recommendations internally.
Consultation needs the right data or metric and qualitative should always explain or add narrative to the quantitative. It also needs many client internal perspectives at varying levels and can be used to leverage between different client levels to drive a change mindset to support implementation. I cannot stress the value of face-to-face meetings at the discovery stage of consultation with a client. In a world that is and needs to adopt technology rapidly, we tend to forget the value of a humanistic approach to consultation, and side conversations or enterprise history are seldom brought up during online meetings or surveys.
The implementation of new or emerging education technology should be fielded carefully and thoroughly by educational research through consultation. How often have you seen a great new piece of technology or facility implemented at a learning institution that is rarely or ineffectively used? I could say around Australia I have seen many. I have also been involved in many successful systems, implemented by the process I have just discussed.
