Abstract:
Recently the Senate inquiry into present and future skill needs report, Bridging the Skills
Divide (2003), and the Business Council of Australia report, The Vocational Education and
Training System: Key Issues for Large Enterprises (2004), have clearly signalled that VET
policies generally are failing to meet the needs of business and Australian society. While there
are conflicting opinions on the success of the policies of approximately the last 15 years in VET,
and the conclusions of these reports appear to be challenged by ANTA, most pragmatists and
realists agree that major policy shifts are required. This paper commences with a brief historical
analysis of the ideological forces generated by economic rationalism and the malaise in policy
making that influenced the development of the VET policies from the late 1980s to the present.
It then examines some of the major policies implemented, the apparent underpinning rationales
and their relatively low levels of success before considering alternative policies more likely to
achieve desired outcomes. These analyses and suggested changes draw upon Alison Wolf's
powerful critique of United Kingdom policies, Does Education Matter? (2002), with the United
Kingdom policies paralleling those in Australia.
