AUSTRALIA aims to provide study opportunities across many fields that includes mainstreaming vocational education skills at higher education level, said Dan Tehan in his keynote address at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) during his official visit to Malaysia recently.
Titled “Working together for success in international education”, his address was delivered at the UKM’s 12th Global Talk Series.
Tehan said: “We are looking into enabling students to move between the two education systems because jobs of the future will require multiple skills.
“Jobs of the 21st century don’t only call for the ones you learn in higher education but in some instances, you also need vocational skills and vice versa.
“So, we have to make sure that our higher education system and vocational education system will give you those offerings.”
With the industrial and business changes happening in Industry 4.0, Tehan said that there has been a shift in the desired skill set.
“We need students who have flexibility in their skills and a jack-of-all-trades approach to adapt to the changing circumstances that the fluid global economy will present globally.
“We still need specialists but we don’t want everyone to be a specialist. There is a need for graduates who have a broader set of skills.”
According to Tehan, Australia has conducted a review of its national qualification framework in which the ability to earn tertiary credits in secondary school is an interesting development in the framework.
“Through secondary education, students will be able to start getting units for their higher education and vocational education.
“Rather than having a secondary schooling system that is distinct from your tertiary education, we want to ensure a seamless flow between our secondary education and tertiary education system.”
A challenge that Australia is facing is to ensure that it continues to produce students that can fill the skills gap, said Tehan.
“For us, those gaps include providing workers for our disability sector, child care sector and aged care sector.
“In the technology field, we make sure that we have STEM students who can then work in areas like cyber-security or information technology,” he said, adding that Malaysia is also facing similar issues.
Australia is exploring different types of education providers to reduce the skill shortage.
“We are looking into public and private universities, national institutions or institutions that just work with particular communities to deliver the type of skills that students will need to work in the local economy.”
Australia will also continue upholding universities’ autonomy, he added.
“To ensure that our universities have the freedom of speech and freedom of academic inquiry, our former Chief Justice has put some model codes in place.
“We want universities to be places where people can inquire about any subject matter and freely express their ideas. Their ideas can be developed into research that will benefit not only the nation, but the globe.
“Another key component is getting industries and businesses to work more collaboratively with our higher education providers. I know that UKM also continues to explore this.”
The event was attended by Australian High Commissioner to Malaysia Andrew Goledzinowski, UKM vice-chancellor Professor Dr Mohd Hamdi Abd Shukor, UKM deputy vice-chancellor (Academic and International Affairs) Professor Datuk Dr Mohd Marzuki Mustafa, UKM staff, students and the public.