Australian TAFE
TAFE, stands for Technical and Further Education and provides vocational education in Australia, is the representative of the typical vocational education model. The key components of TAFE is competency based training and assessment. Essentially vocational education is competency based education, aiming to cultivate practical and skillful talents. Therefore TAFE is getting more attention from all over the world and used for reference by more countries.
On 28th and 29th of December, Beijing Commerce and Trade School and Australia Vocational Education Alliance co-host the TAFE Model in Practice Training Program, inviting an Australian expert from vocational education and a Chinese expert from Beijing Academy of Educational Sciences to give live lectures.
01 – Australian expert
Malcolm Heighway
Malcolm Heighway is an experienced advanced trainer. He has nearly 40 years of experience working and teaching in a variety of industry sectors in Australian vocational education, including TAE, Australian vocational education, international business, leadership and management, work health and safety, food safety, risk management, horticulture and irrigation, and quality auditing etc. He was involved in the revision of the Australian Horticultural Irrigation Training Package and was responsible for the quality audit of Australian vocational colleges. He has represented the Victorian government in international education cooperation and exchange in India, and has also made several trips to China for vocational education training, including certificate Ⅳ in training and assessment, work health and safety, leadership and management, risk management, horticulture and so on.
Malcolm’s lectures are quite interesting, focused on TAFE teaching practice and examples, learner centered training method. Usually first thing he does is asking learners what they want to know by the end of the session, then through ice-breaking games he could build the connection quickly and engage with the learners in very short times, integrating theory in practices to attract their interests. Meanwhile he also provides guidance and advice on practical problems that learners encounter in real teaching. He believes that the emphasis of education is “learning” instead of “teaching”, which is the learning process of seeking and exploring together with students. Implementing learner-centered methodology in both teaching concept and methods is the key expression of student-centered method in TAFE.
02 – Chinese expert
associate researcher from Beijing Academy of Educational Science, Ms. Wang Yubo
Ms. Wang Yubo’s main research fields include teachers development, international cooperation and college development etc. She is the team member of National School Project of Secondary Vocational Education Development and Reform, and the head of several international cooperation projects in vocational education area. She has hosted and participated in a number of scientific research projects on a national and city level. Additionally, Ms. Wang is the support expert in Beijing TAFE Education Mode Reform Project, conducting scientific research throughout the process and hosting numerous sessions about TAFE standards and resources localization.
In this lecture Ms. Wang mentioned the features of TAFE, competency based curriculum, competency based standard and assessment. In curriculum design the competency based and learner centered concept should be included to improve students’ comprehensive abilities. About standards making, the description of localized outcome must be specific, measurable and achievable referring to Australian training package. At last, focus on the combination of formative assessment and summative assessment to support the reform of assessment in vocational education.
Conclusion
Along with the Implementation Plan for the Reform of the National Polytechnic Education, it is an important period for vocational colleges and universities to implement the internationalization plan. Based on the achievement and experiences of Beijing TAFE Education Mode Reform Project, AVEA supports vocational schools to develop professional standard and curriculum through international accredited standards.
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