10/03/2010

To prepare for the future, young Australians need an education that is holistic, flexible and encompasses a commitment to both work and life, a 2009 review of research concluded.

But, according to an Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) review paper - Touching the Future: Building skills for life and work, there is emerging consensus that an education system designed to meet the needs of Australia in the past cannot prepare today’s youth adequately for future challenges.

Drawing on contemporary research, the review explored the goals of the Australian education system and the ways in which it should prepare young people for work and life in the 21st century.

According to the review, one of the most significant changes impacting the labour market in the last 30 years is the loss of traditional ‘job security’ and the growth of flexible and precarious forms of employment.

For young people, the review suggests this loss of security has resulted in:

• ·         the need to be skilled in navigating a ‘sea of uncertainty’
• ·         longer transitions to employment and more movement between jobs
• ·         the need for skills to be updated more frequently and a greater need to return to education and training throughout employment to pick up new skills
• ·         an increased likelihood to combine education with work.

In this context, the review suggests a move away from an education system characterised by age requirements, minimum attendance levels and set start times of the year, to a flexible approach that fits with the complexity of young people’s lives.

Ideally this system would enable young people to return to education at any point in their lives and with any degree of intensity, tailoring participation to their circumstances.

The review also argues that the traditional model of education, with its heavy reliance on credentials and curricula, was designed to prepare young people for a relatively static occupational world in which their futures were clearly mapped out and the skills required were well defined.

The review cites research indicating that when today’s young people graduate from a professional degree, they don’t always expect to take up employment in their field of training or they only intend to work in that field for a short time before re-training for a different line of work.

As a result, to prepare young Australians for the future, the review says educational goals should be oriented more toward the development of ‘soft skills’ or ‘life skills’ such as creativity, entrepreneurship and self-reliance.

With innovation and creativity at its core, e-learning has emerged as a key ingredient in delivering the degree of flexibility and diversity required for the education system to respond to the modern learning needs of young people.

Characterised by a focus on employability, greater mobility and lifelong learning, the Australian Flexible Learning Framework continues to support the uptake and embedding of e-learning with the Australian vocational education and training system, to bring learning and training into the 21st century.

E-learning Coordinators are located in every state and territory and can provide you with localised support in using and implementing e-learning. For further information: http://flexiblelearning.net.au/e-learningcoordinators

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