The Australian Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector faces a leadership succession crisis and must implement strategies to attract, identify and develop a new generation of leaders, according to a new report.

VET Leadership for the Future details the findings of a collaborative research study, conducted by ACER and the LH Martin Institute, to examine VET leadership.

Report co-author, ACER Research Director Hamish Coates, said organisations and governments must make VET leadership an attractive proposition to a new generation of leaders as the current, older generation of leaders leaves the system.

“By attracting, engaging and retaining new people from both inside and outside the VET sector, we have the capacity to map out new conceptualisations of the leadership profession,” Coates said.

A national survey of 327 practising VET leaders revealed telling insights into current perceptions of the profession.  In addition to completing the survey, respondents were asked to provide an analogy that best describes what it is like to be in their current role.

Responses from CEOs included “being a magician” and “running a very small country”.  One senior executive said their role was like “Being a sheepdog – you have a whole flock of very keen people ready to run off in all directions and you need to keep them focused and heading in the right direction.”

Senior managers spoke of “constantly moving goal posts” and “being given responsibility for a luxury car and not being allowed to drive it”.  Senior practitioners described their role as “skating on thin ice” and “a never ending journey, with great views of ever changing scenery, a relatively clear intended destination, but no map”.

Generally, senior executives reported a capacity to steer their organisation forwards within manageable parameters, whereas leaders with more operational roles reported stress in trying to manage amid uncertain challenges and without the support or space required to deliver necessary outcomes.

Professor Coates said these analogies support research findings that VET leadership involves complex navigation of uncertainty, initiating and dealing with change, working with cumbersome organisational cultures and processes, and dealing with the unexpected.

“The analogies put particular focus on the pressures and freedoms that shape leaders’ work,” Coates said.  “This reflects the complex and ever changing policy, funding and regulatory environment within which VET leaders operate.”

Leaders in all roles said that managing organisational change is the most important aspect of their work.  With the exception of those who identified as being directly involved in teaching, all other leaders flagged teaching and learning as the least important facet of their work.

The study found that in many respects the concerns of leaders are only loosely aligned with the broader pressures confronting the VET sector.  In increasingly commercial contexts, VET leaders focus on planning and implementing change rather than graduate outcomes, quality and education standards.

“VET leaders are focused on input-side factors such as student numbers and funding,” Coates said.  “A challenge for the future involves developing a more outcomes-focused orientation, one centred on effective change implementation, on delivery, and on high-quality graduate outcomes.”

The research findings underline the need to define the profession of the VET leader.

A review of prior research suggests a leadership framework should be comprised of personal, interpersonal and cognitive capabilities or qualities as well as role-specific and generic competencies, skills and knowledge.

Evidence from the 327 leaders who participated in the study supported this conceptualisation of leadership but indicated a disparity between the capabilities identified as important for effective leadership and the way leaders are identified and promoted.

“Arguably the most important implication of this study is the need to implement tested strategies for identifying and developing aspiring leaders,” Coates said.

Results from the survey indicate that only a moderate amount of professional development has been devoted to enhancing the capabilities that respondents identify as being the most important for effective leadership.  Most leaders expressed a preference for practice-based, self-managed learning, rather than formal development activities.

The report suggests that new leadership programs, built on authentic and active modes of learning, should focus on working in complex environments and on change management skills.

“There is scope for the findings from this study to play a major role in reshaping the approaches which are used for leadership selection and development,” said Coates.

“The VET sector needs research-based strategies for managing the looming leadership succession crisis.”

Professor Coates co-authored the report with Justin Brown and Tim Friedman from ACER, Professor Lynn Meek from the LH Martin Institute, and VET consultants Peter Noonan and John Mitchell.

The full research report, VET Leadership for the Future: Contexts, characteristics and capabilities, is available from http://research.acer.edu.au/higher_education/13/

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