TAFE
Continuing a
of culture learning
Emphasis on the fostering of learning is underrated. By Liz Harris
The leading weekly business newspaper in Western Australia, WA Business News, often features lots of men in expensive suits and reports regularly on news in the finance, property development and resources sectors.
I was pretty impressed then when I read an article in WA Business News early last year by journalist Joe Poprzeczny discussing the Gonski report, and the importance of building a strong culture of learning in Australia.
Poprzeczny concluded that to improve learning outcomes to match“ the pack now ahead of us”, that“ the silver bullet isn’ t more bucketloads of money; it’ s a priceless quality … called personal and filial commitment to knowledge and learning”.
In my time as CEO at Challenger Institute, I have had a similar passion and indeed personal commitment to the power of learning in a community and in an organisation.
As a result a significant emphasis of my leadership has been on building a culture of learning within the organisation.
What this has meant is that there has been a commitment to building an organisation that encourages, funds and facilitates learning through a range of activities and opportunities, and recognises that learning needs to be integrated in the experience of work.
At Challenger we believe that learning is, as Poprzeczny suggests, as much an attitude as it is a practice, and that commitment to learning by staff needs to happen at a personal level.
The average age of staff at Challenger Institute, like in many TAFE Institutes around Australia is about 54. Age is no consideration when it comes to learning.
Added to this is the fact that across Australia and around the world some people are now working to 70 and beyond, and being encouraged to do so by governments that fear a diminishing active labour market as the population ages.
We have a number of lecturers in their seventies and have had students in their eighties. An employee at 54 may only be two thirds of the way through their working life, and employed in an environment of constant and rapid changes in learning technologies, in industry needs, and in global engagement.
We cannot afford to let the learning agenda for ourselves and our organisations slip – it needs to remain centre stage. Learning is, and has to remain, a lifelong process.
In Western Australia, the economy is strong and unemployment low, currently at just over four per cent. Western Australia has been riding the wave of Asia’ s rapid growth, particularly China’ s
32 | April 2013