VET & TAFE underemployment, traditional patterns of front-loaded education, linear career paths and jobs-for-life are becoming increasingly redundant. Much has been written about indirect transfer, where movement involves several shifts within and between institutions and sectors. Such movement is not one way. There is considerable evidence now of two-way movement, often labelled reverse articulation – between higher education and VET. Learner pathways indeed remain complex. For example, transitions can be direct or indirect, one-way or two-way or multiples combinations of each. They can be inter- or intra-sectoral, or multiples of both, or between similar or different fields of education.
Research in this area contributes to interconnected tertiary education practices. An understanding of the patterns of transition can assist tertiary administrators in tailoring initiatives to respond to changes in life, learning and work of learners. The findings raise issues concerning the relationships between the sectors and help policymakers and institutional planners position these relationships. Frequent moves between sectors indicate that these areas are playing complementary roles in catering for the needs of learners at different ages and stages. And finally, an understanding of transition patterns can help learners themselves navigate educational systems that are sometimes very different.
From a policy and administrative viewpoint, multiple transitions may be adjudged inefficient. To a degree, learners themselves acknowledge such moves to be costly, time-consuming and contributing to career lag. However, learners most commonly claim that these disadvantages are outweighed by the benefits of lifelong learning and the capacity to enhance personal and professional lives. One interview in our research encapsulated this as the opportunity‘ to be able to go to any institution to access what you need for your goals’.
These transitions can serve several significant functions. For some learners, transitions act as release valves, allowing them to escape the consequences of poor decision-making, ill-informed advice or immaturity and then attempt a new direction or a switch from stereotypical gender-induced careers. For others, transitions act as door-openers, allowing them to change programs and / or sectors in order to follow shifting interests and passions, or to earn income so they can pay for study in their chosen career. And for still others, transitions are professional development catalysts, allowing them to update and further develop in order to consolidate existing employment or move into promotional positions.
Thus, within a framework of lifelong learning, whilst movement may not always be seamless, transitions do occur and play a pivotal role in allowing learners to continue at different ages and stages of their private and professional lives. In the contemporary environment, particularly post-global financial crisis, psychological contracts centred on job security and loyalty are being replaced by contracts founded on learning and performance. Individuals are increasingly being required to assume responsibility for their own career management. It is therefore critical that they keep reflecting on their careers and engage in continuing education. Thus, freedom to move, even across sectors, plays a central role in allowing learners to continue gaining knowledge for and in their careers.
What this need for career building and learning activity implies is that societies are being pressed to free up their educational structures in order to provide learning opportunities for all ages. Vigorous discussions are occurring in many places in the world about how to enhance seamlessness within educational systems. In Australia, that returns us to the Bradley vision. My view is that it is still alive, and that whilst more can be done to streamline movement, the experiences of learners we explore in research indicate that they do find their way to further their education and build their careers. n
Roger Harris is professor of adult and vocational education in the school of education, University of South Australia.
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