Australian VET in China: What Has Changed?

Abstract

This chapter looks at the export of Australian vocational education and training to Chinese students under the Australian Quality Training Framework – the AQTF (now replaced by the National VET Regulation Standards). This practice began in the 1990s and has grown and expanded to the extent that export of Australian VET qualifications now occurs to over 45 countries around the world. The most active education providers in this export of Australian VET – especially to China – have been the public VET providers in the Australian State of Victoria. These independent public VET providers (called TAFE Institutes) offer more than 70 % of Australia’s vocational training offshore. The chapter notes the initial fit between the imperative of Victorian public TAFE providers to expand their revenue sources and to supply additional funding to their home institutes by offering training in China, with the need of the government of China to provide world-class training for its rapidly growing industrial and manufacturing sectors. The requirements and drivers of both countries have shifted since the 1990s. China has matured as a market for western style VET and is now creating its own system using good practice aspects of other VET systems. The chapter highlights some of the challenges of importing a foreign system of vocational training into China. It uses the case example of Victorian public VET providers’ attempts to foster mutual trust and respect via their association, Victorian TAFE International (VTI), and the best practice documents it publishes. It also comments on activities in Australia undertaken by VTI, to enhance flexibility of Australian qualifications while retaining their quality outcomes, in order to incorporate the needs and specific local milieu of students in China.