Emerging patterns of enterprise-based research and organisational development in vocational education and training providers

Abstract

Restructuring of vocational education and training in Australia has been characterised by marketisation and, in Victoria, by significant decentralisation of educational provision. This has resulted in the formation of increasingly autonomous VET enterprises that require a knowledge base for informing enterprise decision making and development. This article presents some findings from a 1997 consultancy which sought to investigate this trend towards enterprise-based research, and its articulations with system reform and operational activity in a sample of 17 VET providers in Victoria. The project found evidence of enterprise-based research in the whole sample VET providers. The character of this research, and its linkages with enterprise operations were diverse. However, there appeared to be three distinct views of enterprise-based research, each of which articulated with a generic model of organisational development. These were: an informal, network-based, model; an instrumental strategic planning model; and a more internally motivated capacity building model. The data suggested that enterprises could move from the strategic planning model to the capacity building model if the practical utility of research was recognised.