Productivity Gained – An Inventive Associate Degree Model to Bridge Australian Tertiary Education Divides

In Australia, university-based 'higher education' and work-skills oriented vocational education and training (VET) have long been separate systems. This has suited academics and some industry groups, but the marketplace of students and employers is pressuring for change. With new Australian policy goals to substantially increase tertiary education participation, these embedded, theoretical separations must be conquered. Segments of the Australian post-school demographic are not well-served by educators split by tradition. Individuals with capacity but not an academic-learning bent have limited choices. In the past they built experience through work, using their initiative, cleverness and people skills. Now, backed by families urging education of status as a platform for 50 years of work, and employers facing work complexities, the demand is for quite different tertiary products. This novel Associate Degree model has been developed to integrate Australian higher and vocational education systems. Associate Degree students completing a two year program would achieve a qualification with modern status, attuned to workplace demands, plus potentially 1 to 3 usable vocational certificates usable across industries, and two-thirds of a bachelor degree. The Associate Degree model can be applied in many learning areas. It is especially suited to technical fields (including Construction, Engineering, Finance, Aviation, Agriculture), where skill competencies in VET packages can guide parts of the Associate Degree units, and where both students and employers can directly benefit by the student obtaining applied skills certificates as Work-Integrated Learning