Beyond equity? Indigenous people's rights and the national VET system

Abstract

The five years since the National Centre for Vocational Education Research's (NCVER) last consolidation study on Indigenous vocational education and training (VET) have seen significant system-level changes, and the VET system can legitimately take pride in theextent to which, alone among the major sectors of the Australian education system, it appears to have solved the problem of access in relation to Indigenous people. In every other sector—school, higher education and adult community education—Indigenous people participate at levels significantly lower than non-Indigenous people. In the VETsector, however, the situation is reversed. Indigenous people participate in VET programs and courses at significantly higher rates. Nevertheless, this chapter argues that this does not mean that the question of equity for Indigenous people in VET has been solved. On the contrary, it suggests that there are many significant unanswered questions about the way current equity policies interact with Indigenous people's own development aspirations and their preferred modes of participation in the Australian economy. It argues that there is a need for a more focused and co-ordinated Indigenous-driven research agenda to help answer some of the policy questions this raises. It also proposes that more attention be paid to the question of Indigenous employment within the sector, including its research arm.