The future of higher education in the knowledge-based economy: developing innovative approaches to integrated articulation and credit transfer in Australia

The future of higher education in the knowledge-based economy: developing innovative approaches to integrated articulation and credit transfer in Australia

The Integrated Articulation and Credit Transfer project (IACT) is an action research project which is developing innovative strategies and models which may overcome
the barriers to articulation pathways, partnerships and agreements between the education and training sectors in Australia. The project seeks to improve the level of
industry input into articulation pathway development, and to improve the levels of transferability and sustainability of articulation models and pathways between stakeholders. Ultimately, the project seeks to make articulation pathways easier to establish for stakeholders and more seamless for students.
A key area of the connectivity essential to the success of an articulation pathway that is given little attention in the articulation pathway debate is the role of industry and
the potential for an articulation pathway to meet, at least to some degree, the workforce requirements and skills shortages of the industry. The IACT project is exploring not only the level of connectivity that currently exists between industry and the education and training sectors for the purpose of the development of articulation and credit transfer pathways, but also how industry determines its role.
An 'industry-determined' articulation pathway model involves consulting with industry to gather their views on what articulation pathway model/s would assist
their industry in meeting their current and anticipated workforce requirements, before consulting with education and training providers. Once the workforce
requirements of the industry have been firmly established, interested education and training providers develop solutions to meet this industry need. The research is
investigating what factors and processes are crucial to the development of 'industry determined' pathway models. It is also testing whether these factors can be used as a
model of engagement between industry, Vocational Education and Training (VET) and Higher Education (HE) leading to the development of articulation pathways that can be duplicated by these three sectors in a range of industry areas. The study is significant because, in this model, industry is not only participating in the process as an equal partner but, for the first time, is in a prominent negotiating role from the outset of the articulation pathway development journey.