Leadership in Vocational Education and Training

Corporatisation of the vocational education and training (VET) sector has led to a broadening of the VET client focus and increased accountability. These changes have contributed to the need for new leadership styles, attributes and processes. This report describes a research study into leadership in vocational education and training organisations. It seeks to generate new information, theory and knowledge in an area of VET leadership. The purpose of the study is to gain insight into the conditions for and characteristics of effective leadership in vocational education and training now and in coming years. The study focusses on the processes of leadership, as well as the characteristics of individual leaders, and draws on literature from a wide range of leadership studies. The theory of 'enabling leadership' is used as a framework for the study. This theory suggests that the effectiveness of leadership in VET depends largely on the contexts in which the leadership is exercised. Five research questions are addressed: What changes have occurred in the roles and responsibilities of VET managers over the last ten years? What factors have brought about these changes? What are the current VET leadership roles and responsibilities? What are the claims on VET managers? How might VET leadership roles and responsibilities change in the next five years? Data forming the basis of analysis for the study are derived from 49 survey and interview responses and case studies in 12 registered training organisations from a range of VET provision contexts around Australia. Leadership interventions in these contexts are explored through the case studies, and scenarios developed from the data. Four interventions are examined in detail and, in each case, effective leadership was seen to depend on aspects of the context in which leadership was exercised. The study generated five main findings.