[Linux-aus] Young Aussies say pirated software is OK

[Harry WWC]

Me again, :')

> > If your a public place such as TAFE (I think of TAFE as public ... am I
> > correct on that?) then the course should cover concepts, and not a
> > specific program or suite.
> 

YEs, TAFE is (in general) funded through the Public Purse - which means
we answer to a bunch of mor... bureaucrats. 

> This is completely wrong. The TAFE's are there to provide training that 
> the students want and the students want training that will get them a 
> job[1] .
> 
 
Mostly true. Unfortunately, it's not that simple anywhere, anymore.

There is a beast called the National Training Package (these were
introduced in the late 80s / early 90s). The current one for IT is
called ICA05.

Unfortunately, the people who put this together seem to have little clue
as to what is actually needed. one item that comes to mind in one of the
course descriptions they published "you can use either Windows XP or
Linux 8". It took me a little while to realise that they were talking in
there about "Red Hat Linux 8". Now, of course, this means I can "update"
this and use the latest - but this is an example of the completely
non-clue'd people writing the National Training Packages. These are the
things we (and all Registered Training Organisations - RTOs) are
required to construct our teaching around.

These NTPs are meant to standardise the training for all the Vocational
Training and Education courses across the country (and I think NZ uses
similar / the same) so that I can do a Certificate IV in, say, Qld, and
then use that as entry to a Diploma in Vic. and then use that as entry
to an Advanced Dip. in WA.

Needless to say, in the "real world" it doesn't quite work like that,
even within the same state - or city - or TAFE Institute. And it most
certainly doesn't work that way between Commercial RTOs and TAFE. The
Commercial RTOs are (quite rightly) interested in getting the students
through as quickly as possible meeting the "minimum requirements" of the
Training Package. That's why you can do a Cert IV in less than a month
with them, whereas it takes 6 or 12 months in TAFE. Of course, at TAFE
many of us teach 'above and beyond' the TP, as we realise that students
need *more* to actually be useful in the workplace.

It's one reason why my Teaching Section has so many "WorldSkills
Champions" - including a Gold Medalist from the International
Competition.

> 
> If the Australian IT industry [2] feels that TAFE courses are not relevant 
> to what the industry wants then they should work with the TAFE people to 
> change the courses.
> 

It is (supposedly) the 'IT Industry' that writes the Training
Package(s). So they are the 'driving force' behind what is decreed to be
taught in all RTOs.

The main problem I see, is that many of these people, if they were ever
in IT, are either top level managers who never see the inside of a
computer / get their hands dirty programming / whatever anymore, or are
people who read about is once in a magazine, or watched "Electric
Dreams" once and are now qualified to write the Training Packages for
IT.

> Here are some links for NSW, I'm sure other states will have similar.
> 
> https://www.tafensw.edu.au/about/course_dev.htm
> https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/industryprograms/directorate.htm
> 

Indeed, but they too, are constrained by the National Training Package.
Any Curriculum they produce *must* comply with the Package.

hope this explains some of the constraints we work with - there is more,
but I don't want to frighten you... too much ;')

.h

-- 

harry [at] woodward-clarke [dot] com
imago Dei in quolibet hominé inveniartur