In an earlier posting I reported on an evaluation I conducted of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC, UK) trainee schemes in early 2004. As part of that evaluation, a benchmarking activity was undertaken with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), comparing its experiences with trainee schemes with the BBC’s experiences. Some points from the study of the ABC follow.

Over the last two decades the ABC has conducted entry-level workbased trainee schemes, combining paid work and structured training, irregularly: the last major intake was in the mid 1980s, when a total of around 20 operational trainees and 10 technical trainees were taken on in TV and radio. Smaller intakes have been accepted since then and graduate-level trainee schemes have been conducted even less consistently.

Jenny Ferber, Head of Training at the ABC, and who approved this posting, has encouraged discussion of the issues around trainees within the ABC, originally tabling a discussion paper. Currently she is leading the development of a new policy on the matter. The new policy is expected to suggest more efficient processes, such as common reporting and linking all trainee schemes, where possible, to the national qualifications.

Jenny Ferber is supportive of national qualifications for a number of reasons, including the fact that they ensure a minimum but satisfactory and consistent standard. However, she will withdraw her support if the national qualifications framework, particularly Training Packages, fails to ‘keep up’ with changes in the industry.

Key findings from the benchmarking included the following:

• There are many more similarities between the ABC and BBC trainee schemes than differences.  Key similarities include the needs such as replacing existing staff; hindrances such as a lack of jobs for every trainee; a commitment to diversity; and the use of internal accreditation.
• Some differences between the ABC and the BBC include the stronger commitment to national qualifications by the ABC – provided the Australian national training framework remains current.
• The ABC is undertaking a review of its trainee schemes in 2004 and will produce a new policy paper shortly. Like the BBC, the ABC intends that its new policy will clarify the value of different types of schemes and will ensure consistently high standards of outputs, partly through central coordination of some aspects of the schemes.

Given the way it is continually seeking to improve itself, the ABC meets the criterion for a high-performing organisation that I identified in relation to the BBC: humility. In the case of the ABC, humility means continually seeking to improve systems and impacts.

This study reinforces a number of other issues current in VET:

• The BBC is benchmarking with the ABC because the UK and Australia are both part of the global economy.
• For Australian companies to be on the pace internationally, our training needs to be world-class.
• Training in the ABC is comparable in quality to the BBC, which is encouraging for Australian VET, but the ABC, like the BBC, is seeking to improve its training even further. The high jump bar for Australian training keeps rising.