Practice and Policy Implications for CET: A Systemic Approach

To achieve the kind of goals demanded of an effective continuing education and training (CET) system requires a systematic approach that is inclusive of the efforts of government, workplaces, communities and working age adults. That is, on their own the efforts of individuals, education institutions or workplaces will be inadequate to generate a system that supports the ongoing development of working age adults. This includes sustaining the viability of the enterprises in which they work and collectively the nation states in which they reside. That is, an interdependence amongst the agency, effort and contributions of individuals, workplaces, educational institutions and communities is required. This chapter reports and discusses key findings from the review of literature and national case study that collectively offer contributions to and advances about how the provision of CET might proceed. They suggest that this provision needs to encompass and accommodate a range of stakeholders, perspectives and needs. This includes those of working age adults, employers, educators and administrators in CET, and governmental imperatives, to enhance and maximize the effectiveness of CET provisions and the various subsystems within which these provisions are enacted. Thus, seeking to identify and elaborate a systematic provision of CET is a constructive way to draw together these findings of the review and the practical investigation. This approach permits each element of a CET system to be addressed, not just as individual elements, but systematically, as a set of interdependent elements. Such a systematic approach is also helpful for eliminating and elaborating the complexity of CET provisions—as a system whose purposes and outcomes are shaped by its settings, rules, roles, and actors. So, this chapter seeks to illuminate and advance how CET provisions might be enacted through a systematic approach to promote employability. It addresses three key issues central to identifying what constitutes effective CET provisions. These are: i) the need to align elements of CET provisions ultimately with their intended educational outcomes for working adults, and by corollary, national social and economic goals; ii) avoiding individual elements of the CET system being viewed in isolation or reductively; and iii) the need for any change in the CET system to be inherently both collaborative and engaging partners comprising adults, workplaces, education institutions and communities.