In many countries within Europe as well as Anglophone counties including Australia and Canada, public-private partnerships have emerged as a dominant theme in public policy (Robertson, 2012) in a social environment increasingly characterised by networks (Ball & Juneman, 2012, Lakes and Burns, 2012). In the context of school education, industry-school partnerships (ISPs) have been adopted as a solution to two main problems. First, they have been regarded curriculum leaders as a mechanism for engaging students in learning by making the curriculum authentic, practical and relevant to life beyond schools (Harreveld & Singh, 2009). Second, ISPs have been established as a means for managing transitions from school to employment or further training, particularly for the growing numbers of non-university bound young people increasingly held in schools until they complete Year 12 or its equivalent (Hay 2009, Kapitzke & Hay, 2011).

In 2006, the Queensland Government embarked on a large-scale industry school partnership (ISP) initiative called the Gateway to Industry Schools Program (Queensland Government, 2012). This program involves over around 130 schools from three different education sectors (state, catholic and independent) located across Queensland. It aims to partner schools with businesses associated with one of six key industry clusters. Accordingly, ISP clusters have been established in Minerals and Energy, Building and Construction, Wine Tourism, Aerospace, Manufacturing and Engineering and Agribusiness.

This paper is one outcome of an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage project[1] conducted between 2011-2014 focused on Queensland’s Gateway to Industry Schools Program that aimed to theorise ISPs as teaching and learning networks and identify mechanisms through which partnerships mediate outcomes including student learning and transitions from schooling to employment. The project, which included detailed empirical investigations of ISPs established in 20 schools, was guided by the following research questions:

1. What organisational and institutional elements of industry-school partnerships contribute to productive knowledge sharing and networking?

2. In what ways do partnerships impact on factors affecting student learning outcomes such as curriculum, pedagogical practices, school leadership, teacher quality, and authentic learning?

This paper reports summary findings of that project. It examines aspects of effective school industry partnerships identified by comparing partnership arrangements in different schools within the same industry cluster (e.g., minerals and energy) and partnerships across each of the industry sectors. It synthesises those findings drawing on previously reported studies dealing with the characteristics of successful ISPs.

Analysis of the literature revealed that determining what constitutes “effective” SIPs is problematic. Multiple conceptualisations of partnerships exist in the literature (Bovaird, 2004; Cardini 2006; Dewulf, Blanken & Bult-Spiering, 2012; Haque, 2004; Robertson et al., 2012; Smith & Wohlstetter, 2006). Moreover, ISPs specifically may be entered into by stakeholders for a wide range of purposes and objectives. Rather than attempting, a priori, to define the characteristics of successful ISPs from existing literature, these were identified for the purposes of the project, based on stakeholders perceptions of whether and to what extent the partnership was meeting its stated or implied partnership objectives (Kilpatrick & Guenther, 2003). Thus, in the case of Gateway Schools, success of the partnership was gauged in terms of whether the partnership stakeholders (including students) reported tangible outcomes with respect to assisting young people’s transitions from schooling to employment or further training either by incorporating industry relevant curriculum, and/or opportunities for work-integrated learning (WIL) or workplace training. The study found that, despite the diversity inherent in partnership arrangements, general characteristics of successful partnerships can be identified that may assist policy makers and school leaders in establishing or maintaining ISPs.

[1] Linkage Project Grant LP LP100200052 in collaboration with the Queensland Department of Education and Training, Education Queensland, and Independent Schools Queensland.

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