This paper is a research, work-in-progress, account of stakeholder valuing of an award winning Vocational Education and Training (VET) initiative. The research is undertaken against a background that institutional ethnography inquiry reveals an Australian VET system which focuses upon strengthening human capital with seemingly little regard for building social capital as defined in this paper and embracing social cohesion strengthened through education. In comparison, the Deaf Community for whom the initiative was developed and delivered is highly social capital orientated – as demonstrated by institutional ethnographic inquiry.    

In September 2010, the delivery of the TAA40104 Certificate IV in Training and Assessment in Auslan (Australian Sign Language) won the 2010 Victorian Training Initiative of the Year Award and was subsequently a finalist in the 2010 National Training Awards. This initiative was developed and delivered by the Centre of Excellence for Students Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing (hosted by Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE).  As in any two languages, Auslan and English do not have a one to one equivalence for lexical terms for many concepts. The Certificate IV was redeveloped and tailored to the needs of the client group. The learners were taught to “unpack” the complex English of the Training Package and to re-frame it in “plain” English. This customisation was required to meet the rigorous standards of the Australian Quality Training Framework and presented a considerable challenge. Learners were identified from the VET sector (teachers of Auslan) and from the deafness sector (trainers).

The juxtaposition of a seemingly VET human capital orientated entity and a seemingly Deaf Community social capital orientated entity (yielding a VET System award winning outcome) gives hope that VET in Australia may turn away from what is perceived as a narrowing focus upon training to the exclusion of education – the “E” part of VET having declined almost to the point of invisibility. It is this prospect of VET In Australia returning to balance between valuing human capital outcomes and social capital outcomes which gives rise to an Activity Theory informed pursuit of the research question – What is the human/social capital boundary crossing tool which has acted to bring about this partnership between the Australian VET system and the Deaf Community?  And taking a wider view, there is the prospect that the boundary crossing tool may have a generic utility across the Australian VET system and beyond in cultures of similar community tradition. In particular, as there is connection to lifelong learning, there is connection to the European Community Lifelong Learning Programme – drawing from and adding to.

It is also pertinent to the next phase of our enquiry – the search for the tool – that the Centre of Excellence was also acknowledged by winning the Victorian VET Client Service /Support Excellence Award. When coupled with the training programme award, this is an outstanding multiple VET acknowledgement of value beyond just the-job focus. It adds to the validity of pursuing the research question.

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