The franchise sector needs to get its act together when it comes to workplace learning.
Is workplace learning in franchsing underdone? Pic: www.stoyko.net
That's the view of a franchising academic who believes the
franchising industry is missing opportunities in vocational education.
Julia Camm of Corven, an education research and consulting firm, has
put out a call to action to the franchise sector which she claims is
one of the nation's biggest but unrecognised providers of vocational
education.
More than 1,000 franchisors around Australia are responsible for
developing business management and operational capabilities to over
69,000 franchisees. But the relevance of workplace learning is often
overlooked, believes Camm.
Research conducted by Corven showed 25 percent of franchise
stakeholders surveyed believed it irrelevant if franchisees achieve a
nationally recognised qualification.
Franchise disconnect
"Franchise sectors remain disconnected from the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector," said Camm.
"VET practices in franchising are predominately informal, intuitive
or ignored; resulting in significant variations in trainer, program
content and assessment quality. This clearly indicates that the value
of VET is neither completely understood nor harnessed," said Camm.
"This is the time for the franchise sector to demonstrate its
agility and commitment to education and training by ramping up its VET
efforts to a level of best practice."
Recommendations
Camm strongly supports the recommendations outlined in Skill's Australia report, Skills for Prosperity - A Roadmap for Vocational Education and Training.
"While we recommend the VET sector increases its engagement with the
franchise sector, franchising has the opportunity to get its act
together to meet some of the recommendations of the report at least
half way," she said.
* To read the call to action and highlighted recommendations, see Corven's blog.