E-learning delivers access to critical social housing training

A strong, effective social housing system is crucial for reducing homelessness, according to The Road Home, the Australian Government’s 2008 White Paper on homelessness.

The Paper sets ambitious targets for reducing homelessness until 2020, including halving overall homelessness and offering supported accommodation to all rough sleepers who need it. Its strategy to achieve these goals positions social housing at the forefront of the national social policy agenda by calling for improved services to prevent homelessness.

However, the social housing system faces a significant barrier to improvement; up-skilling and re-training existing workers and training new employees was never going to be easy in an industry characterised by long working hours, large workloads, immediacy of client needs, isolated workplaces, and a lack of funding for training opportunities.

The national training system’s e-learning strategy, the Australian Flexible Learning Framework (Framework) saw that one way to overcome these challenges would be to improve vocational pathways for social housing workers. Since 2009, the Framework has provided multiple year Industry Integration of E-learning funding to help ensure that consistent, quality training is available to the community housing industry sector nationally.

This funding has been provided to the NSW Federation of Housing Associations (NSWFHA) in partnership with TAFE NSW Western Sydney Institute (WSI). Together, these organisations are working to develop and implement e-learning solutions to help overcome workforce development challenges faced by the community housing industry sector.

This is an area of very real need. For example, prior to 2010, the Diploma in Social Housing was not delivered by any Australian registered training organisation. This meant that, aside from completing a university degree, it was next to impossible for managers in the social housing sector to access the higher level skills they needed to meet the increasing demands of their jobs.

To address the workforce development challenge of access to training, with WSI’s assistance, NSWFHA has successfully developed, piloted and is now delivering all units in the Certificate IV and Diploma of Social Housing online– helping to circumvent a possible impending skills shortage among middle and senior managers in the social housing sector.

One organisation currently delivering the Diploma of Social Housing via e-learning is Yilli Rreung Housing Aboriginal Corporation (YRHAC) in the Northern Territory. Derek Mayger, a YRHAC employee, reported that e-learning is making training a more accessible and engaging experience.

Derek said that the anywhere, anytime convenience of e-learning – being able to listen to lectures on podcasts or participate in online discussion forums at a time that suits the learner – can be motivating and help to overcome the barrier of isolation for learners in regional and remote areas.

And despite reduced face-to-face contact, Derek said there’s still a personal aspect to e-learning.

“People are not computers and study is dynamic. Your commitment and engagement changes over time so it’s important that learning is designed to keep the learner engaged,” Derek said.

“I’ve found that there are fewer barriers to participation in e-learning—people aren’t as shy in online forums and chat rooms as they are in face-to-face lectures and tutorials. You’re not expecting an immediate answer in a discussion forum, which allows people to give more thoughtful, considered responses.”

Derek also said that e-learning can provide greater flexibility within training and open up pathways to further study: “People who don’t think they have the skills to undertake formal study discover that they can.”

The Framework’s work with the social housing industry sector is just one example of how e-learning is supporting workforce development on a national scale.

According to a report recently released by the Flexible Learning Advisory Group (FLAG)*, entitled Enabling workforce development **, if the right conditions exist, e-learning can help to overcome barriers to workforce development arising from access to educational facilities and resources, motivation to engage with training and experience of education (negative legacies of past education experiences).

The report indicates that increased investment in workforce development by industry will be critical for enterprises and the economy. It not only highlights the important role that e-learning can play, but is a valuable resource to help business and industry understand which workforce development challenges e-learning is best suited to.

For information about this and other industry e-learning projects, visit the E-learning for Industry website at: http://industry.flexiblelearning.net.au. This website provides rich resources, such as an online Practical guide to e-learning where businesses can discover how to make e-learning work in their organisation.

* FLAG is an advisory group of the National Senior Officials Committee (NSOC). FLAG is the key policy advisory group on national directions and priorities for information and communication technologies (ICT) in VET and adult and community education, and manages the implementation of the Australian Flexible Learning Framework.
** The Enabling workforce development: Insights from industries using e-learning (report was prepared by) the University of Sydney’s Workplace Research Centre on behalf of FLAG.

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Published on 12/05/2011