Optimising Australia’s conceptually confused National Training System: One economic option for post-market vocational education and training

As the successful implementation of competitive VET markets enters into a predictable decline trajectory, it is incumbent upon policy makers to consider post-market options. This article explores the potential of optimising the notional national training system. In order to understand how this might be achieved, a discourse analysis of selected maps of the intended system from points of discontinuity along the policy trail is undertaken to demonstrate how Australian executive federalism has produced VET policy for the past three
decades. This process exposes the existence of multiple realities that can be simultaneously experienced which, in turn, creates conceptual confusion as to what VET is and what is expected of it. By understanding the power of discourses to bring into existence the things they describe and how this activity is conducted, it becomes possible to contemplate future directions in the development of public policies for vocational education and training.