Trading in a state-created TVET market: The regulatory intersection of social enterprise, charity and philanthropy

In recognition of the contested nature of developing methods to consistently identify and classify social enterprises, this paper describes one approach that relies upon cross-referencing large data sets. These empirical statistics are generated by a variety of agencies that regulate a very specific market for the delivery of technical and vocational education and training. The creation and maturation of this specific market has corresponded with major studies into the operations of social enterprises in Australia. Instead of attempting to describe features of social enterprises that trade in a variety of markets, this research first
identifies a very specific market and then interrogates the information recorded in various regulatory data bases to determine the characteristics of the organisations that operate in the market. The results identify consistent interactions between charity status, the relative role of philanthropy and the type of organisations that meet the local definition of social enterprise. While the limits of this method are acknowledged, it is shown that in a highly regulated market for the delivery of outsourced government services a reliable indicator of
social enterprise can be made operational.