Franchising can unlock the potential of labour market, if it got its act together...

Over 1000 franchisors are responsible for developing business management and operational capabilities to over 69,000 current franchisees yet this enormous potential for VET education mostly goes unnoticed.

Coven has been claiming for some time that the Australian franchise sector is one of the nation's largest, yet unrecognised, providers of vocational education and training. Yet, franchise systems remain disconnected from the Vocational Education and Training [VET] sector.

This lack of engagement is no doubt due to the issues and challenges outlined in Skills Australia's recent report.

We strongly supports the recommendations outlined in Skill's Australia Skills for Prosperity - A Roadmap for Vocational Education and Training report and seizes the opportunity to outline its relevance to the Australian franchise sector.

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.

One of our recent research studies found 25% of surveyed franchise stakeholders indicated that it is 'irrelevant' if franchisees receive a nationally recognised qualification.

From our experience within Australian franchise systems, the training efforts are varied and the mindset needs to shift. 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.

The call to action to the franchise sector includes:

— Franchise systems aligning their training programs with units of competency and qualifications under the Australian Qualifications Framework to help drive workforce participation and productivity challenges [Skills for prosperity: Recommendation 1]

—  Franchise systems ensuring that employees with educational touch points with franchisees hold Certificate IV in Training and Assessment and be able to work unsupervised with franchisees by the end of 2011 [Skills for prosperity: Recommendation 14]

— Franchisees from non-English speaking backgrounds [NESB] and business migrants are on the rise throughout most franchise systems. Franchise systems should challenge their assumptions regarding cultural business practices, language and literacy capabilities and how they are addressed throughout training [Skills for prosperity: Recommendation 19]

— Franchise systems submitting themselves to external examination of how they assess prospective franchisee capability and conduct ongoing competency assessments for current franchisees [Skills for prosperity: Recommendation 13]

—  Franchise systems further integrating eLearning strategies into their learning package so to optimise outcomes, workplace performance and maximise the significant ITC investment often made by franchisors and franchisees [Skills for prosperity: Recommendation 18]

—  Franchise systems conducting a robust review of any external Registered Training Organisations partnership arrangements to determine improved quality outcomes, transparent assessment practices and improved availability of data on performance [Skills for prosperity: Recommendation 16]

— Franchisees are well placed to support a stronger VET in Schools initiative if they had greater understanding of the value to their own business and greater engagement with local schools and VET providers [Skills for prosperity: Recommendation 21]

Independent of the reforms outlined by Skills Australia, 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.