New Technology and Sustainable Development in Automotive Industry - Research Paper Example

New Technology and Sustainable Development in Automotive Industry Driving Change Vocational Education Teaching (VET) 1. Introduction The Australian automotive industry includes different sectors providing jobs for almost four hundred thousand people and contributing to around thirty-five billion dollars to Australia’s GDP. More importantly, the industry plays an important role in supporting other industries including the country’s national defence (ASA, 2012, p.6). However, due to the rapid changes in motor vehicle design and introduction of new manufacturing technologies, the industry is now facing shortage of relevant of skills to meet the demands of new technologies. These include additional technicians with adequate knowledge and skills in repairing and servicing trucks being used in the booming mining industry, vehicle body building, electronics, and others. Consultations conducted with the industry suggest that aside from lack of basic literacy and numeracy skills, workers produced by current VET system is not consistent with automotive industry requirements in terms of knowledge, competency, and capability. Moreover, the industry is also concern about the career choices of those who were guided by school career advisers towards automotive trades irrespective of suitability and desire. Another is vocational schools misunderstanding of the industry’s actual needs particularly in working with modern vehicles requiring knowledge in maths, science, and IT skills (ASA, 2012, p.14). The issues are further complicated by the fact that while the industry is voicing out their concern over the poor quality and outdated training being delivered within VET, training providers see their role as mere teachers of underpinning skills and knowledge. Moreover, they also believed that specific training should be provided by manufacturers or employers as providers do not have the equipment and technology with them (ASA, 2012, p.15). For this reason, changes and improvements in national vocational training is necessary particularly in training packages that can provide competencies specific to modern vehicles, qualifications that is more aligned with the actual job roles in the industry, and foundation skills programs that is well suited for the automotive industry. 2. Literature Review The Australian automotive industry plays an important role in the country’s economy as aside from being one of the most competitive in the world, it provides employment to around 386,000 people. 37% of these workers are in repair and maintenance, 17.5% in retail, and 13.5% in manufacturing. The Australian automotive industry generates around $209.3 billion for 2009-2010 which is approximately 2.7% of the Australian economy. About 53% of all automotive businesses in Australia are small businesses employing between 1 to 19 employees and as shown in figures below, the industry is present in all states and consistently providing employment for thousands of people. Figure 1 - Employment by Sector and State from 2010-2011 (ASA, 2012) Figure 2 - Employment by selected occupations (ASA, 2012) New technologies are quickly transforming traditional motor vehicle from mere mode of transport into an intelligent, intuitive, and rechargeable device which according to ASA or Auto Skills Australia will change the condition of the automotive industry and directly impact the skills required by people working in the industry particularly those that are in the service and repair sectors (ASA, 2012). For instance, due to the mining and resource boom in Queensland, Western Australia, and Northern Territory, demands for trucks is expected to grow and therefore require technicians with skills to service and repair this type of vehicles (ASA, 2012, p.9). However, as reported in ASA’s E-SCAN, a report about the condition and needs of the automotive industry, about 43.5 % of automotive apprentices and trainees withdraw from their training because knowledge and skills they gained from VET is not consistent with industry requirements. For instance, modern vehicles often used sophisticated computerised engine engagement, fuel injection systems, and brake technologies demanding technicians with math, science, and IT skills but VET training according to automotive business owners is often outdated and does not reflect the needs of the industry (ASA, 2012, p.15). The Council of Australian Governments or COAG believed that skills and qualifications of the workforce are critical to the success of businesses and Australia’s economic growth thus continuous reform in the Vocational Education and Training Sector is required. Since VET forms a large part of country’s education system and Australia’s economy is undergoing critical change as a result of the mining boom and introduction of new technologies, further reforms in VET is necessary. These include high quality training, investing on new training centres, reducing upfront cost so students can take higher level qualifications, provide more training options, monitoring of providers against national standards, education based on occupation or employment, provide better pathways between high school outcomes and careers in motor vehicle, and encourage acquisition of higher qualifications such as those requiring 4 to 5 years of education (COAG, 2012:1). Building better pathways is the core of the Australian Curriculum as providing young Australians with foundation for their future learning, growth, and active participation in the community can help them become productive members of the Australian society. As discussed earlier, providing better pathways from school to career in an industry demand teaching and learning of specific knowledge and skills which in this case are possible career paths for people who are aiming to grow with the automotive industry and acquire skills necessary for higher-level jobs. Offering and providing training packages that are based on employment and skills that clearly reflect the defined job roles in the industry (ASA, 2012, p.32). Some of the identified workforce development needs in the automotive industry that are relevant to VET include training packages in automotive manufacturing, retail, service, and repair, industry-specific units of competency aligned to occupations across sectors, and development of qualifications and skill sets. For instance, responding to the needs of the automotive industry, ASA developed Certificate IV in Vehicle Loss Assessing, Certificate III in Automotive Engine Reconditioning, Hybrid Electric Vehicle Inspection and Servicing Skill Set, and others resulting to considerable reforms in automotive training packages being offered within VET and other skills development that reflect contemporary job roles and career paths. However, this does not necessarily mean that training for older technologies will be totally eliminated because these technologies will remain active for many years after the introduction of new technology. Therefore, restructuring in VET’S automotive training packages should focus on capturing both current and emerging technology and ensure that older technology is still reflected on qualifications. More importantly, VET providers should be able to advise potential industry entrants about the contemporary industry practices and describe the industry positively in order to attract new labour and reduce skills shortage due to movement of labour to other high-paying sectors (ASA, 2012, p.16). 3. Research Methodology 3.1 Introduction The introduction of new technologies in the automotive industry result to shortage of skills necessary to work on modern vehicles. It is therefore critical for VET to update and improve their training packages particularly in areas relevant to the current trend and requirements in the industry. However, although it is somewhat clear that new technologies in the automotive industry is driving change in VET, the new training requirements is not specifically provided particularly in the competencies required to effectively work in the industry. Moreover, it is also not clear how training providers will teach or train students on new equipment and technologies if they do not have the technology or resources at hand. These and other issues such as establishing a common perspective among employers and providers must be resolve in order to successfully implement changes in VET. Since existing literature cannot provide detailed description of specific requirements of a particular industry sector, this research is proposing an investigation of four different businesses in the automotive industry engaged in “Repair and Servicing” and current automotive training packages offered by at least three VET providers using two different method of research – Case Study Method and Research Literature Review. Depending on the needs, research commonly employ either quantitative (survey) or qualitative (interviews, observations, and so on) as they are both useful in researching business organisations. According to Myers (2008), quantitative research is more suitable to research using large sample size and intended to generalise a certain phenomena in large population. For instance, it is useful in finding trends or patterns and analysing statistical data. However, quantitative research has a disadvantage of treating social and cultural aspects of organisations as “noise” or irrelevant. In contrast, qualitative research is in-depth, well-suited for exploratory research, and ideal for studying the social, cultural and political aspect of people and organisations. Although it is nearly impossible to generalise from a sample to a population in this type of research, it can sufficiently generalise a few case study (p.9). Some of the advantages of qualitative method of research that may be helpful in completing the proposed study are its ability to obtain a detailed understanding of a person, event, or phenomenon. It provides the opportunity to study a certain phenomena in the natural environments. It is flexible as allow use of different data collection method and does not require significant resource to implement. More importantly, it is helpful in understanding unusual or exceptional situations such as the changes occurring in the automotive industry and its impact on VET (Houser, 1998, p.39). Qualitative research include set of research methods and this include the Case Study Research Method which according to Neergaard & Ulhoi (2007) is an approach using cases as object of the study (p.141). Aside from the five main methods such as observation, interviewing, ethnographic fieldwork, discourse analysis, and textual analysis qualitative method of research allow use of case study method particularly in works aimed at finding an answer to specific questions. Unlike ethnography, case study research methods use a blend of qualitative methods and sometimes employ several quantitative approaches (Buchanan & Bryman, 2009, p.467). According to Bryman & Bell (2007), the “case” in this method is an object of interest that the researcher attempt to elucidate the unique features. It is not confined to a single case and multiple case studies are often undertaken to compare and contrast cases in order to find uniqueness and commonalities between cases (p.64) which this study is proposing to do. However, it is important to note that like any other research methods, the case study method of research has its own limitations and these include errors in generalisation arising from selecting atypical cases, bias in interpretation of observations or data collection, providing more attention to data that support the theory and ignoring the data that invalidate the theory (Jackson, 2010, p.102). Another is the complexity of cases that can make analysis difficult resulting to tendencies to make everything appears relevant and showing connections that are actually disconnected (Baxter et al, 2006, p.74). Mustafa (2008) also provided some insights on the limitations of the case study method and in particular citing the lack objectivity in the analysis of case data that in the end may lead to unwarranted conclusions. Another is overconfidence where the research tends to assume that he knows everything about the issue and fail to recognise the hidden but important aspect of the case. Another is quantification of results as case study method is essentially qualitative in nature and does not require statistics (p.23). For this reason, care must be taken and data should be interpreted for what they are or accept data regardless of contradiction and being unrepresentative of individuals, groups, settings, or events. The Case Study Method will be use to investigate four existing automotive businesses engaging in modern vehicle repair and servicing. Application of case study method according to Green et al, (2006) is more appropriate when the researcher want to address descriptive or explanatory questions (p.112). For instance, what are the skills required of vehicle repair and servicing businesses? or What is lacking with existing skills? and so on). It is also useful for researchers needing to get in-depth and first hand information about a particular situation (Green et al, 2006, p.112). For instance, how lack of skills in computerised engine or brake management can actually affect the success of the repair and servicing business. Although it may be appropriate to use qualitative methods (i.e. survey, interviews, observations, and so on) in this kind of study, investigating four different businesses in different parts of Australia is undoubtedly time consuming and extremely expensive. Some advantages of case study research method according to Blaxter et al. (2006) include the reality that data is drawn from people experience and practices rather than opinion of others. It allows generalizations of specific instance and provides opportunity for researchers to show the complexity of social life, explore alternative meanings and interpretations. It can provide data source that can be used for future research and since case studies build on actual practices and experiences, it can significantly contribute to change (p.74). Note that the case study method is also qualitative in nature and according to Jackson (2011, p.87), a researcher who is interested in finding the workings of individuals, groups, social settings, or events and revealing the truth should use this method. This is because like other qualitative method of research, the case study method also includes a full set of procedures including design, data collection, data analysis, and presentation and reporting of results (Yin, 2011, p.5). It can accommodate a single or multiple cases, particularistic in the sense that it can focus on particular situation, event, program, or phenomenon, a method that is heuristic as it helps people understand the subject being studied, and inductive in nature as uses inductive reasoning in generalising data and uncovering both old and new relationship (Wimmer & Dominick, 2011, p.141). Moreover, the case study method has a number of advantages over other qualitative approaches in research and these include the amount of detail that can be extracted from a particular case study and the opportunity to deal with a wide range of evidence such as articles, documents, historical artefacts, systematic interviews and so on (Wimmer & Dominick, 2011,p.142). The literature review on the other hand will be use to investigate the existing training packages for the automotive industry being offered by different VET providers in Australia. According to Blaxter et al, (2006), a research literature review is a systematic, explicit, and reproducible method for examining the existing body of completed work produced by other researchers (p.122). This type of research method bases its conclusion on the original research and support evidence-based practice (Fink, 2010, p.3). It can also provide this study with the opportunity to evaluate, analyse, and compare facts and to gain complete knowledge of existing practices and problems areas in VET (Krishaswamy et al, 2009, p.77). 3.2 Data Collection Literature in research methods mention five distinct stages –design, pilot study, data collection, data analysis, and report writing. This study design according to Wimmer & Dominick (2011) is actually formulation of research questions appropriate for the study. The pilot study on the other hand is creating a set of procedure or study protocol such a list describing the procedures to be use in the study, data gathering instruments, methods of accessing records and other information, and other activities associated with research. Like other research method, data collection in case study method make use of data sources that is rich in information about the topic such as documents containing statistical data, policy and procedures, strategies and techniques, and other information that can help the researcher better understand the phenomenon (p.142). Since the purpose of case study is expanding knowledge of a particular phenomena, data can be quantitative or qualitative (Fitzpatrick, 2006, p.62). According to Fitzpatrick (2006), researchers using the case study method should use multiple sources of data which in this case are different documents from four different vehicle repair and services around Australia (p.62). Following recommended practices in case study method, the study proposes to collect case study materials from different automotive business website specialising in repair and servicing in Australia. Retrieval of study materials for both Case Study Method and Research Literature Review will be based on the following criteria: The materials should authored by business owner (provider for VET) or authorised representative It should contain relevant and up-to-date information about their recruitment policies and skills requirements (training packages for VET). Retrieved documents will be again examined and selected based on the following criteria: It should contain enough information to enable comparison It should contain detailed information on the knowledge and skills required (specific literacy for VET) The selection criteria created by this study is guided by recommended practices and precautions to avoid bias and inconsistencies. For instance, to avoid bias, the study bear in mind that cases should be selected based on their value rather than outcome. Cases must be selected not because they have similarities with existing theories but for their value and consistency in fulfilling the requirements of proposed research (Klenke, 2008, p.64). 3.3 Data Analysis In analysing data that may be gathered using the above proposed data collection method, this study method will use pattern matching, an analytical tool commonly use in Case Study Method where patterns are compared with one or more predicted patterns. For instance, if there is a consensus between automotive businesses owners that workers lack the necessary skills to work with modern vehicles then it should match the pattern in actual situation otherwise such attributed should be questioned (Wimmer & Dominick, 2011, p.144). According to Marschan-Piekkari & Welch (2004), the logic behind pattern matching is establishing a relationship between events in a manner that they can be called a unified system. For instance, patterns emerging from single cases are compared to each other and to patterns described in the existing literature (p.130). In other words, pattern matching check whether a certain outcome is absent in the observed pattern (Mills, 2010, p. 665) and explore whether or not the pattern of a case matches the pattern predicted by a theory (Lange, 2012, p.53). Document analysis will enable this study to process information directly relevant to the case study topic. According to Wimmer & Dominick (2011), data that are obtained from the industry documents (manufacturing industry for instance) such collective bargaining agreements, salary figures, legal journals, and state regulations concerning the industry often yield more credible and reliable information. For this reason, the study during the data collection stage created a set of criteria to ensure that all documents contain relevant and valuable information (p.143). In this case, these are specific skills requirements for new recruits, details of training packages from VET, and others. The comparative analysis on the other hand will be presented in a table as showing the skills requirements of four repair and servicing businesses. Pattern matching technique will be then applied by highlighting all similarities in green and dissimilarities in red. In this manner, similar practices and variations can be easily identified and examined straightforwardly. 3.4 Data Presentation The data presentation method will follow the suggestion mentioned earlier for case study methods and these include tables, graphs, and illustration. However, in order to clearly identify which skills is more in demand or less required a graph showing frequency of application may be presented separately. 4. Limitations and Ethical Considerations The proposed study is limited by the research methodology selected and as mentioned care will be taken to ensure that the inherent weaknesses of case study method will not affect the reliability of the research. This in particular is avoiding errors in case selection and bias arising from researcher’s own personal interpretation of data. Although it may be difficult as it involve significant amount of work, the proposed research will be conducted in a manner consistent with the recommended procedures as outlined in the data collection and analysis sections. This in particular is following the formulated criteria for data collection and recommended pattern matching technique for data analysis. In terms of ethics in research, this proposal from the very beginning consider the ethical implications of certain research procedures such as interview and avoid direct contact with the people involved. This is the reason why despite availability other qualitative research methods; the study selected the case study method of research which in most part deals with documents gathering and analysis. However, the proposed research still consider the possibility of ethical problems arising from presentation of data thus considering use of alternative names such as Company A, B, C, D to represent the automotive repair and servicing business or Provider A, B, C, D, and so on to represent the real-life service providers. Note that although investigation of businesses and VET service providers around Australia only involves documents, data from these documents may yield certain information critical to a particular organisation (for instance, incompliance, inequality in hiring, and so on) and therefore an ethical issue. The study therefore, will be very cautious and conduct the research in the most professional manner as possible to avoid any ethical problems associated with research. 5. Timeline Activities Weeks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Writing Proposal Submission of Proposal Data Collection Data Analysis Findings and Results Writing the Dissertation Draft Submission Final Submission 6. 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