Collaborating for success: a case study of Victorian TAFE International as a community of practice

Victorian TAFE International (VTI) has been in existence for 10 years as a network of managers of international programs in TAFE Institutes and dual sector universities in Victoria. This paper examines VTI’s journey from a loose network of practitioners engaging in professional development meetings to working collaboratively as a genuine community of practice. In 2008 VTI made a commitment to collaborative partnerships and embarked on projects which required sharing across organisational boundaries in a manner which could be construed as antithetical to the notion of competition in the education market place and which had the potential to lay members open to charges of disloyalty to their employers and to the competitive model itself. The paper analyses data from interviews and surveys of VTI members in 2009 to highlight issues arising from the complexity of developing collaborative models of practice across organisational boundaries among competitive entities. Specifically it will explore issues around maintaining loyalty to one’s employer whilst also: sharing experience; intellectual property rights; gaining agreement to action from all members; facing the fear of sharing with peers and being found wanting; the impact of co-operation at manager level on organisational hierarchies; and lessons learned in challenging the primacy of the competitive model. It concludes that it is a difficult path to take and that there is a price to pay for working co-operatively across organisational boundaries. But ultimately, the research findings suggest that outcomes for international students are improved by a collaborative approach and the deepening of personal relationships that occur through collaborative effort, enhances learning within the network.

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