VET Manager identities: Culture, philosophy and professional practice

Using a post-structural approach this article investigates the working lives of frontline managers in VET and how they negotiate change in their day to day practices and decision making. The article is organised around accounts made by managers from different types of Vocational Education and Training (VET) organisations, namely: Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institutions, Group Training Organisations (GTO), Registered Training Organisations (RTO), RTO and Adult Community Education (ACE) joint organisations and stand alone ACE organisations. The data showed that most managers were experiencing change, albeit in different ways across their diverse VET organisations and roles. Managers were seen to understand and respond to the discourses of reform differently, depending on their organisational type, culture and philosophical beliefs, and according to their understandings of their professional role and status.