This FMI originated in the Report of the Industry Task Force and Leadership Skills, Enterprising Nation chaired by David Karpin in 1995 and was identified as one of great priority for Australian policy makers and something that would be of practical benefit to management development perceived as sadly lacking in Australia. The Report was prepared for then Minister Crean, a Cabinet Minister of the Keating Governement and this may have proven to be its achilles heel in the present Canberra environment. David Karpin was one of Australia’s expert management practioners based in Melbourne, his policy credentials, were judged excellent by the Federal Government of the day. The initiative was important because it was aimed at improving the competency of the many managers, who were outside top management and big corporate settings, whose responsibilities can nevertheless be critical to performance. Unfortunately the history of the FMI shows the many crushed expectations, public spirited idealists must suffer, if relying on only the test of evidence based policy, given the real stuff of the hothouse of politics such as in the lead up to the forthcoming Federal election.
The Task Force recommendations were highly developed based in part on much commissioned research and informed criticism by relevant practioners and other experts of management and leadership provision in Australia in 1995. The Report relied strongly on (now ageing) evidence but continues to be a basis for discussion for management reform, because of the number and quality of its wide ranging recommendations, which were not taken up and are thus still relevant for discussion today. It’s a pity but given its original connection to the Keating years, it appears that this initiative has now been rebadged despite original and later evidence of the continuing need for its implementation and wide support as originally conceived by private and public eneterprise organisations and the community has been deliberately diminished for political reasons.
For example as a result of Howard policy despite its wide applicability and much researched success in many management situations (including the public sector) it became incorporated in the Federal Government’s Business Services training package and lost its uniqueness as a course offering. It has become only one of a range of component training programs rather than as originally conceived as an important new competency package and therefore of great practical value for managers worthy of national support and resourcing provided initially through TAFE, and later in the 1990s through private providers in the training market which is a concern of both sides of politics in Australia.
The present official policy toward the initiative is not clearly identifiable from the public record but the change of approach was expected by many, as for example when the Prime Minister John Howard announced the abolition of the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA), which was an Australian Government statutory authority established in 1992 to provide a national wide focus for vocational training on June 30 2005. However the decision to rebadge the program because it was largely dead policy and incorporate it in an approach seen as best suited to the needs of private businesses predated this decision as for example in 2001. The major justification without better evidence appears to lie in the ideological concerns of the present Government and the predominant concerns of public servants whose role is to support government by focussing only on the management issues of the agency concerned. There is little or no clarity about neither what happened nor information available about immediate or future developments, which could include complete abandonment of the approach, and this may indeed be its fate.
The termination of the approach would be a very great pity, as the program was intended to provide so much to enhance management competency and leadership skills for those managers not choosing to benefit from for example postgraduate training available from business schools, schools of public administration and public policy which have proven to be too big an ask for most supervisors and managers employed throughout Australia, identified originally in the Karpin report as signicantly under credentialed and under prepared for the competencies for leadership and success of their organisations.
The over emphasis on the private provision of the initiative leaves open the fundamental questions of access and equity (stemming from example of up front fees) which need consideration for the approach to have close connection to desirable ends such as improvements in Australian productivity, entrepreneurial and related aspects of management performance in key organisational settings and other areas of performance given the need identified in Karpin and many other reports. The scope of the initiative is considerable and has been identified in 2002 data, as having reached 25,000 individuals but there was still the challenge identified to get better coverage and penetration using the approach as intended and this now seems to have been largely put to one side, as a major initiative despite the desirability of the intended result and the strong evidence of benefits known to result.
The report (mentioned above) prepared for ANTA in 2002 by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research then an important source of public information and evaluation of FMI , but probably because of historical origins of ANTA and its connection to the Keating years, has not been taken seriously by Howard and later policy makers. The Report found repeated evidence of success of the program and continuing need for its implementation and monitoring, to ensure the continued relevance and quality of the approach. The report found evidence major spin offs stemming from improvements beyond simply improving managerial performance especially leadership, organisational learning and business growth.
A national FMI body was also suggested , as appropriate to support and encourage even more managers in the initiative but, this was probably considered as way over the top by the Howard Government and later, whose leave it to the market approach, means many issues concerning the rationalisation of course provision, especially over reliance on short courses also identified by Karpin, and other basic questions, such as to quality and the variety of training available from providers, simply may never happen.
David Karpin responded to the 2002 report and stated that the FMI is just one of many knowledge constructing tools that are available to enterprises. However, as the evidence in this report shows, FMI has the capability to extend managerial identity, develop organisational learning and contribute to business growth. Such management development is critical if we are to continue building an enterprising nation.”
Karpin’s stated belief, is an example of an optimist, seeking support from the Howard Government, for an initiative which he still strongly recognised as valid, despite the contestability (he must already know about) identified in some academic papers about the nature of the competencies specified in the FMI, a matter not considered fully in 2002 because of ample evidence of the overall robustness found of the competency approach of FMI clearly supported in the 2002 report.
The broader question of clarity and transparency about Australia’s training policies continues, and could be crucial, if there is to be informed evaluation and policy making that has electoral consequences, that the politicians will take notice off, and thus be better connected, to community understanding and their needs as to what is required to equip Australia to function effectively, and especially hold Government to account for important policy provisions, such as when choices are made at election time. The lack of public debate and resultant insight into the FMI, as argued here and indeed imperfect understanding by the community of the future of Australia’s training policy has been impaired, by what is a clear systemic failure to allow evidence to find an appropriate context which could correct the situation, an opportunity this article can in part provide and warn about.
