VET pathways : an essential element of social justice

The Bridges to Higher Education (Bridges) consortium was a federal government $21.2 million funded program, delivered between 2012 and 2014, with the objective of improving the participation rate of students from communities under-represented in higher education. A large initiative within the over 90 projects was the building of pathways and support processes for students studying in TAFEs2 and colleges to undergraduate places in higher education. The University of Western Sydney and University of Technology Sydney collaborated with TAFE NSW to develop several hundred articulated pathways, build students’ aspirations for and knowledge of university study, and provide support processes for them to make the transition. This paper describes the inception, implementation, operations, outputs and outcomes of the Pathways/VET initiative. The project was externally evaluated by management consultants KPMG, and the quantitative data and qualitative data expressed by students and teachers identified that there were significant outcomes.