The Fable of Standards

Abstract

Erica is the Director of her own company, providing vocational education and training. She has built up the company progressively over the years, from when she first started on her own, offering secretarial courses: shorthand, typing, office management, personal presentation, and such like. She now has a Deputy Director, a full-time teaching staff of nearly 30, with several times that number involved as casual tutors, and a small office support team. The company now teaches across a number of industries, although its work remains concentrated in hospitality and office management. It is a nationally accredited provider of vocational education and training, teaching to a range of vocational certificates and diplomas. It has a formal link with one of the local universities (a distance education provider), to the bachelor degree programs of which its diploma graduates are assured admission with appropriate advanced standing, and for which it provides pre-admission courses, especially for international students, in English, study skills and related areas.