Rural 'education for sustainability' through the Australian vocational education sector

It is widely acknowledged that Australia faces complicated challenges and transitions in response to the impacts of climate change. Responses to climate change will require new ways of thinking, living and working across all areas of society. Education has a critical role in addressing these issues. This paper draws upon policy and secondary sources, alongside preliminary descriptive figures from the vocational education database, VOCSTATS, to critically analyse the emergent contribution of vocational education to adult education for sustainability (EfS) from a rural standpoint. It commences by outlining the socio-ecological significance of rural EfS in the vocational education and training (VET) sector, followed by consideration of some general features of its practical operation. The paper contends that there are signs that rural Australians are facing particular barriers to obtaining EfS learning opportunities in the VET sector, which require closer attention. Hence, rural communities are generally unprepared and ill-equipped to meet the multi-faceted socio-ecological challenges and opportunities they confront. After decades of corrosive neoliberal policies and global economic pressures many rural communities are beleaguered and in need of far greater support from public institutions, such as the vocational education sector, if they are to be part of the solution to these challenges. This, in turns, requires acknowledgement that market mechanisms are an inadequate substitute for the political leadership necessary to bring about the required social, economic and cultural transformations. Based on the ecological needs of the environment, and the social consequences of not addressing them, rural communities are likely to be at the centre of these transformations; it is vital that they have the capacity for proactive engagement.