Changes being made to vocational education and training (VET) in Australia to enable industry to be more internationally competitive include making training more responsive to industry and client needs, delivering work skills to specific industry standards, making entry level training more flexible and developing a nationally recognised training framework. Organisations across many industries are adopting a marketing relationship approach in their interactions with customers, recognising the importance of creating value for their current customer base, alongside the need to create new business opportunities. Reports from Britain have described the building of enterprise-specific training programmes, with local partnerships between technical colleges and industry forming the basis of successful British VET delivery. This article first describes theoretical aspects of relationship marketing which support the building of business relationships, then examines the various interactions between industry and VET providers in a non-metropolitan setting to determine whether these constructs are reflected through the interactions. Interviews with industry and training providers identified several different approaches to industry training that are currently adopted, and indicate varying levels of integration between and within industries and training providers. This research identifies and describes one particular training delivery model that exhibits relationship marketing constructs of trust and commitment, investment by relationship partners, knowledge exchange and the development of new processes for training delivery, all supporting relationship longevity. © 1997 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
Author Keywords
Index Keywords
