The 1990's in Victoria saw a political and economical shift away from the social justice themes of previous years to an economic rationalist approach to public sector services. Like other countries, educational reform initiatives focused on the introduction of market-oriented commercial practices. These were characterised by increased accountability for expenditure, pressure to supplement publicly funded income with commercial ventures, rationalisation of staff, privatisation of some services and a business-oriented approach to service provision. As part of this shift TAFE Institutes in Victoria were actively encouraged to embark on a business-based, entrepreneurial approach to training delivery in a competitive, user-choice market. This changing external environment is the context for this 'practitioner research' investigative project - the development of a motorsports program as a case study of innovation and entrepreneurship at Wodonga Institute of TAFE. A participant-observer research approach was applied to examine the perceptions of the stakeholders about the development of the program. Data was collected through semi-formal interviews with stakeholders, maintaining a reflective research journal and reviewing related literature. Analysis of the data identified emergent themes (enabling factors and barriers), reflecting at a micro level, similar themes and issues from current research and debate at national level. The themes are similarly reflected in literature on innovation, organisational change and entrepreneurship. The products generated from the investigative research project are: * Capturing Innovation: Entrepreneurial Activity Within a Publicly Funded Educational Organisation, an exegesis examining innovation and entrepreneurship at Wodonga Institute of TAFE through a case study (the motorsports program) * What a Great Idea! Where to From Here?, a set of guidelines for Wodonga Institute of TAFE practitioners about what is required in presenting their ideas to Senior Management (Appendix 1 and Appendix 2), and * a Professional development workshop agenda to support promotion of the guidelines (Appendix 2) * recommendations to Wodonga Institute of TAFE Directorate (Director/CEO and two Deputy Directors) for supporting the development of innovative ideas (Chapter 6). These outcomes aim to increase the success rate of innovative ideas being captured and developed into training programs and products at Wodonga Institute of TAFE
