Skills Australia has released a major report on the future for vocational education and training (VET) in Australia, outlining a series of recommended reforms for the organisation and funding of the VET sector.

 

The report, Skills for Prosperity – a roadmap for VET, found that the current VET system is overly complex.

 

It recommended  an individual and enterprise demand-led model of public funding to remove financial barriers and to allow increased choice of training provider.

 

Specific recommendations include:

 

  • a nationally agreed entitlement to fully publicly-funded places for individuals undertaking vocational courses up to and including Certificate III, irrespective of whether it is the first or subsequent qualification. Higher-level courses would be co-funded by students through an income-contingent loan;
  • provisions for governments to exclude, cap or introduce incentives for certain courses of study in alignment with occupations on the Specialised Occupations List developed by Skills Australia;
  • utilisation of existing Australian government enterprise-linked funds, including employer incentives, to form an Enterprise Skills Investment Fund that would concentrate public investment on workforce development and improved skill use in enterprises. The fund’s guidelines and allocation priorities will be informed by an industry-led advisory group and funds would be available to enterprises to use at their provider of choice. Enterprises would make a scaled contribution to the cost of delivery.

 

Further recommendations cover better targeting of government funding in support of apprenticeships; and a greater role for the states and territories in simplifying the delivery of apprenticeships and coordinating support and advice services through single points of contact.

 

Launching the report, the Chair of Skills Australia, Phillip Bullock, that around the country the overriding concern from stakeholders had been the need for improved quality. He said these concerns were not only about ensuring that only high quality providers are registered, but also that the capabilities of the trainers are up to industry standard, so that employers can be confident of the qualifications achieved.

 

The report outlined several steps to address these concerns:

 

  • reinforcing the capability of the National VET Regulator by ensuring it is properly resourced to do the job well.
  • mandating independent validation of a sample of a provider‟s student assessments annually
  • requiring that the all teachers and trainers have the relevant qualification or equivalent, coupled with industry recognised experience, by 2013
  • support for the VET workforce by investing in a National VET Workforce Development Strategy.

 

Mr Bullock also highlighted the problem of the low national level of completion in the sector, just 30% of enrolments. To address the issue, the report recommended changing from a system of funding on enrolment to one of progress payments up to and including completion of the course.

 

“This move, coupled with greater transparency through the introduction of MySkills website and mandatory reporting of key statistics by RTOs, will help further drive overall quality and allow those providers who deliver excellence to be recognized,” Mr Bullock said.

 

Finally, a central recommendation was increased funding for the VET sector to increase the number of graduates in tertiary education by 3 per cent per annum.

 

“For the VET sector this translates into an additional $310 million per annum, accumulating, from $8 billion in 2008 to approx $12 billion in 2020. This is a modest average increase of 3% pa over the period due in part to expected improvement in completion rates,” Mr Bullock said.

 

Mr Bullock said it was recognized that the changes could not be achieved in the forthcoming budget, but should be clearly targeted at the next round of Federal / State funding agreements.

 

“Industry and providers must also play a leading role to realise the fundamental changes needed,” Mr Bullock said.

 

The Minister for Skills and Jobs, Senator Chris Evans said the Government will consider the findings of the report ahead of COAG discussions with state and territory governments about the future of the VET system

 

The report, Skills for Prosperity – a roadmap for vocational education and training, is available at http://www.skillsaustralia.gov.au/SkillsProsperity.shtml