Seminar on Impact of Government Policy on VET

Wednesday 27 May 2015

Commonwealth Policy

1974 Kangan develops a new sector in tertiary education… TAFE

1986 NBEET: Industry led system

1990 National training Board: competency standards

1994 ANTA established User Choice, Training Packages

2007 Skills Australia act, Australian technical colleges

Commonwealth Policy

2012 National Training Entitlement

“All working age Australians are entitled to a government subsidised place at an institution whether it be public or private”

Supplementary initiatives: income contingent loans, importance of public providers, transparency for students, quality assurance

Victorian Government Policy Decisions

1982 – Established TAFE colleges

1990 – Abolished TAFE teaching service – All staff employed by Institute Councils

1994 – Adopted User Choice

1996 – Amalgamated colleges

2008 – Securing our jobs for your future

Victorian Government Policy Decisions

“Anyone eligible could access a publicity funded training place at a registered RTO or private provider”

Policy imperative vague

Number of students in training in Victoria 2002-2013

A claim is made that enrolments have grown spectacularly

100,000 enrolments increase $400 million i.e. $4,000 per student place c/f 2007 $1,600 per student place c/f 2007 University increases 220,000 additional students

700,000

600,000

500,000

400,000

300,000

200,000

100,000

0 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Government funding Only fee for service - domestic Only fee for service - international

Alignment between training enrolments and industry employment needs in selected occupations

There is only a vague relationship between VET offered and employment needs

Occupations 2013-14Employment

Average annual employment needs

VET enrolments 2014

Sales Assistants (General) 138,100 9,530 2,318

Retail Managers 60,700 2,110 32

General Clerks 48,400 1,805 5,826

Accountants 47,900 2,249 1,132

Receptionists 40,400 2,617 2,338

Truck Drivers 40,300 1,838 13,033

Storepersons 39,500 1,728 18,869

Commercial Cleaners 39,000 1,356 1,461

Carpenters and Joiners 36,400 1,949 7,706

Aged and Disabled Carers 35,800 2,417 22,468

Observations

Role of TAFE / VET in Victorian unclear

No support or weak support for high needs/disadvantaged teachers

Teacher qualification requirements unclear

Governments and governance roles unclear

Observations

TAFE in 2012 had 1/3 of their subsidy removed ($300 million) and given 6 months to “transition” – No industry in the world could!

$144 m Wages supplementation

$6.5 m L.S.L. provisions

$2.5 m Staff development

$6.0 m Regional TAFEs

$18.0 m Equipment

$7.0 m Maintenance

$105.0m TAFE subsidy differential

$40.0m Capital works

8.0%

TAFEs – annual change in revenue/expenses

Change in revenue Change in total expenses Change in employment expenses

8.0%

6.0%

4.0%

2.0%

0.0%

-2.0%

-4.0%

-6.0%

-8.0%

-10.0%

2009-10 2010-11 2011-12

2012-13 2013-14

Staff FTE - TAFE

Teaching Non-Teaching

Teaching staff peaked at 4975 FTE in 2010; fell to 3753 in 2014

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

10,000

9,000

8,000

7,000

6,000

5,000

4,000

3,000

2,000

1,000

0

Source: NCVER

Reviews Processes

Consultations

Submissions

Commissioned Projects• What is a Community Service Obligation?• Cost of legislated obligations on TAFE• Provider classification model• Interim report 2nd June

Directions

Clarity, is the market capped?

Stabilise subsidies and contract administration

Reduce the number of courses72 Training Packages

1,682 Qualifications

150 Courses

17,907 Units of Competency

Improve labour market information?

Improve information for students?

Directions

Set priorities and targets to be funded and which can be evaluated e.g. young people, disadvantaged learners, older works

Develop processes that create a simplified, responsive and innovative VET sector in Victoria – 1,000 price points, 300 pages for eligibility clarify the role and responsibility of the TAFE sector

Determine how under provision will be met – if at all in rural Victoria and South East of Melbourne

Directions

Prioritise funding to high performing low-risk providers

Define community service obligations and fund high priority institutions for the performance of student strategic services

Link the strategic services to the student life cycle i.e.: attract, engage, retain, graduate, transition

Make strategic student services funding available on a three-year basis with targets

All RTO’s must provide minimum student services

Directions

Establish a pricing structure for TAFE institutions which takes into account:

the obligations that the government wants the Institute to perform (e.g. maintain community assets, provide a VET library accessible to all)

legislated obligations that are imposed upon institutes such as the requirement to produce an annual report for Parliament, submit marketing plans to a central authority for approval etc.

Directions

Register and license, for a fee, brokers and aggregators. Provide them with ethics training

Set protocols for fully online and fully on-the-job training

Clarify the use of third party arrangements

Next steps

1. Establish a funding model to determine cost of a course

2. Review the system to see of complexity can be reduced

3. Receive feedback on interim report suggestions

4. Produce final report with recommendations