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New Chair appointed to Australian Industry and Skills Committee (AISC)

Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia (ITECA) the peak body representing independent providers in the higher education, vocational education, training and skills sector has welcomed the appointment of Emeritus Professor Tracey Horton AO as Chair of the Australian Industry and Skills Committee (AISC). ITECA Chief Executive, Mr Troy Williams has stated that the independent tertiary education sector is looking forward to working with the new Chair and AISC to ensure that Australia’s vocational qualifications provide the skills that students and their employers are looking for.

Read more here: https://www.miragenews.com/industry-skills-committee-chair-appointment-welcomed/

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Proposed changes to the education sector will give students options to combine vocational and university studies

The recently released review of the Australian Qualifications Framework by Professor Peter Noonan has recommended an overhaul of the system which oversees qualifications in Australia’s higher and vocational education sectors.
Read more here: https://www.9news.com.au/national/reforms-allow-students-to-mix-and-match/b1d27cb8-9755-41ff-bba3-e3027298ed06 and https://www.miragenews.com/aqf-reform-a-step-towards-a-coherent-tertiary-education-system/ and https://www.miragenews.com/review-recommends-simpler-qualifications-framework/
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Training Next Generation Of It Talent In Victoria

More tech talent will be available to help develop a stronger pipeline of qualified and experienced tech talent, thanks to the Andrews Labor Government.
Minister for Jobs, Innovation and Trade Martin Pakula today visited RMIT to announce that the Labor Government will invest $200,000 to expand the Microsoft Traineeship Program to Victoria.
Australia currently faces a shortfall of 100,000 workers by 2024 in the information and communications technology sector, with the number of people graduating with degrees in this area not enough to meet demand.
The Microsoft Traineeship Program provides trainees with industry-recognised credentials such as a Certificate IV in Information Technology while they undertake paid, hands-on learning with some of Australia’s biggest companies.
In Victoria, program partners include: Coles, CompNow, MEGT Australia, Modex, Blue Connections, Thomas Duryea Logicalis, Advance Computing and Datacom. Trainees are not required to have a background in IT and can be at any stage in their career.
The course is suitable for those with an interest in IT including school leavers, recent graduates, those looking to change careers, women returning to work, people from Cultural and Linguistically Diverse backgrounds, Indigenous people and people living with a disability.
Victoria is Australia’s tech city and an emerging tech hub in the Asia-Pacific, and the Andrews Government is determined to ensure the state remains a leading location for the tech industry.
The Labor Government is investing record funding in training and skills and higher education to make Victoria the Education State. Since 2015, more than $1.3 billion has been invested to rebuild our TAFE system and ensure students can get the skills they need for the jobs they want.
As noted by Minister for Jobs, Innovation and Trade Martin Pakula
“Through this program, we are investing in the next generation of IT professionals, ensuring they have the skills and real-world experience to forge ahead in their careers.”
As noted by Minister for Training and Skills and Higher Education Gayle Tierney
“Partnerships like this one between employers and training providers are critical to ensuring our students get relevant training and on-the-job experience.”
As noted by Microsoft Australia Managing Director Steven Worrall
“With support from the Government – as well as a network of local partner and customer organisations – we aim to create a new pipeline of exceptional IT talent and create exciting career opportunities for aspiring trainees.”
/Public Release. View in full here.

SOURCEAAP:https://www.miragenews.com/training-next-generation-of-it-talent-in-victoria/

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Change of leadership for VET regulator

Mark Paterson AO will conclude his term as Chief Commissioner and CEO of the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) on 6 October 2019.

Mr Paterson first joined ASQA as a Commissioner in May 2016, before leading the regulator as Chief Commissioner and CEO since 1 January 2017.

Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business, the Honourable Michaelia Cash thanked Mr Paterson for his contribution in lifting the vocational education and training (VET) sector out of its embattled VET FEE-HELP era.

“I would like to thank Mark for the leadership he has provided to ASQA since January 2017, including managing the removal of a large number of poor quality training providers that arose as a result of past practices and the VET FEE-HELP debacle,” Minister Cash said.

Mr Paterson was appointed as Chief Commissioner at a time of important reform for the VET sector. He was tasked with restoring trust from students, industry and the mostly quality providers across the sector in the wake of the removal of the much maligned VET-FEE HELP program.

Since then, Mr Paterson has used his role to ensure unscrupulous providers were removed from the sector, rebuilding the reputation of Australia’s education and training system.

He has overseen ASQA’s shift to a risk-based approach to regulating the sector that has resulted in audits only targeting providers that pose risks to quality. He also implemented the Raising the Bar initiative that ensures only quality newcomers can enter the VET market.

During Mr Paterson’s time as Chief Commissioner ASQA released two significant strategic reviews investigating systemic problems in the sector. One identified that very short VET courses may prevent students from gaining all of the skills and competencies they should when completing training, and paved the way to stamp out these courses. The latest is a comprehensive response to risks in Australia’s international VET and English language education markets, which will improve experiences for overseas students and strengthen collaborations between the many government, industry and education bodies working across this sector.

ASQA’s Deputy Chief Commissioner, Ms Saxon Rice, has been named as the regulator’s interim Chief Commissioner from 7 October 2019. Ms Rice has been Deputy Chief Commissioner at the regulator since April 2018.

/Public Release. View in full here.
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Cash forgets workers involved in VET

Disgraced former Industrial Relations Minister Michaelia Cash today announced a panel to oversee reform in the vocational training sector.

The panel, ironically titled the “Industry VET Stakeholder Committee”, will have no representation for the people participating in the VET system.

It includes the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Industry Group, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, major accounting firms KPMG and PwC as well as the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia, but no representatives of working people.

Budget cuts to TAFE, privatisation and a refusal by Liberal governments to listen to the needs of working people in the sector has created a serious skills shortage while leaving thousands of young people unemployed.

At the same time huge amounts of public money has been wasted on providers who rip off students and do not deliver the skills training we need.

This panel looks to be more of the same from a Government that will do anything to accommodate its big business donors.

As noted by ACTU Secretary Sally McManus:

“Excluding working people from a discussion about skills training is disappointing but not surprising from a government that caters exclusively to the interests of big business.

“The Morrison Government is pursing a policy agenda designed to keep wages low, attack the rights of working people and give even more power to big business.

“We need skills training which puts the needs of working people first and fills genuine skills shortages, not a system that pours money into the pockets of for-profit training providers.

“To fix the big problems in VET the Morrison government needs to listen to all stakeholders and act on their concerns. We call on the Morrison Government to include working people in this process.”

/Public Release. View in full here.
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Drop in public VET student numbers makes a mockery of National Skills Week

The plummeting numbers of students enrolled with nationally-recognised Vocational Education and Training (VET) providers is yet another pointer to the funding crisis facing Australia’s TAFE network.

According to an NCVER report released today:

  • students enrolled in nationally-recognised programs decreased by 5.9% to two million people in 2018, compared with 2017, and decreased by 16.2% between 2015 to 2018
  • students enrolled in subjects not delivered as part of a nationally-recognised program increased by 4.9% to 2.5 million people in 2018, compared with 2017
  • overall student numbers decreased by 1.5% to 4.1 million people in 2018, compared with 2017

Australian Education Union acting Federal President Meredith Peace said that the drop in the number of government-funded VET students was a direct consequence of the Morrison Government’s campaign to undermine TAFE.

“The Morrison Government should be ashamed by what it has done to TAFE,” Ms Peace said. “That a drop in the number of VET students should be announced during National Skills Week, of all weeks, is scandalous.”

“The reduction in publicly-funded VET student numbers is no surprise given that Liberal/National governments are slashing and burning TAFE funding across the country. Fewer public VET students being enrolled is a direct result of the $3 billion that the Federal Coalition has pulled out of TAFE.”

“Our TAFE system has been systematically undermined by profit-driven private providers advocating for a system that provides no clear qualifications, no national consistency and no guarantee of quality or qualified teachers,” Ms Peace said.

“Since coming to power in 2013 the Federal Coalition has failed to invest in high-quality public vocational education to provide Australians with a pathway to real skills and long term careers.”

“These figures highlight the need for nationally-recognised qualifications to ensure that VET course quality is maintained.”

Ms Peace said that the private-provider VET model being touted by groups such as ITECA would see public VET student numbers slashed even further.

Ms Peace said that TAFE must remain a strong public provider of vocational education in Australia. She called upon the Morrison Government to:

  • Guarantee a minimum of 70% government funding to the public TAFE system. In addition, no public funding should go to private for-profit providers, consistent with other education sectors.
  • Restore funding and rebuild the TAFE system, to insure continuing confidence in the quality of the courses and qualifications and the institution.
  • Abandon the failed student loans experiment, and cancel the debts of all students caught up in private for-profit provider scams.
  • Re-invest in the TAFE teaching workforce and develop a future-focused TAFE workforce development strategy in collaboration with the profession and unions.
  • Develop a capital investment strategy in consultation with state governments, to address the deplorable state of TAFE facilities around the country.
  • Support a comprehensive independent inquiry into vocational education VETincluding TAFE.

“Any proposal which undermines the importance of the Commonwealth and state and territory governments working together to build a strong, vibrant, fully funded public TAFE will be fiercely opposed by the AEU,” Ms Peace said.

/Public Release. View in full here.