Reforming Vocational Education and Training

Once ASQA has approved the course and assessment as compliant, they would guarantee that as long as the RTO and the trainer and assessor deliver the course and assessment appropriately, they would not fail audit. This will give them peace of mind. TAFE will be required to use these courses and assessments. Private RTO's can still use their own course material and assessments but will be at risk of failing audit and hence cancellation.

What is in it for Industry Associations? They would get a percentage of the fee each student pays to do the course. The Industry Association would be happy for the extra revenue and State governments would also save huge amounts by outsourcing course and assessment development.

TAFE campuses should also be outsourced to private providers who can operate them more efficiently and cost effectively. They too would receive a percentage of each enrolment and course fee. Outsourcing to private providers was successfully done with Australian Post Offices and can be repeated here.

TAFE would then become a lean organisation that will concentrate on marketing their courses, operating the various student systems and maintaining compliance. The potential huge savings would be better spent on funding students to undertake courses where there are industry shortages such as aged care.

The Prime Minister recently stated that TAFE needs to be agile, it needs to be modern, it needs to be up to date. He also stated that it can take you 12 months to change a qualification in this country (it is actually much, much longer).

The Prime Minister wants to create a new Skills Council to drive reform. This is a forlorn hope. The Council will be quickly filled with current and former public servants who will have no desire for reform and a vested interest in the status quo. TAFE also have no desire for reform. They will go through the motions of industry consultations, but industry will be ignored and locked out.

The only way to achieve meaningful reform within the VET sector is for industry to take control and deliver true industry-based training.