Transcript Slide 1

Current and Emerging Policy Issues –
Implications for TAFE Institutes in Victoria
VTA HR Conference 2008
Policy Context
 National
 Election commitments
 Productivity Places
 Trade Centres in schools
 Skills Australia
 Industry Skills Councils
 COAG Skills and Productivity agenda
 Inquiry into Higher Education – a broad tertiary sector?
 Victoria
 Securing Jobs for Your Future – Skills for Victoria
 New Commonwealth\State VET Agreement
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Policy Context
 Return to cooperative federalism in national VET governance.
 Productivity Agenda Working Group
 Chaired by DPM
 Early childhood schooling and skills and workforce development
 Objectives, output measures, progress measures and future policy
directions
 Skills and Workforce Development sub group chaired by Victoria
 Outcomes agreed by COAG.
 Consistency between State and National Reform Directions
 Influence of Victoria on COAG reforms
 Focus of Victorian Skills reforms
 ICL for Diplomas and Advanced Diplomas in Victoria
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Objectives
 Link between educational participation attainment and
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productivity.
Targets for early childhood, schooling, post compulsory
education and older age groups.
Focus on attainment levels - not just participation.
Focus on increasing participation and improving outcomes
particularly for indigenous Australians
Reskilling the existing workforce:
 Foundation skills
 Higher level skills
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Objectives
 Stronger focus on nature of skills required for 21 st century
economy and labour market and skills usage:
 labour market participation, ongoing learning, productivity as well as
occupational competence
 Skills supply more responsive to demand
 Focus on workforce development not just formal VET
 Victorian Skills Reforms:
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investment,
navigating the training system,
TAFE capital development,
capacity of the public VET workforce and
capacity of the ACFE sector
Strategies
 Increased investment by government industry and
individuals:
 Productivity places;
 Extension of HEIF to Education Investment Fund
 Training Guarantee -Demand based funding (Victoria);
 First major VET funding reform since ANTA
Agreement;
 172,000 additional places
 $33 million for capacity building in TAFE and
community providers
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Strategies
 RTO capability
 More effective and outcomes focussed regulation
 VET workforce development
 NQC project
 Governance reform
 System level
 Provider level
 Commonwealth\State Agreement for Skills and Workforce
Development
 Part of broader reforms to SPPs
 Provide framework for reforms
 Greater focus on outcomes
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 Potential for differences between States\Territories
Strategies
 Strengthening demand
 Contestability for public funding;
 Comprehensive and accurate information to support informed
choice;
 Skills for growth program in Victoria
 Efficient and consistent regulation
 Reforming products (joint NQC\COAG project)
 Ensuring VET programs and qualifications :
 Provide competencies for 21st century workforce and economy
 Meet needs of diverse learner groups and enterprises – school leavers,
pathways to higher education, enabling skills, existing workers
 Enable RTOs to respond flexibly
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Strategies
 Strengthened independent\industry labour market analysis and
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advice.
 National
 Skills Australia
 Advice on productivity places;
 Broader roles for Industry Skills Councils
 Environment scans;
 Advice to Skills Australia;
 Victoria
 Strengthening the role of the Victorian Skills Commission
 Additional funding to State ITABs for consolidated industry
information service
Importance of Workforce Development
Focus
 ‘A major re-positioning where workforce development is a
move away from a focus upon the individual employee and a
“deficit” view where rectification of the skills problem is seen
to rest with the individual. Rather the workforce development
approach today argues that the employee operates within a
wider system, as well as in an organisational context that will
determine what specific policies and practices can be put in
place and what might work best in the short and longer term’.
Callan
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Review of Higher Education
 Issues under consideration
 Concept of a broader tertiary sector
 The extent to which VET Diplomas and Advanced Diplomas
should be seen as part of higher education provision
 Commonwealth funding for these qualifications and position of
other jurisdictions on extension of HECS
 Level of higher education provision through VET providers and
eligibility for HE funding.
 Scope for resource and facilities sharing and joint provision of
programs
 Balance of provision and level of demand between the sectors
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The future school leaver population
HE Review Discussion Paper
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Numbers of domestic and overseas
students in higher education, 1997-2006
HE Review Discussion Paper
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Estimated unmet demand, 2001-2008 by
state
HE Review Discussion Paper
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Impact of Changes
 Full impact of emerging national policy directions still
emerging:
 Mechanisms for allocation of productivity places within
jurisdictions in terms of Commonwealth\State agreement and
state funded places;
 Conditions for entry to market, price and eligibility for capital
funding (e.g. EIF);
 Extent to which a national VET market for public funding is
created;
 Extent of shift to national regulation and audit;
 Extent of changes to National Training Packages and AQF
 Level of differentiation between the States
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Issues for TAFE Institutes
 Preparing for increased contestability – need for Councils to
undertake a full strategic and risk assessment.
 Importance of understanding existing and potential markets
and strengths and weaknesses of current provision;
 Access to and use of environment scans, Skills Australia data etc
 Capacity for market analysis within institutes
 Ensuring Councils, management and staff understand
changing environment;
 Positioning institutes for capacity building initiatives:
 Capital
 Workforce development
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Issues for TAFE Institutes
 Information management systems
 Preparing for increased public access to performance
information
 Quality assurance and compliance – need for Councils to be
confident of internal Institute QA and compliance
monitoring
(continued)
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Issues for TAFE Institutes
 Understanding the shift from VET to workforce development
 Focus is on organisational workforce needs not individual
learner needs
 Importance of providing information and advice to
enterprises not just training
 Role of brokers and intermediaries and potential for
partnerships
 Importance of effective governance and areas for
improvement in governance framework and performance
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