The Australian Government has announced that the VET Student Loan limits have been increased for a number of courses, with the changes scheduled to come into effect from today, 29 January 2020. More than one hundred courses have seen the VET Student Loan cap increase, reflecting advocacy undertaken by ITECA and other stakeholders to ensure students have access to loans that more closely reflect the cost of delivery. For more Information, please visit here.
Category: Others
Australian visas exploited by “criminal people smuggling syndicates”
n her speech to the annual John Curtin Lecture, Labor’s immigration spokesperson, Kristina Keneally, spoke about the surge in bridging visas under the Coalition’s term in office, which has been fuelled by “criminal people smuggling syndicates… running a work scam”: For more Information, please visit here.
These are the 15 most in-demand skills in Australia right now, according to LinkedIn
Whether you’re looking to get a new gig, a promotion or a pay rise, what you can do for an employer will always be the most important thing you can bring to the table. “Learning not only helps Australians build skills and improve in their roles, it has a strong correlation to a change in mindset, boost confidence and open doors to new opportunities,” LinkedIn Learning Asia-Pacific senior director Jason Laufer said in a release. It’s in this vein that LinkedIn has revealed the 15 most sought-after skills in the country right now, and made some of its own courses free for the rest of January. “By sharing insights about the most valuable skills in the workplace today, our goal is to help more professionals own their careers, cultivating the essential soft skills and most current hard skills.” For more Information, please visit here.
2019 Australian Training Awards winners announced
The Australian Training Awards are the peak national awards for the VET sector recognising individuals, businesses and registered training organisations for their contribution to skilling Australia.
On 21 November the awards were presented and the winners are:
Lifetime Achievement Award — Wayne Collyer
Wayne Collyer was Managing Director at Polytechnic West (now South Metropolitan TAFE) from 2004 until his retirement in February 2013. In the ten years previous, he was Managing Director of Central West College of TAFE (now Central Regional TAFE).
Throughout his career Mr Collyer achieved significant results for VET in Western Australia, through his considerable expertise in developing future VET leaders and providing leadership to state and national policy committees. Nationally, Mr Collyer has contributed to the development and continuous improvement of a world class Australian VET sector through his long commitment and executive membership of TAFE Directors Australia Board. Over his more than 40 years as an educator, 36 of them dedicated to VET, Mr Collyer has made a difference to the future of hundreds of thousands of students and has been an instrumental builder of the education and training sector to the benefit of thousands more students into the future.
Other winners and finalists were:
Registered Training Organisation Category
1. Small Training Provider of the Year Award
Winner
Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta – New South Wales
Finalists
Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services – Western Australia
Wisdom Learning – Australian Capital Territory
2. Large Training Provider of the Year Award
Winner
Sunraysia Institute of TAFE – Victoria
Finalists
Charles Darwin University – Northern Territory
Canberra Institute of Technology – Australian Capital Territory
3. International Training Provider of the Year Award
Winner
TAFE Queensland – Queensland
Finalists
Melbourne Polytechnic – Victoria
4. School Pathways to VET Award
Winner
Circular Head Christian School – Tasmania
Finalists
St James College – Queensland
Tasmanian Secondary Colleges RTO – Tasmania
For detailed list of winners and finalists, please visit here.
The Australian Government is investing $41.7 million to pilot Skills Organisations in human services care and digital technology (including cyber security) industries
The Department of Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business has published the following media release:
The Australian Government is investing $41.7 million to pilot Skills Organisations in two key industries; human services care and digital technology (including cyber security).
The Skills Organisations Pilots will drive innovative ‘end-to-end’ training solutions and enhance the role and leadership of industry in the national training system.
The Joyce Review proposed Skills Organisations be owned by industry and take a leadership role to support the VETsystem better meet the needs of employers, the economy and learners.
Pilots
The two pilots, in human services care and digital technologies, will trial new ways of working to shape the national training system to be more responsive to skills needs for those industries – from the identification of skills needs, to qualifications development, through to improving the quality of training delivery and assessment.
The pilots will be industry-led, and will trial innovative ‘end-to-end’ training solutions within the national training system. Lessons from these pilots will help inform broader improvements to the national training system.
Human Services Care
According to the Department of Employment, Skills, Small and Family businesses 2018 Employment Projections, Health Care and Social Assistance is projected to make the largest contribution of any sector to employment growth, increasing by 250,300 jobs in the next five years.
Digital Technologies
Digital technologies are essential to Australia’s economy. The number of employed ICT and telecommunications professionals is projected to increase by at least 16% by 2023, which equates to an additional 46,000 workers. In addition, the cyber security sector has estimated a need for 18,000 more employees for the sector to meet its full potential.
Codesign
Alongside implementation of the two pilot Skills Organisations, the Australian Government is seeking input from stakeholders, across the VET system, to explore opportunities for ‘future-state’ Skills Organisations to improve industry leadership and employer confidence in the VET system, as well as improving quality in learner outcomes.
This information, in addition to learning from the two pilot Skills Organisations, will inform future Government decisions about the Skills Organisation model, including how this approach could deliver a VET system more responsive to industry needs and expectations.
To understand stakeholder views about the concept of establishing Skills Organisations beyond the pilots, the Department is holding national, co-design workshops with industry peak bodies, small and large employers, employee representatives and others.
The Department is seeking stakeholder views on a range of elements to understand whether and how the concept of Skills Organisations could drive improvements to employer confidence in the VET system to deliver the skills their organisations need now and into the future.
A discussion paper has been created for public consultation.
Submissions do not need to respond to all questions.
Submissions close on 15 November 2019. For more information please email SkillsOrganisations@employment.gov.au.
Unless indicated otherwise, responses may be published online on the Department’s website. All comments will be considered as part of the co-design process.
For more Information please visit https://www.employment.gov.au/SO
The major issues with current legislative and regulatory standards (Part 1)
We are starting a series of articles discussing what is broken or can be improved in the current legislative and regulatory standards. We will also talk about how there should be no room for ambiguity and a very clear understanding in terms of what is expected from the training organisations.
Our first target is the assessment system and why it is broken.
Current legislative requirement:
Now, let’s unpack the requirements:
Clause 1.8 (a) states that the assessment system must comply with the “assessment requirements of the relevant training package or VET accredited courses”
In reality, auditors are currently auditing the organisations on all units of competency details mentioned on the national register. Take the example of
BSBADM502 – Manage meetings https://training.gov.au/Training/Details/BSBADM502.
According to the legislative instrument, the organisations should be audited on the assessment requirements section of the unit of competency that consists of performance evidence, knowledge evidence and assessment conditions.
Assessment Requirements
Modification History
Performance Evidence
Evidence of the ability to:
- apply conventions and procedures for formal and informal meetings including:
- developing and distributing agendas and papers
- identifying and inviting meeting participants
- organising and confirming meeting arrangements
- running the meeting and following up
- organise, take part in and chair a meeting
- record and store meeting documentation
- follow organisational policies and procedures.
Note: If a specific volume or frequency is not stated, then evidence must be provided at least once.
Knowledge Evidence
To complete the unit requirements safely and effectively, the individual must:
- outline meeting terminology, structures, arrangements
- outline responsibilities of the chairperson and explain group dynamics in relation to managing meetings
- describe options for meetings including face-to-face, teleconferencing, web-conferencing and using webcams
- identify the relevant organisational procedures and policies regarding meetings, chairing and minutes including identifying organisational formats for minutes and agendas.
Assessment Conditions
Assessment must be conducted in a safe environment where evidence gathered demonstrates consistent performance of typical activities experienced in the general administration field of work and include access to:
- reference material in regard to meeting venues and technology, catering and transport suppliers
- organisational policies and procedures for managing meetings
- office supplies and equipment
- computers and relevant software
- case studies and, where possible, real situations.
Assessors must satisfy NVR/AQTF assessor requirements.
However, according to our experiences of participating in audits, auditors not only use the assessment requirements, but audit the training organisations on the elements and performance criteria, foundation skills, and even on the unit application.
Auditors, therefore, expect to see the assessment resources that meet the following requirements for this unit of competency:
- Assessment conditions:
Set up the assessment environment correctly and provide all necessary documentation, facilities, equipment and tools necessary for the students to participate and complete an assessment task:
- reference material in regard to meeting venues and technology, catering and transport suppliers
- organisational policies and procedures for managing meetings
- office supplies and equipment
- computers and relevant software
- case studies and, where possible, real situations.
Explanation:
So, if your assessment tools do not have case studies, computers and relevant software for students to access, office supplies and equipment to conduct meetings such as notepads, notebooks, pens, pencils, paper, projector, microphone, laser pointers, etc., organisational policies and procedures for managing meetings, reference material in regard to venue, technology, catering and transport suppliers and if the assessment is not being conducted in a safe business environment and do not demonstrate consistent performance of typical activities experienced in the general administration field of work, your resources do not meet the requirements of the assessment conditions.
You must focus on the plural throughout the assessment conditions.
- Knowledge evidence:
Knowledge refers to learning concepts, principles and acquiring information regarding a particular topic or item. Knowledge helps us develop “understanding”. If we do not have an understanding then how we will be able to use skills effectively or demonstrate our abilities efficiently?
Knowing how to do something does not simply imply you can do it, even if you know the steps such as what should occur and when. However, knowledge should be assessed first before students demonstrate “they can do something or achieve something”. Mostly, people learn to use the tools and equipment first before using them for practical purposes.
ASQA guidelines state:
Knowledge evidence:
- Specifies what the individual must know in order to safely and effectively perform the work task described in the unit of competency.
- The type and depth of knowledge required to meet the demands of the unit of competency
In our experience, If the assessment resources do not assess student’s knowledge first before skills, this is considered as a non-compliant practice.
The auditors are expecting the training organisations to demonstrate that their assessment resources have questions or case-studies on outlining and use of meeting terminology, structures and arrangements, outline the responsibilities of the chairperson and discuss the group dynamics in relation to the management of meetings, description of different ways to conduct meetings, and have included relevant organisational procedures and policies regarding meetings, chairing and minutes including identifying organisational formats for minutes and agendas to meet the following criteria:
- outline meeting terminology, structures, arrangements
- outline responsibilities of the chairperson and explain group dynamics in relation to managing meetings
- describe options for meetings including face-to-face, teleconferencing, web-conferencing and using webcams
- identify the relevant organisational procedures and policies regarding meetings, chairing and minutes including identifying organisational formats for minutes and agendas.
- Performance evidence:
ASQA guidelines state that performance evidence specifies the skills to be demonstrated relevant to the product and process and also the frequency or volume of the product or process.
Performance is to “perform”, “demonstrate”, “carry out an activity or function” or “get something done” to an expected standard or measurement criteria.
Therefore, taking the example of BSBADM502 unit of competency, the assessment resources must have practical tasks and activities, where learners can demonstrate that they can apply conventions, procedures, develop and distribute meeting agendas and papers, identify and invite participants, organise and confirm meeting arrangements, run the meeting, participate in the follow-ups, organise and take part in chairing a meeting, record and store meeting documentation, and follow organisational policies and procedures.
Performance Evidence
Evidence of the ability to:
apply conventions and procedures for formal and informal meetings including:
- developing and distributing agendas and papers
- identifying and inviting meeting participants
- organising and confirming meeting arrangements
- running the meeting and following up
- organise, take part in and chair a meeting
- record and store meeting documentation
- follow organisational policies and procedures.
Note: If a specific volume or frequency is not stated, then evidence must be provided at least once.
- Foundation skills
Foundation skills are fundamental to a person’s participation in the workplace, the community and in education and training. They are a combination of language, literacy and numeracy (LLN) skills and employability skills.
The expectations from BSBADM502 is that the assessment resources must have activities and tasks that demonstrate the learner’s ability to participate in reading, writing, oral communication, numeracy, navigating the world of work (we noticed a mistake here in the training package it is incorrectly written as navigating the work of work and should be rectified as soon as possible), interact with others, get the work done according to the criteria mentioned below:
Foundation Skills
This section describes language, literacy, numeracy and employment skills incorporated in the performance criteria that are required for competent performance.
If the assessment resources, for example, do not have information about using appropriate style, tone and vocabulary for the audience, context and purpose under participating in oral communication or asking questions and listening to responses to clarify understanding , your resources are non-compliant.
- Elements and Performance Criteria
ASQA’s guidelines state that:
Elements are the essential actions or outcomes which are demonstrable and assessable.
Performance criteria refer to the required performance in relevant tasks, roles and skills to demonstrate achievement of the element.
The training organisations must focus on the “Action verbs” in the performance criteria and understand what is expected from the learners.
Taking the example of BSBADM502, if the assessment resources do not provide the student’s opportunity to develop agenda, state meeting purpose, style and structure is appropriate to identify and notify the meeting participants, confirm meeting arrangements, despatch meeting papers, chair meetings, conduct meetings, ensure meeting facilitation, brief minute taker, checking transcribed meeting notes, distributing and storing meeting minutes and other follow-up documentation within designed timelines and according to organisational requirements, report outcomes of meetings as required etc. the resources are non-compliant straightaway.
- Application
We have been part of a number of audits where the “Unit application” has also been considered as sometimes, this section includes a few additional items not covered through the other parts of the unit of competency.
Let’s take the same unit as an example, BSBADM502, and review the unit application:
Application
This unit describes the skills and knowledge required to manage a range of meetings including overseeing the meeting preparation processes, chairing meetings, organising the minutes and reporting meeting outcomes.
It applies to individuals employed in a range of work environments who are required to organise and manage meetings within their workplace, including conducting or managing administrative tasks in providing agendas and meeting material. They may work as senior administrative staff or may be individuals with responsibility for conducting and chairing meetings in the workplace.
No licensing, legislative or certification requirements apply to this unit at the time of publication.
If the assessment resources do not provide adequate structure and framework to assess the skills and knowledge required to manage a range of meetings including overseeing the meeting preparation processes, chairing meetings, organising the minutes and reporting meeting outcomes, the resources become non-compliant.
What should be assessed and what not
We believe an industry consultation should occur on what should be assessed or what not, how much is too much or how little is too little?
Set the expectations correctly
Nonetheless, in the meantime, the regulatory body must set up the expectations or practices of auditors correctly.
The current audit practices do not align with the regulatory and legislative guidelines and framework.
Either the standards and legislation require tweaking or the auditors should be told to follow the current regulatory guidelines “as-it-is” and audit the “assessment requirements”.
We will continue to discuss assessment systems and a number of other critical issues in our next editions.
Communiqué for the COAG Skills Council Meeting (20 September 2019)
In the last COAG Skills Council Meeting in Melbourne on 20 September 2019 all federal, state and territory skills ministers unanimously agreed that the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), Australia’s national VET regulator, should “improve its engagement with the VET sector” and expand its role in helping to educate training providers.
The inaugural meeting of the COAG Skills Council issued a Communique available here, https://docs-jobs.govcms.gov.au/documents/20-september-2019-coag-skills-council-communique and discussed both the Braithwaite and the Joyce Reviews of VET and how they have highlighted the importance of training providers being helped to understand their obligations, while ensuring that “regulatory decisions are transparent”.
Skills Ministers agreed on key priorities to ensure Australian vocational education and training (VET) is a responsive, dynamic and trusted sector that delivers an excellent standard of education and training. It agreed on reform priorities and discussed short, medium and long term areas for action to inform the delivery of a shared reform roadmap to COAG in early 2020. The Council tasked skills officials with developing the draft roadmap for consideration at the next Council meeting in November 2019.
- Members agreed on three future priorities for VET system improvements:
- Relevance – actions in this area will ensure that VET is relevant and responsive to the job market, employers, industry and learners.
- Quality – actions in this area will support public confidence in the quality and value of VET for students throughout their lives and move it to parity with the higher education system.
- Accessibility – actions in this area will ensure all prospective students and employers can access suitable information and training when and where it is required, and include a specific focus on supporting access for disadvantaged Australians
The COAG Skills Council agreed on the importance of placing learners, from every background, at the centre of VET reform. Members also agreed that industry taking greater responsibility for the skills and training of their workforce will be central to the achievement of the COAG vision for VET.
A key topic of discussion was that effective regulation is central to the quality of and confidence in the VET sector. The COAG Skills Council agreed agreed that the national regulator, the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) should improve its engagement with the VET sector and expand its educative role.
New ESOS Regulations for CRICOS-registered providers
The Education Services for Overseas Students Regulations 2019 (ESOS Regulations) commence on 1 October 2019. They replace the current 2001 regulations.
The ESOS Regulations commence on 1 October 2019. Registered providers must comply with the ESOS Regulations from 1 October 2019, including by giving information in the Provider Registration and International Student Management System (PRISMS).
Changes to the ESOS Regulations While the ESOS Regulations are substantially the same as the current regulations, the changes are described below.
Education agents
Where an agent of a provider facilitated the acceptance for enrolment of a student in a course, the ESOS Regulations require providers to give information in PRISMS on the agent, including details of the agent’s Director and the agent’s employees who were involved in facilitating the enrolment.
Collection of this information will provide a more detailed picture of agent activity across the international education system and over time. This will better support regulators to monitor providers’ compliance with the ESOS Act and the National Code with respect to their agents, and provide a more detailed picture of agent performance for providers and students.
English language tests
Providers must now give more information on students’ English language proficiency in relation to student visas, specifically:
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the date a student took an English language test, if the student was required to provide evidence of their level of English language proficiency for the purposes of a student visa, and
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the class of student visa applicant a student falls within (commonly referred to as evidence exemptions), if a student was not required to provide evidence of their level of English language proficiency for the purposes of a student visa.
Migration (IMMI 18/015: English Language Tests and Evidence Exemptions for Subclass 500 (Student) Visa) Instrument 2018 establishes the current English language tests, minimum scores and evidence exemptions.
Including this additional detail will improve data integrity by aligning the information on each student’s enrolment directly to student visa requirements and exemptions.
The Department of Home Affairs is responsible for student visa policy and requirements for student visas are subject to change.
When students breach their visa requirements
Providers must now give more prescribed information about students who have breached a condition of a student visa with respect to course attendance or progress requirements; specifically, the student’s contact details, their residential address in Australia and their residential address overseas. Collection of this information will help support the integrity of Australia’s student visa framework.
Terminating the student’s course
Providers must now give information in the event that the student’s course is terminated before the course is completed, whether the studies were terminated by the student or the provider. In addition to the student’s contact details, providers must now give the day the student’s course is terminated as well as the last day of the student’s studies. This will ensure that the information is given regardless of the initiator of the termination. It will assist the regulators to monitor providers’ compliance with the ESOS Act and the National Code and help support the integrity of Australia’s student visa framework.
Tuition fees definition
The list of definitions specific to the ESOS Regulations has been expanded to provide improved guidance for providers, and now includes a definition of tuition fees that expands upon the definition under section 7 of the ESOS Act.
The list of definitions specific to the ESOS Regulations now includes a definition for classes of tuition and non-tuition fees that expands on the definition under section 7 of the ESOS Act. Tuition fees include fees for lectures, tutorials, tutoring sessions, training, excursions, fieldwork, laboratories, or practical experience that form part of the student’s course (whether mandatory or not), or are intended to assist the student to progress in their course, or are ancillary to the activities that form part of the student’s course listed previously. Non-tuition fees include books and equipment, health insurance, administration, accommodation, and assistance to apply for or hold a student visa.
Including this definition is intended to support providers to fulfil their responsibility to give information on tuition and non-tuition fees as required by the ESOS Regulations. The estimated total tuition and non-tuition fees for a course provides valuable consumer information to prospective students, and supports providers’ compliance with the National Code with respect to marketing courses. Information on the tuition and non-tuition fees paid by a student in accordance with the terms of their written agreement supports the calculation of refunds in the event of a provider closure.
Definitions removes from ESOS Regulations
Some definitions have been removed from the ESOS Regulations as they duplicated definitions in the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 (ESOS Act), or were no longer needed.
Providing the name and contact details of the principal executive officer
If a provider is not a public provider and is not an individual, it must give the name, phone number and email address of the provider’s principal executive officer. Collection of this information assists the regulators to monitor providers’ compliance with the ESOS Act by providing more visibility of ownership and management.
Information regarding students through PRISMS
The ESOS Regulations require providers to update student contact details within 14 days for students under 18, and within 31 days for all other students. Keeping information in PRISMS as upto-date as possible assists providers to effectively comply with the ESOS framework and supports student well-being by enabling providers and the Australian Government to contact students in a timely manner, such as in the event of a provider closure.
The requirement to update PRISMS within the acceptable number of days of any change to an enrolment is also critical to the administration of Australia’s laws relating to student visas.
Providers must give information about accepted students as follows:
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the student’s residential address, phone number and email address
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when a student changes their course, in addition to the student’s contact details, providers must give the day the student changes their course
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when a student’s course changes duration, in addition to the student’s contact details, providers must give the day the change takes effect
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when a student’s course changes location, in addition to the student’s contact details, providers must give the day the change takes effect
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when a student’s studies are deferred or suspended, in addition to the student’s contact details and the expected duration of the deferment or suspension, providers must give the date deferment or suspension starts
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in the event that the provider gives particulars of a student’s breach of their student visa conditions, providers must give the student’s contact details and residential address in Australia and their residential address overseas, and
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when a student’s studies are terminated (whether or not by the student), in addition to the student’s contact details, providers must give the day the student’s studies are terminated and the last day of the student’s studies.
Other minor amendments
A number of minor additions, deletions and changes were made as follows.
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The reference to course level has been clarified to refer to the Australian Qualifications Framework. Reference to the course field of study has been clarified to refer to the Australian Standard Classification of Education.
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If a provider is registered to provide a course at a location in accordance with an arrangement with another provider (whether registered or not), it must give the name, phone number and email address of the individual who is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the other provider at the location. Collection of this information will assist the regulators to monitor providers’ compliance with the ESOS Act by providing more visibility of ownership and management with respect to the delivery of courses by arrangement with another provider.
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The requirement for providers to give domestic student numbers has been removed, as this information was not deemed necessary for the regulators to fulfil their responsibilities.
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The requirement for providers to give information about the level and field of study of each course has been included in the ESOS Regulations as a formal requirement, with reference to the Australian Qualifications Framework and the Australian Standard Classification of Education. Previously, examples of the type of information required were described in the notes to the previous version of the regulations. Requiring courses to be recorded on CRICOS using these national standards provides improved consistency and integrity in data collection, and may assist students in choosing a course.
For more Information, please refer to https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2019L00571
Private registered training organisations vs Public providers
Please note: We have a number of TAFE and Government providers as our clients, and the reason for publishing this article is not to damage them or their reputation. All facts mentioned in this article are facts that have been established through reports. The main aim is to look into why the regulatory body is treating training organisations differently and inconsistently.
In training organisation world, there seems to be discrepancies in how a private training organisation and a government provider are audited and treated. There can be many reasons, but we have looked at the information available and thought we would share this with you.
Our research includes information about the importance of private training organisations to Australia, statistics and data from reliable sources such as NCVER, Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) and other government and research bodies.
Let’s look into the statistics and find out what has happened in the sector, the positives and negatives and where we are heading.
Private training organisations in Australia
The number and type of providers delivering vocational education and training (VET) in Australia are almost as varied as the types of students they serve and the training they deliver.
Private training providers are a very diverse group, covering adult/community providers, enterprise-based providers, industry organisations, commercial training organisations and other private providers. Private training providers offer a wide range of accredited and non-accredited VET courses across the full range of the Australian Qualifications Framework. Many deliver in only one state/territory. As well as their course offerings, many private training providers also provide a wide range of student services. Training is largely delivered face to face.
Private registered training providers have an important role to play in offering diversity, equity and specialised training services across the sector. Private training providers make a substantial financial and economical contribution to the overall VET effort in Australia.
What the current statistics are saying about VET sector
In 2018, there was approximately 4.4 million enrolments in training and almost 2.9 million students (71.3%) were enrolled in nationally recognised training with a private training provider, 777,100 (19.1%) at a TAFE institute, 481,200 (11.8%) at a community education provider, 116,600 (2.9%) at an enterprise provider, 105,100 (2.6%) at a school and 69,200 (1.7%) at a university.
Note: The sum of students (n=4.4 million in 2018) will not add to the 2018 total (4.1 million) as a student may have enrolled in training with multiple provider types in a calendar year.
~ Australian vocational education and training statistics, Total VET students and courses 2018, NCVER
For nationally recognised total VET qualifications started in 2017 the data shows that by training provider type, programs delivered by enterprise providers, schools and private training providers have the highest national estimated projected qualification completion rates. Enterprise providers 60%, schools 55% and private training providers 51%
~ A clearer view of the total VET landscape is emerging, Media release, 28 August 2019, NCVER
According to Australia’s Digital Pulse 2019– ACS’ latest annual investigation into the state of Australia’s IT sector – 100,000 more tech workers are still needed by 2024.
How do we do that when there’s a massive decline of almost 12,000 technology subject enrolments between 2016 and 2017 in the vocational education and training sector?
~ Australia still needs another 100,000 tech workers by 2024. Sep 05 2019
Misinformation and inconsistencies
The number of private training organisations that have been closed down has increased. Decisions such as sanctions and cancellations, naming private RTOs through their website, cases referred to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, show that an increased numbers of private training organisations are being deemed as not following regulatory and legislative requirements and failing audits. This is happening more frequently than for TAFE and other public training organisations.
We reviewed ASQA’s own Annual Report 2017-2018 and found the following facts:
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In 2017-2018 ASQA finalised 118 reconsideration applications. ASQA overturned its own regulatory decisions 50% of the time. 139 applications made it to a tribunal or court with 59 closed and 115 applications carried into 2018-19. Please refer here https://www.asqa.gov.au/sites/g/files/net3521/f/asqa_annual_report_2017-18.pdf
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The private training organisations appealing ASQA decisions through courts and tribunals increased from 29 in 2015 to 139 in 2018. This was the result of ASQA removing the compliance and regulatory step of allowing the training providers to submit further rectification evidence.
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An increasing number of AAT reviews has had a negative impact on the availability of auditors. The federal budget funding increase will contribute to managing reviews of ASQA’s regulatory decisions, particularly those where applications are submitted to the AAT. Is removing a compulsory compliance improvement step and spending unnecessary time and money in Administrative Appeals Tribunal wasting taxpayers’ money?
Same sector, same regulatory body, different rules
One of the most questions that the industry is currently asking is, why are there different rules? Should the expectation of quality training and assessment not be the same regardless of where a student enrols?
Questions raised:
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Has any public training organisations been shut down or sanctioned after having been identified with critically non-compliant practices?
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How many public training organisations are named by ASQA on their website regulatory decisions list https://www.asqa.gov.au/decisions-notices/latest-regulatory-decisions?
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Who is reviewing the course completion rates of TAFE students and public training organisations? The latest report is stating that Victorian TAFEs have the worst completion rate in Australia (29.6%). https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/victoria-s-tafe-course-completion-rate-the-worst-in-australia-20190829-p52m5l.html.
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What actions were taken when students and teachers at a major TAFE were affected as more than 400,000 marks were not entered into its student management system? https://www.smh.com.au/education/400-000-missing-marks-in-failed-tafe-computer-system-20180704-p4zpgb.html
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Why all the changes in decisions that occurred with another major TAFE from the regulatory body? Were they compliant or non-compliant? What lessons were learned from this TAFE incident?
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When Victoria’s largest regional TAFE was found misusing taxpayer funds what actions were taken? https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/a-serious-matter-tafe-freezes-enrolments-amid-concerns-of-rorting-20170919-gyk867.html
Our observation is that noTAFE or public education body has been cancelled since ASQA took power but over 660 private training providers have been.
Australia has a tech explosion, but there is a lack of workers and facilities
Australian workers could make thousands of dollars more every year by leaving their current work and reskilling in the technology sector, a new study has disclosed. Australia will have an extra 100,000 technology jobs in five years time, as the digital sector ramps up its contribution to economic growth. But local IT graduates and skilled migrants alone aren’t expected to meet the rising demand for technology workers.
The findings have emerged in the Australian Computer Society’s annual stocktake of the nation’s digital workforce and economy, prepared by Deloitte Access Economics.
An estimated 100,000 new IT roles will be created by 2024, bringing the total to approximately 792,000, said the Australia’s Digital Pulse 2019 report commissioned by the Australian Computer Society (ACS).
While retraining into the IT industry can give the average Australian worker an increase in the salary of $11,000, the country is expected to fight to find workers who can handle the upcoming tsunami, warned the report.
There has been a decrease in the stake in IT in the industry of Vocational Education and Training (VET), with 11,875 IT subjects enrolled between 2016 and 2017.
University completions in technology grew significantly over the same era to just under 6000.
The ACS chairman Yohan Ramasundara said, “Meeting the voracious demands for more technology workers and increased investments from Australia’s businesses will be a huge challenge.”
Over the next five years, the four leading sectors expected to account for 66.4 percent of total employment growth are:
- Health Care and Social Assistance
- Professional, Scientific and Technical Services
- Construction
- Education and Training
Reference: AAP
