campusreview. com. au
VET & TAFE funding and led to the decision by the Vocation board in October to close down BAWM. Sadly, at the time, more than 2400 BAWM graduates were informed that their qualifications had been revoked, an unprecedented number of people to receive such a notification. One can only imagine the disappointment these people felt over being misled and exploited, a point rarely mentioned in the financial press.
The intense media scrutiny of Vocation and the consequent closure of two of its subsidiaries, BAWM and Aspin, most likely have encouraged a rethink by a number of other organisations considering listing on the stock exchange. As Vocation found out, once a company lists, it opens itself up to examination by the financial media, which can be searing. For example, in the second half of 2014 a long-standing giant of the VET sector, former commonwealth minister for education, John Dawkins, was regularly lampooned in cartoons and satirical pieces in the Australian Financial Review until he resigned as Vocation chairman in late November. This was a big fall for Dawkins, who a year earlier was the chair of the National Skills Standards Council, chair of the Australian Qualifications Framework Council and a judge for the prestigious national training provider of the year.
Media coverage of Vocation is one reason the VET community continues to be intrigued by the business model of a company called Acquire Learning, which is expected to list on the stock exchange. Acquire has attracted attention for a number of reasons, including because the chair of its board is, like John Dawkins, high profile – Andrew Demetriou, former chief executive of the Australian Football League. Acquire is not a training provider but a marketer of programs and a recruiter of students for training providers. Hence, the VET regulators are not able to investigate Acquire’ s methods of marketing and recruitment directly. But ASQA has indicated it is examining a training provider that uses the services of Acquire. If Acquire does list on the stock exchange, then this business practice of training providers using third parties to market their courses and find them students will come under increasing scrutiny by the financial media, not just VET regulators.
The Senate inquiry into VET, announced in November, could bring to the sector another dose of common sense. The inquiry will examine private sector access to public funds, regulatory regimes governing the sector, the VET FEE-HELP scheme, the overall quality of education provided, associated learning requirements, and graduate outcomes for students who complete training with private providers. With its report not due until August 2015, for most of the year VET will remain front of mind of an increasingly querulous Senate.
Common sense will also drive ACPET, Navitas and others to try to clean up the sector as never before. The Australian Council of Private Education and Training( ACPET), the largest national association for private providers, reacted quickly to the negative publicity about training providers, around the time of the share price collapse of Vocation, announcing in November its proposal to develop a new code of conduct and a standards framework for its members, to be externally monitored and validated. ACPET indicates the monitoring and validation will result in higher fees for members, but argues that the costs will be offset by improved protection of the reputation of quality providers. At the same time, the well-regarded chief executive of education group Navitas, Rod Jones, acknowledged that the negative publicity Vocation and other providers generated would cause reputational damage to other companies in the sector.
REVERSAL IN ATTITUDE TO TAFE After 56 years of budget cuts to TAFE by many governments around the country, the cross-party House of Representatives report, released in late 2014, was full of sensible findings about“ the intrinsic value of TAFE as an Australian asset”. For example, the report acknowledged“ the value of TAFE in the Australian community”, including the role it plays in assisting the less fortunate and most needy:
“ The significant role … as a provider of opportunities for those in positions of disadvantage and vulnerability was a clear theme in the evidence. While some private training organisations do provide support in this area, this important community support role can often fall to TAFE. Overall, the evidence showed that [ it ] undertakes this role well— indeed, in some cases [ it ] has turned lives around. The committee recognises the challenges [ it ] faces in meeting the needs of these students, and feels that federal VET funding should take into account this role.”
The report called on the federal government to make a statement that acknowledged“ the unique functions that TAFE, as a major public provider, can contribute [ to the nation ]”. The statement should“ set the future direction for TAFE as it operates within the competitive training market— an environment that poses many challenges.”
The 2014 House of Representatives report swims against a tide that has been pushing hard against TAFE since the Council of Australian Governments embarked in 2008 on a program to outsource VET training funds to the private sector, without having put in place sufficient safety nets for vulnerable, unsuspecting students and without having erected sufficient barriers to keep out shonky providers. This theme was further propelled by the shallow report the Productivity Commission released in 2011 and by continual attacks from the one-term Coalition government in Victoria.
The House of Representatives report draws on common sense in clearly stating the importance of TAFE nationally.
“ TAFE plays a significant role in the development of skills that are essential to the Australian economy,” the report states.“ Australia is no stranger to mass redundancies and closures of large-scale manufacturing plants which leave many people out of work. Historically, TAFE has been invaluable in re-skilling and providing these often mature aged workers with new opportunities, particularly where many have not undertaken training or further education for many years and in some cases at all.
“ TAFE is an important provider of second chance education and is often a pathway to employment and university, avenues which are frequently supported through partnerships with industry and universities.”
Such evidence-based evaluations, combined with the determination of private providers to clean up the sector, give some hope for the future. The new Victorian Government is determined to restore some of TAFE’ s capacity and the range of personalities in the Senate suggests that its VET inquiry over the next year will investigate controversies in the sector.
Much work remains for policymakers to address the fundamental flaws in the system ASQA revealed, however, particularly in its recent audit of training in the field of childcare. If 2014 was odd, 2015 will be most interesting. ■
Dr John Mitchell is a VET researcher and analyst. Go to jma. com. au
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