VET & TAFE
campusreview.com.au
alternate means of financing ‘higher’ VET
apprentices outside the NP agreement.
The VSL listing criteria includes courses
“which have a high national priority, meet
industry needs, contribute to addressing
skills shortages and align with strong
employment outcomes”.
Such intended benefits are the same
to both apprenticeships and the VSL
program, so their promoted integration is
worthwhile. Such cross referencing also
indicates a useful lens point for future
inclusions on the list.
Industrial environment needs to
be supportive
‘Higher’ level VET apprenticeships being
financed under VSL will only work if
this practically and financially suits the
employer and apprentice, with minimum
complexity or administrative burden.
It requires ‘on-job’ work and ‘off-job’
training arrangements to be made in
accord with approved industrial and wage
arrangements. The evidence of past
diploma-level apprentices shows this is
practically possible. One complexity to be
thought through perhaps is apprentices
starting at the traditional certificate III level
and then wanting to move up to diploma.
Any arrangements must clearly
also meet VSL program rules, funding
and limits. Notably the design and
implementation of the VSL program has
been positively affirmed by the Australian
National Audit Office.
Possible market differentiation of
VSL approved Registered Training
Organisations (RTOs)
This approach has potential as positive
market differentiation for approved VSL
providers delivering such qualifications.
The VSL statistical report (first six months
2018) indicates 180 RTOs operated as
approved VSL course providers including
23 TAFEs, 13 other public organisations
(including University Table A providers) and
144 private providers. Promotion might
best suit dual-sector institutions.
apprentices have long been anchored (but
not bound) on contracts of training with
certificate III qualifications.
Other nations and economies have
debated and consciously ‘stepped over
such old shadows’. Evidenced on the
future skills needs of their workforces,
especially in manufacturing in response to
Industry 4.0, they now actively promote
higher vocational/degree level apprentices
in their policies and practices.
It has been mooted that revised policy
could require some sub-bachelor courses
at Australian universities to be undertaken
as apprenticeships. If a VET ‘higher’
apprenticeship can have its ‘off-job’ training
financed by a VSL at AQF 5–6 levels, it
becomes increasingly irrational not to
facilitate the same with public funded or
financed HE courses at the same AQF levels.
There are ongoing limited pilot examples.
While the future outcomes and
performance of the Skilling Australians NP
is way off and uncertain, at least for VET
‘higher’ apprentices, there is an alternate
VSL financed route to help lift numbers,
if employers in leading industry sectors
are willing and able to step up to this
opportunity.
The recently proposed VET sector
review by the current national government
and earlier proposed post-secondary
review by the alternate national
government, together with outcomes
from the ongoing AQF review, provides
opportunity and content for imaginative
policy reform.
ANNEX: DEFINITIONS, DATA AND METHOD
Consistent with the Skilling Australians
Fund National Partnership Agreement, a
‘higher apprenticeship’ at a VET diploma or
higher diploma levels combines “a program
of structured on-the-job training with
formal study, with the study component
leading to the award of a VET qualification
at the Australian Qualification Framework
level 5 (diploma) or level 6 (advanced
diploma)”. ‘Higher’ does not include HE
AQF levels 5 and 6 (diploma, advanced
diploma and associate degree), or AQF
level 7 (bachelor degree).
The published list of VET Student Loan
courses, compiled 1 July 2017, was used
to enumerate corresponding activity of
apprentices and trainees at diploma and
above in the National Apprentice and
Trainee Collection in a recent two-year
period. The time span for extraction
of data was arbitrarily chosen as being
within the two-year period of 1 July 2015
to 30 June 2017.
This makes the analysis relating a point
in time (publication of a course list) with an
earlier span of time (evidence of activity).
This activity is presented as either ‘Trade’
or ‘Non-trade’ rather than ‘apprentices’
and ‘trainees’. Trades are classified as all
occupations listed under ANZSCO* Major
Group 3 Technicians and Trades workers.
Non-trades are classified as all other major
occupations groups. ■
* ANZSCO ABS 1220.0
http://www.abs.gov.au/ANZSCO
Dr Craig Fowler is an analyst and observer
of national policies impacting tertiary
education, science and innovation after
decades of experience in private, public and
university sectors.
Acknowledgment
NCVER staff and expertise.
Contact: jcsfowler@gmail.com
Figure 1: Diplomas undertaken as part of an apprenticeship/traineeship, 2000–17.
(Source: National Apprentice and Trainee Collection. March 2018 estimates, unpublished.)
Higher Apprentices – both VET and
Higher Education (HE)
One view is that apprenticeships are
fundamentally an employment arrangement,
and seen on that axis alone the descriptor
‘higher’ is meaningless. ‘Higher’ indicates
the AQF level of study. By dint of ‘custom
and practice’ set in industrial arrangements
and training traditions, employers and
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