28 May 2015

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The South Australian government has stepped back from “open market” VET funding to reintroduce a virtual monopoly for TAFE SA. Under its new WorkReady program, which will replace Skills for All in July, TAFE SA will provide 90% of new training places in 2015 -16..

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Under the reforms, announced on 21 May, approximately 81,000 training places will be subsidised in 2015-16.

Of these places, 51,000 will be new and 30,000 will comprise students already undertaking courses. TAFE SA will provide 46,000 of the 51,000 new places. Of the 30,000 continuing places, about 16,000 will be delivered by private providers.

The number of subsidised courses has also been cut from more than 900 to about 700.

Skills minister Gail Gago says that, after the first year of the WorkReady strategy, during which TAFE SA will be supported to become more sustainable, the number of training places for private providers will be boosted.

TAFE SA has an important role in vocational education. So we are supporting TAFE SA while it transitions to more innovative and flexible training provision that better responds to community and industry needs and is more sustainable in a competitive market.

The Australian Council for Private Education and Training (ACPET) has reacted savagely, as it would.  ACPET chief Rod Camm says that, as there had been no consultation and no way to prepare any transition plan, over 100 Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) are at risk of closure.

The decision overturns 20 years of progress achieved through National Competition Policy in this country and is a breach of South Australia’s obligations under the National Agreement for Skills and Workforce Development (NASWD)…..[Allocating] 46,000 of 51,000 new places to TAFE does not prepare for competition, it protects and rewards inefficiency and inertia.

ACPET has called on the federal government to withdraw $65 million in federal training funds to the state over the decision to “effectively ignore private training providers”.

Business SA has backed the call, saying the government’s decision has “caused chaos and uncertainty in the sector with the very real prospect of serious job losses and business closures because so many of the subsidised training positions have been quarantined for TAFE.”

Federal training minister Simon Birmingham says he’s concerned South Australia is using federal funding to prop up TAFE and believes the move violates a 2012 COAG agreement in which every state and territory agreed to offer subsidised places through public or private RTOs.

If it turns out that South Australia are clearly in breach of that agreement through this regressive action, then I’ll be having discussions with the state minister about whether or not that federal funding can continue to be available.

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Huge open market education programs don’t work

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If we needed more evidence that untrammelled open education markets don’t work, here it is. None deliver satisfactorily on the rhetoric of their creators. All succeed in destabilising colleges, both public and private, with their now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t funding.

–      John Ross, The Australian

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