Vocational training faces fleecing and cuts

08/08/2012 By
ABC 7.30

ABC 7.30    7 August 2012 LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: If you were shocked by stories of private colleges offering cut-price diplomas to international students, wait for this. Tonight we reveal allegations that young Australians are being exploited by a new wave of training companies. 7.30 has been investigating the booming industry of private apprenticeship training. Companies offer cheap and speedy qualifications to young trainees for a price. There are now more than 5,000 of these providers across Australia funded by both Federal and state governments. It's a multimillion dollar market, but is the system being scammed? DAVE NOONAN, CFMEU: Everybody ought to be outraged about a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Vocational education & training Tagged With: , , ,

Kids missing out to protect their parents

08/08/2012 By
school_kids_sized

UNSW Newsroom   8 August 2012 Economically disadvantaged young people suppress their own needs to protect their parents from social stigma, missing out on crucial educational and social opportunities, a University of New South Wales study has found. Making a Difference: Building on Young People’s Experiences of Economic Adversity, to be launched  9 August, is one of the first Australian studies to consider the real experience of economically disadvantaged young people. Chief investigator, Professor Peter Saunders from UNSW’s Social Policy Research Centre, says the report goes behind poverty statistics, which only focus on the adult experience of economic disadvantage. This … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Research, University of NSW Tagged With: , , ,

Other comment on Grattan

08/08/2012 By
grattan_logo

The Australian    8 August 2012  "People who say, let the market bloom, that would be fantastic for price competition and efficiency are getting the story wrong." Bruce Chapman, economist, Australian National University.  "A lot of resources and effort would go into operationalising the Grattan report, rather than them being spent on looking at the right questions such as who is going to university and who is missing out."  Colm Harman, head of economics, University of Sydney.  "The assumptions underlying the Grattan report are very linear. That is, students leave high school, go straight to university and then straight into a job and have a job for the rest of their life. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grattan Institute Tagged With: , , , , ,

Vic govt “must support TAFE”

08/08/2012 By
Chris Evans

AAP   12 August 2012 The Victorian government's move to cut $290 million from TAFE funding in the 2012/13 budget is counter-productive to federal plans to grow the sector and accordingly the Commonwealth funding model for Victorian TAFEs could be reassessed if the state government continues to cut money from the sector, Tertiary Education Minister Chris Evans said after a series of meetings in Melbourne. Senator Evans stopped short of threatening to pull federal funding but said there were "other levers" the commonwealth could use to pressure the Baillieu government. The Commonwealth cannot be expected to increase funding, pay reward funding and continue to invest in Victorian TAFEs … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Commonwealth-State relations, Vocational education & training Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

At what point does HECS break?

08/08/2012 By
IRU logo

IRU Newsroom  7 August 2012 In its response to Graduate Winners, the Innovative Research Universities group says that there are strong reasons to retain a mix of Government direct funding and Government loans to students as the main revenue sources for undergraduate higher education. Increasing HECS to replace Government funding, or even half of Government funding, will push up the level of non repayment to levels that Government will find hard to accept. Students being charged the full course by course cost such that they change their choice or their willingness to enrol will reduce longer term productivity, a loss not just to them but to all of us. The mix of Government funding … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Innovative Research Universities Tagged With: , , , ,
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