ACPET National Monday Update Edition 605, 25 May

This week’s edition was to be about the 2015-16 Commonwealth Budget. I will still touch on it but another issue has emerged.

Surprise would be an understatement in reading the release of the South Australian Government’s subsidised training list (Workready).  The list reveals the cessation of a contestable market for training in South Australia, effectively removing student choice in that State.

I read about it as there was no consultation, no warning and no attempt to work with the sector. 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).

On this basis, ACPET believes Commonwealth Government funding of $65 million allocated to South Australia for 2015/16 and 2016/17 should be withheld.

Having worked in different roles in this sector, I fully understand the fiscal pressures facing South Australia. That said, there are not many businesses that survive in difficult times by removing their supply chain and selecting the most expensive supplier, with no quality differential. The subsidy rate alone for TAFE SA per student is two and half times greater than that paid to private providers – go figure.

As there has been no consultation and no way to prepare any transition, over 100 Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) are at risk of closure.

Yes you might say we have a bias. So it is pleasing that South Australian and National businesses and industry bodies have lamented the short-sighted decision. I am always intrigued that students and industry can prefer private providers (NCVER data) and yet a government can still make such a decision.

The media release claims that TAFE will be supported to become competitive and then the  number of training places for private providers will be boosted. I think I have read that before. Allocating (why are we allocating in a market) 46,000 of 51,000 new places to TAFE does not prepare for competition, it protects and rewards inefficiency and inertia.

South Australia signed onto nationally agreed competition policy for vocational education in Australia. Breaching the contract must mean they are no longer eligible for $65 million from the Commonwealth. Industry, students and quality private providers can deliver the State’s skills needs through a direct engagement with the Australian Government…. Read more