by CLAIRE FIELD

no mention is made of when funding agreements will be signed between the Commonwealth and the remaining jurisdictions for the one-year fee-free TAFE funding on offer next year

Let me start this week’s column by congratulating all of the winners at this year’s Australian Training Awards. They are a showcase of the talent and commitment of the students who choose VET, the staff working in VET providers, employers who engage with VET, and the many people working in other critical roles which make the VET system work.

As in previous years, the Commonwealth, State and Territory Ministers responsible for skills met earlier in the day before the Awards to progress VET reforms. The Communique from their meeting is as interesting is as interesting for what it omits as what it does say.

It confirms that:

* the new Industry Clusters which will have responsibility for Training Packages and employer engagement are still scheduled to commence in January (although there are still no details available, which must be stressful for all of the staff involved in organisations that have bid for this work)

* the VET sector should be preparing for a new “Industry Engagement Integrity Framework” and a new “Qualifications Framework” (it is unclear if this is the changes to the AQF or changes to VET qualifications to remove some of the excessive and prescriptive details in units of competency), there are no details available yet on either, and

* a review of the Australian Apprenticeship Services and Support has commenced which aims to lift apprentice completion rates.

Ministers also agreed to “priorities for collective national leadership over the next year” without yet being in a position to share precise details. More crucially, no mention is made of when funding agreements will be signed between the Commonwealth and the remaining jurisdictions for the one-year fee-free TAFE funding on offer next year.

At the time of writing only the Northern Territory and South Australia have reached an agreement with the Commonwealth.

In reflecting on why most jurisdictions are yet to sign on to the extra funding from the Commonwealth, despite being there only a few weeks left until the start of Semester 1, 2023, it seems to me that a recent change in the language the Commonwealth has been using to describe its election commitment (from “fee-free TAFE places” to “fee-free TAFE and community-based vocational education places”) combined with the fact that the bulk of the fee-free places are existing places already in the system, are likely to be two of the key factors in the delay in reaching agreement.

I have teased out how these two elements may be causing challenges for governments in a longer piece on my website.

 Claire Field is an advisor to the tertiary education sector. Earlier in her career she was seconded by the Commonwealth government to secure State and Territory agreement to a suite of VET reforms