The Moran report on South Australian TAFE is circulating and scathing reading it makes, along the lines of the earlier briefing from consultants Nous  (CMM April 6). But this new report addresses much more than the now well-known public training shambles in SA. Mr Moran has warnings for the national system’s dependence on the 70 plus training packages which include thousands of competencies in more qualifications than there are recognised occupations.

Training packages are expensive and archaic, complex and confounding for anybody attempting updates. Mr Moran suggests a new regulatory approach is required, which focuses on the capability of registered training organisations rather than the existing micro-managing TP approach.

And yet TP’s are fundamental to consistency across national training – which would surely be at risk if the states took back course content. It seems that the SA government has plenty of work in fixing TAFE before it addresses TPs. Perhaps the answer is to makes it a task for a post-compulsory education inquiry, which Labor proposes.