NSW TAFE reform: stuffed from the start

Management got a Christmas gift when the state’s Audit Office released its review of the “one TAFE” programme on December 17, when training reform was top of not many minds

While more understated, the report rivals the NSW Legislative Council inquiry (CMM September 10 2019) into the state government trainer as a scathing indictment.

The One TAFE programme, the Audit Office concludes, was meant to “progressively reduce significant cost inefficiencies, including by moving away from separate institutes to a single institute model.”

It hasn’t.

The Audit Office’s key findings include,

* governance to implement the programme was not “fit for purpose”

* commercial goals “conflicted” with legislated community service obligations

* rapid implementation required multiple programmes to be undertaken simultaneously

“The consolidation of ten separate institutes into one was a clear driver of the modernisation programme. However, TAFE NSW did not undertake detailed analysis of the existing state of courses, systems and processes … . This meant TAFE NSW committed to timeframes and benefits without fully understanding its baseline, nor how achievable these timeframes and benefits would be,” the AO states.

 


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