By CLAIRE FIELD

The training sector is grappling with what it exists to do

Having read all 88 submissions (as at August 11) to the Productivity Commission on the next VET Funding Agreement, one of the key issues the sector is grappling with is the role of TAFE and whether it is “just another provider”, as the Commission implies with its recommendations for more contestable funding.

I have previously criticised state and territory governments for not clearly articulating a role for TAFE. Fortunately, most government submissions have now sought to address this issue.

The notable exception was South Australia. The SA Government’s submission does not specifically mention TAFE. Instead, it makes two fleeting references to “the public provider” and argues; “significant reforms are required to make Australia’s VET system a more efficient, competitive market, driven by the informed choices of students and employers.”

I was surprised that TAFE directors’ lobby consider their most important role to be “technology transfer”, i.e. “the repository of knowledge and techniques of production and service processes that are systematised and codified for transfer via education, training and ancillary services.” They note that “this is difficult to conceptualise given the complex nature of modern economies, however it would be known if this function were absent.”

By contrast, state and territory government submissions focus on TAFEs improving student outcomes, strengthening communities and meeting Australia’s skill needs.

The relationship between governments and their TAFE Institutes is something for another column – including the impact of reforms to “centralise” TAFE operations and what that means for Australia’s future skill needs. One former TAFE CEO got in touch recently to lament that; “at a time when the policy and strategic challenges are, arguably, greater than in ages, one doubts whether these ‘reforms’ in TAFEs will result in the types of agile organisations and enterprising staff that are needed to meet them.”

I could not agree more.

Claire Field is an adviser to the tertiary education sector. She has compiled a summary of the key issues raised in submissions responding to the Productivity Commission’s Interim Report.