Six reasons why Aus VET providers are not as enthusiastic as unis

Prime Minister Albanese nailed why Deakin U’s coming campus in India matters, “not everyone has the means or the ability to pack up their lives and study in another country. There might be financial constraints, or family commitments, or a variety of reasons that you want to, or need to, stay closer to home,” he said in India.

And there’s been a pile-on of university’s talking up their credentials and contacts in India over the last few days.

But there’s another really, really big market in India which Australia has the skills to service  = vocational education education and training.

But as far as CMM can tell not one Aus vet provider is out promoting its potential to get in on the training ground floor.

Perhaps this is because providers recognise the problem Peter Varghese pointed out in his report on trading with India, :”the high volume, low cost model needed for India does not stack up economically for most Australia providers, who operate on a low volume, high cost structure.”

That plus how hard setting up to supply training in India appears. Brigid Freeman (Uni Melbourne’s Australia India Institute)  points out six challenges to entering India’s formal skills market, * covering costs * recruiting students * diversity of demand * complexity of government * credential creep in regulations * low visibility of Australia VET.

It might just be too hard, even for well-resourced TAFE systems especially now that they are the flavour of the first term Albanese Government to meet skills demand at home.