by CLAIRE FIELD

Charles Darwin University’s Don Zoellner has published a paper (HERE) which could prove crucial to deliberations on the next National Skills Agreement

His research looks at how VET markets have operated in the smaller jurisdictions (i.e. WA, SA, Tasmania, the NT and the ACT) over the last 30 years. He finds that:

* almost two-thirds of providers have been active for 10 years, 40 per cent for more than 16 years

* 112 of the 121 non-profit providers have been RTOs for more than 13 years, and only one new non-profit RTO has entered any of the five markets since 2018

* qualifications from 11 training packages “dominate the product offerings” and on average 85 per cent of all students in these five markets are enrolled in the top 15 (of 51) training packages, and

* despite introducing different reforms at different times the provider market share of government funded students in 2020 on average was very similar to what it was in 1990

All of this means we now have a situation where the original policy intention to introduce more choice into the sector has been achieved in terms of the large number of RTOs in operation, and the sector now operates more efficiently, but:

* there is a heavy concentration in terms of what is now offered, and

* there is a similar distribution and number of providers (relative to population size), and

* “for most purposes they (providers) are like each other”, i.e. not very innovative or differentiated so there is little actual choice.

Don argues that, based on other sectors of government activity where markets have been introduced and then matured, policymakers need to be looking at two related approaches:

* optimisation: whereby VET would be managed as a networked system of “interdependent components” with TAFE, adult and community education and private providers working cooperatively with each other and with government and industry to achieve specific aims, and

* public value management: where the focus is on government using its funds deliberately to create public value “in ways that enable private and public actors to co-design, collaborate and innovate to solve societal problems.”

There are elements of these approaches in the sector already, e.g. some of the Victorian government’s latest VET policy initiatives have a strong emphasis on partnerships and localised solutions and the NSW government gives significant authority to their regional offices in VET funding decisions.

Claire Field will be discussing Dr Zoellner’s research findings with him at a free AVETRA ‘OctoberVET’ webinar on 31 October