VET Sector calls for an end to politicians putting ideology before good policy at the Federal VET Policy Forum.

VET Sector calls for an end to politicians putting ideology before good policy at the Federal VET Policy Forum.

by | Jul 18, 2018 | ACPET, Audit Express, Community Colleges Australia, Doug Cameron, Industry Skills Fund, Karen Andrews, Karen Andrews MP, Learn Local, Learn Local Training Providers, Registered Training Organisation, Senator Doug Cameron, TAFE, TAFE Directors Australia, VET Conference, VET Policy, VET Reform

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Federal VET Policy Forum

Assistant Minister Karen Andrews MP at the at the Federal VET Policy Forum.

Key stakeholders from the vocational education and training (VET) sector, including decisions makers and thought leaders from TAFE Organisations, Private Registered Training Organisations and Community Education Providers met in Melbourne on 16/07/2018 at the Federal VET Policy Forum to discuss the future of the Australian VET Sector, which has been plagued by scandal and poor government policy.

Shadow Minister Senator Doug Cameron at the Federal VET Policy Forum

The forum was held at the VET Development Centre, and was organised and hosted by Audit Express, an assurance and advisory firm that specialises in education policy.

Kevin Ekendahl, CEO of Audit Express said that his team had organised the forum to promote cohesion and harmony within the vocational education and training sector, and to encourage all providers to work together to build a stronger sector.  “For too long our sector has been used as a political football, we organised this forum to promote good policy in VET as we’ve seen the detrimental effects bad policy has on our sector, students and the economy” said Mr Ekendahl.

The forum was attended by more than 100 guests, representing some of Australia’s largest and highly regarded TAFE’s, RTO’s and Community Education Providers. The forum kicked off with presentations from Mary Faraone, Chair of TAFE Directors Australia (TDA), Rod Camm, CEO of the Australian Council of Private Education & Training (ACPET) and Don Perlgut, CEO of Community Colleges Australia (CCA), who each presented the challenges, concerns and needs of their parts of the VET sector.

 

Mary Faraone, Chair of Tafe Directors Australia, called for the removal of the 20% tax of students who take on a VET Student Loan. Ms Faraone said that VET is currently a “hard sell”, as evidenced by the decline in government-funded training, and the impact of issues such as demand driven university admissions and the VET student loan scandal. Ms Faraone also shared her concerns about the prospect of a looming skills mismatch – “people without jobs and jobs without people”, and that this is worsened by funding being uneven across states and territories, and student choices distorted by differing taxation and support arrangements between university and VET.

Don Perlgut, CEO of Community Colleges described the VET Sector as being the “Middle Child” of the greater education sector, and gave a plea for our government to demonstrate National Leadership, “calling for our national politicians to provide real vision and leadership in Australia’s VET space, developing bi-partisan approaches to national challenges”. Mr Perlgut noted that “it’s time for proper funding: don’t tell me that we don’t have the money, because we surely do, when we are considering tax cuts across the board”.

Rod Camm, CEO of the Australian Council of Private Education and Training (ACPET) said that “we need a vision, we need a national policy framework and we need to take ideology out of VET”. He also said that “the current construct of our system has to have a fundamental rethink”.

The forum attendees also heard from Assistant Minister Karen Andrews, who delivered her vision for VET, which was focussed on building on the past, securing our future. The Assistant Minister spoke about her support of innovation in the VET Sector, in particular of her support for micro-credentials, skill sets and innovative training programs that lead to employment for students. Assistant Minster Andrews also outlined the review of the AQF that is currently taking place. You can read more about the Assistant Minister’s announcements here.

Finally, the forum heard from the Shadow Minister Senator Doug Cameron, who spoke of his commitment to ensuring that a full inquiry of the VET Sector will take place should Labor win the upcoming Federal election. Senator Cameron also spoke of his unwavering support for TAFE’s, re-iterating that 2/3 of funding of VET will go directly to TAFE under a Labor led government. You can read Senator Cameron’s speech here.

Both Minister Andrews and Shadow Minister Cameron agreed on a number of key points, including the reality that training packages are currently outdated, in many cases not responsive to the needs of industry or current job roles, and that structure of both training packages the overall Australian qualifications framework is in desperate need of a rethink. Senator Cameron said that qualifications were narrow and not fit for purpose. He then raised the question “are Training Packages operating for public good?”.

One thing was clear from all presenters and the agreeable audience, that is the current Training Packages and the framework in which they operate are not working and are in desperate need of a re-think and new direction.

Sector representatives from TDA, ACPET and CCA all described a perceived “lack of a VET Policy vision at a federal level, on all sides of government”. There was also an overwhelming support from both the guests attending the forum and also from the panel of industry representatives for both sides of government to put good policy before ideology moving forward.

Attendees at the forum took to twitter throughout and after the forum with mixed views of support and frustration.

Call to action

1. In the lead up to this Federal Election the team from Audit Express encourage you to participate in the policy discussion, especially when it comes to Vocational Education and Training. You can do this by following the three key industry representatives and member organisations, which can be followed here:

2. Keep in close contact with your relevant member organisation or industry representative organisation. If you see or hear something happening in the VET Sector that you disagree with or are unhappy with, or if you are passionate about a particular topic or issue, always remember that “the pen is mightier than the sword”. Never underestimate the power of writing to the minister, or your local senator or member of parliament. For more information on contacting your local senator or MP, click here.

3. Be active and vocal on social media about the issues that you care about!

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Future Proofing Your Business | Presented by Audit Express and Circulus

Future Proofing Your Business | Presented by Audit Express and Circulus

by | Jul 7, 2015 | ACPET, ASQA, Best Practice, Certificate 3 Guarantee, Funding Contract, Future Skills Fund, Industry Skills Fund, Internal Auditing, Marketing, Registered Training Organisation, Skilled Capital, Skills for All, Skills Fund, Smart and Skilled, Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 2015, User Choice, VET Fee Help, Victorian Training Guarantee, VRQA

Future Proofing Your Business [emaillocker id=6291]

Audit Express have partnered with Circulus Education to deliver the October VET Industry Drinks: Future Proofing Your Business

Future Proofing Your Business

Times are changing in the VET sector. We are facing a major shift in the overall structure, regulation and funding of the VET sector. Attend our event on the 14th of October to learn more about future proofing your business.

You can register to attend here >>>

http://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/oct-vet-industry-drinks-future-proofing-your-business-tickets-16307689739

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AuditExpress present on ‘Compliance with Marketing in VET’.

AuditExpress present on ‘Compliance with Marketing in VET’.

by | May 26, 2015 | ASQA, Audit Express, Best Practice, Certificate 3 Guarantee, Funding Contract, Future Skills Fund, Industry Skills Fund, Marketing, Registered Training Organisation, Skilled Capital, Skills for All, Skills Fund, Smart and Skilled, Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 2015, VET Fee Help, Victorian Training Guarantee, VRQA

 

AuditExpress present at Circulus & Fairfax Media Networking Event on ‘Compliance with Marketing in VET’.

Audit Express Director Matthew Dale presents at Circulus and Fairfax Media VET Networking Event.

Audit Express Director Matthew Dale presents at Circulus and Fairfax Media VET Networking Event.

 

Director of AuditExpress, Matthew Dale presented at Circulus Education & Farifax Media VET Networking Event held last night in Melbourne. [emaillocker id=6291]

A massive thanks to the teams at both Circulus and Fairfax Media for organising such a great event, with close to 150 guests turning out to network and discuss improving overall quality and compliance in the Australian VET Sector.

In case you missed the event or did not get the chance to take down any notes, here are the key messages from Matthew’s presentation on how you might comply with with marketing requirements for RTOs.

 

 

 

1. Know your standards

  • Take the time to sit down and work through your RTO Standards and Funding Contracts or Agreements
  • Identify the marketing requirements from document and make it standard practice to understand how it all fits in place with your RTO
Know the standards and contracts relevant to your RTO. Understand the marketing requirements of each standard and funding contract.

Know the standards and contracts relevant to your RTO. Understand the marketing requirements of each standard and funding contract

2. Take a systematic approach to marketing

  • Implement an approval process for marketing in your RTO
  • You might like to use a one page approval form to record the staff that have proof read draft marketing material and checked for compliance
  • Use a marketing checklist to verify that draft marketing material meets your RTOs compliance requirements
  • Maintain a marketing register to record all advertising and marketing in your RTO. I recommend recording everything… even your RTOs social media updates

How to comply with marketing requirements.

3. Become an RTO known for implementing best practice

  • Ensure that your RTOs approach to marketing is structured and well documented.
  • Implement an internal approval process
  • Maintain a marketing register
  • Develop a social media strategy
  • Consider what digital compliance means to your RTO
Take a Best practice approach to marketing in VET.

Take a Best practice approach to marketing in VET.

 

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AuditExpress present on ‘Compliance with Marketing in VET’.

Funding Contract Compliance and Audit Readiness.

by | Jan 27, 2015 | ASQA, Certificate 3 Guarantee, Funding Contract, Future Skills Fund, Industry Skills Fund, Internal Auditing, Registered Training Organisation, Skilled Capital, Skills for All, Skills Fund, Smart and Skilled, Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 2015, Uncategorized, User Choice, VET Fee Help, Victorian Training Guarantee, VRQA

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If your Registered Training Organisation (RTO) delivers training with access to government funding, ask yourself the following two important questions:

1) Is your RTO compliant with the requirements for each of its funding contract(s) ?
2) Is your RTO audit ready ?

With government funding for the VET Sector receiving recent significant media attention in relation to poor quality training providers, low completion rates and concerns around the practices of some RTOs using the VET Fee Help scheme, the time to check your RTOs contract compliance is now! [emaillocker id=6291]

See the following articles:

• http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/audit-flagged-for-vfh/story-e6frgcjx-1227178735160
• http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/concern-as-online-vet-course-completion-drops-enrolments-rise-20150116-12r4tx.html

Far too often RTOs reach out for help with compliance only days or weeks before they are due to receive an audit from the regulator or the relevant government department. This leaves little time to conduct an internal audit and even less time to take action on addressing any non-compliances. We see the best outcomes at audit when an RTO has a systematic approach to conducting regular internal audits across its entire operation.

With government funding contracts available across all states and territories it can be difficult for RTOs to keep up to date with the maze of compliance requirements, here are just a few examples of government funding that RTOs can now access across Australia:

VIC – Victorian Training Guarantee (VTG)
NSW – Smart and Skilled
SA – Skills for All
WA – Future Skills Fund
QLD – Certificate 3 Guarantee & User Choice
TAS – Skills Fund & User Choice
ACT – Skilled Capital, PSP & PPP
NT – User Choice & multiple state funding contracts
VET Fee Help
Industry Skills Fund

 

If your RTO is delivering training with access to government funding and wants to take a best practice approach to its management and operation,  you should be conducting an internal audit of your RTOs compliance in-line with the contractual requirements of each government funding contract at least every 12 months.

It is always best to take an holistic approach to conducting internal audits, whereby you systematically review your RTOs policies, procedures, business processes, records, student management system, student files and staff files. Following the audit you should identify any gaps, areas for improvement, strengths and non-compliances. Also, be sure to build an action plan to document any rectification work that may need to be carried out to achieve full compliance.

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