Tuesday night’s Budget primarily focused on program level initiatives in the vocational education and training (VET) sector, with big-ticket items for VET already announced, including as part of the National Skills Agreement that commenced on 1 January 2024. Investment will be made by the Government to upskill the workforce in certain priority sectors, and the public VET sector benefits from some of the other tertiary education announcements that were also made.
Self-accreditation for TAFEs
According to Jenny Dodd, CEO TAFE Directors Australia (TDA), speaking on the Future Campus Accord Implementation webinar yesterday, one of the causes for optimism was the consideration for TAFEs to self-accredit AQF5 and 6 courses. This was announced by the Minister for Skills and Training, the Hon Brendan O’Connor MP, at the TDA Conference last week, with the Budget including a scope and pilot for this.
Driving greater alignment between VET and higher education
The Budget includes an investment of $27.7m over four years to “improve tertiary collaboration and lay the foundation for broader tertiary education reforms”.
This is not a lot of money to (1) improve the student experience and provide better credit recognition between VET and higher education (2) explore ways to improve regulatory approaches for dual sector providers (including TAFEs) between the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) and the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA).
Potential threat – expansion of free university enabling courses
The Budget was not all good news for the VET sector, with the Government’s injection of $350m to expand access to free university enabling courses seen as a possible threat to the VET sector, with Jenny Dodd saying that “the size and scale…does pose a risk for the higher levels of TAFE and vocational education and training”.
Implementation Advisory Committee
Yesterday the Minister for Education, the Hon Jason Clare MP, announced the establishment of the Implementation Advisory Committee (TKN on the IAC). In what must be seen as a win for TAFE, Jenny Dodd is one of the ten members of the IAC. With the Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia (ITECA) already criticising the Budget for not doing enough to support students wanting to study with its members, TKN expects further criticism from ITECA.
Priority sectors
The Budget provides funding for upskilling specific sectors:
- An increase in payments for apprentices in priority occupations from $3k to $5k and hiring incentives for priority occupation employers from $4k to $5k, to support apprentice retention and completion. This measure will be in place for 12 months while the Government awaits the findings of the Strategic Review of the Australian Apprenticeship Incentive System.
- The construction sector will benefit from an additional $88.8m investment, including creating 20,000 additional Fee-Free TAFE and pre-apprenticeship places.
- The Government is also investing $91m to help skill the new energy workforce for the transition to Net Zero.
- Investing $55.6m over four years for the Building Women’s Careers program and continuing to support women apprentices.
Tertiary education measures
- A tertiary attainment target of 80 per cent of the working age population having either a VET or higher education qualification by 2025 was also set as part of the Government’s response to the Universities Accord. (See TKN 150524 for some more context about the target).
- VET Student Loans are included in the $3bn cut to student debt, and the indexation rate to be caped to the lower of either CPI or the wage price index.
- VET nursing/midwifery students are included in the Commonwealth Prac Payments to students undertaking mandatory work placements.
- $27.7m over four years to “improve tertiary collaboration and lay the foundation for broader tertiary education reforms”.
