VET & TAFE
A middle ground in the VET debate
There is room for public and private institutions in the sector, but to say no change is needed is wrong and risks us missing great opportunities, writes Rod Camm.
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The difficulty with giving priority to ‘training pathways based on industry intelligence of future labour demand’ is that there is as yet no way of forecasting labour force demand accurately in anything other than broad areas.
A further difficulty for VET providers is the fickle nature of their consumers. RTO’s are often caught out when industry claims to have a certain skilling need, only to find that few are actually willing to enrol and pay for the training when it is offered. When the labour market is tight and business is brisk, industry complains that its too busy to free up employees for training and when things are slow they claim they can’t afford the cost of training.