Reforms to the way ASQA operates don’t go far enough: ITECA

The peak body representing the independent higher education and vocational sectors believes proposed legislative reforms to the way the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) operates doesn’t go far enough. Parliament is currently considering the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Amendment Bill 2019 (Cth), which the Independent Tertiary Education Council of Australia (ITECA) says will not “provide the outcomes independent providers are looking for”. ITECA chief executive Troy Williams expressed these concerns at the 2020 Vocational Education and Training Business Summit last week in Sydney. “ITECA members are looking to work with a regulator that’s firmly focused on protecting students without creating an overly burdensome compliance burden," Williams said. "To date, ASQA has demonstrated its capacity to be quite inventive at creating red tape that frustrates good providers that have a track record of offering students and their employers the quality outcomes they are looking for." Although ITECA welcomes the federal government’s review of the regulator’s performance in order to guarantee a more transparent and fair system with improved student outcomes, it says the reform package must address the “legitimate concerns of independent training providers and properly [focus] ASQA’s activities”. “Reform [of] ASQA’s regulatory framework is long overdue. We need a regulator that works collaboratively with the independent registered training organisations to support students. That’s what ITECA members are looking for and what we’ve asked the Australian Government for,” Williams said. “Over the course of more than a year, we’ve listened to our members and they have made it clear that there is a trust deficit when it comes to the regulator. Right now, many ITECA members lack the confidence that compliance activities will be undertaken in a transparent or consistent manner by ASQA. That’s the advice we’ve given the independent review. “ITECA members are looking to this review of ASQA’s performance to provide a clear set of recommendations on what further legislative reform looks like.” Independent providers constitute a large part of Australia’s VET sectors, supporting more than 70 per cent of the 4.1 million students enrolled in VET programs across Australia. "Although the legislation provides some minor technical amendments that, in part, address the outcomes of the Joyce and Braithwaite reviews, it fails to address the real concern of ITECA members with respect to ASQA’s performance and governance. Greater accountability needs to be imbedded into ASQA’s structure and major reforms to its governance; little of this is reflected in the current legislative amendments,” Williams said. “ITECA’s members look forward to the outcomes of the rapid review of ASQA’s performance, governance and culture and the consequential further legislative reform."