Australia’s competitiveness in the future international marketplace and ability to cope with digital disruption will depend largely on the VET sector delivering STEM training to the workforce, a new report has argued. The report, The VET Era: Equipping Australia’s workforce for ...

A national report on the effectiveness of reform politely reveals numerous policy failings. As a consultant in VET for the last 24 years, engaged by many government clients, I have often seen examples of game-playing by those clients. For instance, ...

Federal Labor has announced an election plan that would create a new tier of higher education – one that looks strikingly similar to the college system universities absorbed 25 years ago. Shadow minister for higher education Kim Carr has announced that Labor ...

If federal public policymakers lack the knowledge and in-house experience related to VET, how can they address its problems? If you have spent the last 40 years in the vocational education sector, like I have, you will be used to ...

A new report shows that to simply maintain current participation rates in higher education and VET, both sectors will need rapid enrollment growth throughout the coming years. Participation rates, in this context, refers to the proportion of people who are either ...

The federal government lays VET FEE-HELP’s failure at Labor’s feet, conveniently ignoring its own policy shortcomings since 2013. What does a government do when the whole country knows its policy has failed? In the case of the current federal government ...

Federal Labor has refused to disclose details of whom it consulted for its VET FEE-HELP cap, though it certainly didn’t talk to two of the major industry groups representing TAFEs and private education providers. The $8000 question now is, Whom did Labor consult? ...

Collaboration is the beating heart of effective vocational education spaces, an architect has said. Mark Freeman, from specialist educational architecture firm Gray Puksand, recently completed a $5.1 million VET facility situated in Melbourne’s Somerville Secondary College. Freeman said he worked closely ...

The 2016–17 federal Budget confirms that Commonwealth investment in Vocational Education and Training (VET) will fall by more than $500 million in 2017–18, when the National Partnership Agreement on Skills Reform expires. There will also be reductions of $50 million over four years ...

The federal government is discussing capping the prices of vocational courses offered through VET FEE-HELP. This is one of the options tabled in a discussion paper the federal skills minister, Scott Ryan, released today. It read: “Recognising course costs are often unreflective of ...