What capabilities are needed by VET leaders, asks John Mitchell. There is a myth in the VET sector that most of its current leaders have been there forever and are likely to stay on indefinitely. Contradicting that view is a ...

Two senior VET figures, including a member of the Bradley review panel, have expressed concern about the outlook for the recurrent funding of Australia’s VET sector. VET institutions that also offer higher education qualifications will have an advantage over their ...

TAFEs are being forced to raise bigger chunks of their revenue from employers and international students, as government funding fails to keep pace with inflation. The NCVER ‘Financial information 2008’ report, released last month, shows that operating revenue for Australia’s ...

Recent research presents a confronting picture of the impact of the economic downturn on the transition of young people from school to work and further study and training, writes Lucas Walsh. Between 2008 and 2009, the proportion of teenagers not ...

Who will create a tertiary system - policy makers or providers, asks John Mitchell. One advantage of the new market based environment emerging in vocational education is that progressive providers are spotting and grasping opportunities. For instance, progressive VET providers ...

NSW TAFE teachers threaten strike action NSW TAFE teachers are staging wildcat strikes, defying an Industrial Relations Commission judgment on work conditions in return for pay rises. Several strikes took place last week at TAFE campuses in Sydney and Wollongong. ...

Incentive payments aren’t the main driver of traineeships, and many employers participate even when subsidies aren’t available because they’re convinced of the benefits, according to a new NCVER report. The report, ‘High-quality traineeships: identifying what works’, says research findings don’t ...

Social policy aimed at early intervention is the key to educational success for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, writes Ross Homel. The educational journey to university study begins early. Children learn first from their parents and siblings to lay the foundations ...

Australia may now be trying to unravel the link between education and migration. But for other countries it’s full steam ahead, writes Lesleyanne Hawthorne. There is unprecedented competition for international students. In the context of demographic change, large numbers of ...

The new AQF needs to be explicit about how it will be developed by building in an expectation of change, writes Conor King. One challenge for any reform proposal is how well it pre-supposes future change. Too often one rigid ...