The federal government’s latest initiative to ensure that migrant tradespeople meet Australian occupational standards is an implicit admission that the national training system doesn’t work as it’s supposed to, according to two Griffith University VET experts. In the May budget, ...

The $2 billion Productivity Places Program (PPP) is gaining momentum with Western Australian TAFEs, according to the chief of the state’s largest public training provider. Swan TAFE CEO Wayne Collyer told Campus Review he expected to enrol around 2500 PPP ...

Victoria spends $16 million on TAFE ad campaign Victorian taxpayers will spend more than $16 million spruiking a new state government policy that has increased the cost of some TAFE courses by thousands of dollars, reports The Age. Under the ...

What can TAFE colleges learn from the business models of private providers, asks John Mitchell. What do you get when you appoint as TAFE institute director someone with only six years experience in TAFE, following previous appointments as marketing manager ...

The innovation agenda appears to have overlooked VET, but it is a potentially powerful research area, says Francesca Beddie. I keep reading that innovation will help us climb out of the economic downturn and onto a path to a more ...

Skills reform could cost Victorian TAFEs more than $50 million over the next three and a half years, primarily because of a quiet move to monthly funding arrangements, according to a confidential email circulated among senior officials in the state’s ...

The federal government’s training commitments under its two recent compacts – the compact with young Australians announced in April, and this month’s compact with retrenched workers – have been quietly absorbed into the government’s pre-existing commitments under the Productivity Places ...

Victorian TAFE institutes have been caught up in a Department of Treasury and Finance edict that severely restricts where they can keep their money – even though they’re part of what the state government calls the “most devolved and autonomous” ...

Should VET teaching focus more on demonstrable competence or student potential, asks John Mitchell. A review is currently underway of the basic qualification in training and assessment for VET practitioners. The review presents an important opportunity for the sector to ...

Audit blitz hits dodgy colleges Forensic auditors could be used in the first major crackdown on corrupt training colleges for overseas students in Melbourne, reports The Age. The colleges are suspected of exploiting students, migration fraud and breaches of education ...