The review of the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 – also known as the Braithwaite Review after it’s reviewer, Professor Valerie Braithwaite – has been released.
The final report, entitled All eyes on quality: Review of the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 report and the Australian Government’s response were both released on Friday 22 June 2018.
Announcing the release, the Hon Karen Andrews MP, Assistant Minister for Vocational Education and Skills, said: “The Australian Government supports and will progress 9 recommendations from the report, and we support in-principle a further 11 recommendations that will require more work with key stakeholders.”
“Providing protection for students also remains a priority. We are supporting recommendations that will ensure prospective students have access to the information they need about courses and providers so they can make the best decisions about their future,” Minister Andrews said.
CCA has reproduced below all of the recommendations and the government’s acceptance (or not) of each recommendation. The Government response comes in four forms: “supports”, “supports in principle” or “notes”.
“Presumably, when the Government simply ‘notes’ the recommendation it is not agreeing to it, and when it ‘supports in principle’ it means that it will probably do something but not necessarily accept the full recommendation,” said Dr Don Perlgut, CEO of Community Colleges Australia.
“CCA welcomes the release of the final report and encourages all RTO members to look through it carefully for the excellent and objective analysis,” said Dr Perlgut.
Other than a short item in today’s Australian newspaper, there has been little media coverage of the report’s release.
There were 68 submissions to the Review, including from Community Colleges Australia (CCA). The CCA submission was quoted a number of times in the final report, especially in relation the challenges that RTOs in meeting ASQA’s compliance requirements.
Selections from the Review
On VET disruption:
“The VET sector has experienced significant disruptions in recent years, most notably the fallout from the VET FEE-HELP scheme, which gave rise to seriously unscrupulous behaviour resulting in significant harm being done not only to the sector’s reputation but to the wellbeing – financial and emotional – of a significant cohort of students.” (p. 6)
On consumer protection:
“Consumer protection has not kept abreast of the increasing commodification of [VET] students and the business practices that have exploited them.” (p. 9)
On VET RTO private provider churn:
“Recent years have seen a sudden influx of RTOs into the market. Many were unprepared to meet the standards and the compliance expectations that have made their presence felt across the tertiary education sector. The churn in the system has been high. Others entered the industry with no obvious educational intent, but with an eye to gaming the funding system.” (p. 10)
Comparing the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) to other Australian regulators:
“The criticism most often made of Australian regulators over past decades is that they do not use their powers to sanction seriously egregious behaviour. This criticism cannot be levelled at ASQA.” (p. 10)
On VET funding:
“Funding arrangements for VET are complex. VET can be funded by individual students, employers, the states and territories within their respective jurisdictions, and the Commonwealth through programs such as the National Workforce Development Specific Purpose Payment, the Australian Apprenticeship Incentive Program, the Skills for Education Program, the Skilling Australians Fund and VET Student Loans (VSL), or a combination of these sources. As it is a significant driver of behaviour, funding also serves important regulatory functions.” (report page 10)
In a wide-ranging review of regulation, the report cites examples from the regulatory literature:
“In the case of the near meltdown of the nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island in 1979, one of the causes of the accident was having operators who had become rule-following automatons. When disaster struck, the rulebook was not helpful; operators needed to be strategic thinkers who could think systemically about what needed to be done to prevent acceleration of the disaster. Nuclear regulation changed its paradigm after the catastrophe, from government inspectors checking compliance with rules, to a regulatory system in which risk management systems were scrutinised and reintegrative shaming was used within the nuclear professional community of companies that failed to improve their systems.” (p. 33)
The report included a cute infographic summarising the background of the 68 submissions:
REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS AND GOVERNMENT RESPONSES
To make it easier to find the recommendations and the Government’s response, CCA has listed all of them below, in thematic order, as detailed in the Government Response paper:
Enhancing engagement between the regulator and the sector
Recommendation 1: ASQA develop and implement processes to enhance its capabilities and opportunities to proactively engage in regulatory conversations with students, teachers, RTOs, industry and other interested stakeholders. The desired outcomes are to improve the value of the student-focused regulatory approach and involve the sector in developing the regulatory culture that drives ASQA’s use of its legislative powers.
- The Government supports this recommendation
Recommendation 2: In order to enhance transparency and consistency in the use of the legislative framework, ASQA should build on its regulatory conversations and practice reflections to develop and clearly articulate to the regulatory community the principles applied to the interpretation of legislation and the use of powers.
- The Government supports this recommendation
Recommendation 3: ASQA works with RTOs to develop positive assurance flags to include in the ASQA risk matrix and develop a mutually agreed method of communicating this information publicly without increasing the compliance burden on RTOs.
- The Government supports this recommendation
Recommendation 14: The Australian Government explores ways to strengthen the regulatory framework by expanding the circle of dialogue around improving the quality of the student journey pre- and post-audit to include all stakeholders who could contribute to future improvement in an RTO’s performance
Strengthening registration requirements of RTOs
Recommendation 4: The Australian Government amends the VET Quality Framework to ensure that entrants to the registered training market be required to clearly demonstrate educational commitment and knowledge of how to provide best practice support to students. This statement of commitment should be required as a condition of registration and include quality performance objectives, which, if breached, could lead to sanctions and ultimately de-registration.
- The Government supports this recommendation
Recommendation 5: The Australian Government strengthens the fit and proper person requirements and change notification requirements under the NVETR legislation and where appropriate aligns them with TEQSA and ESOS Act provisions and any other relevant legislation.
- The Government supports this recommendation
Recommendation 6: The Australian Government amends the VET Quality Framework to ensure greater scrutiny of new providers to:
- provide that where an RTO without reasonable justification does not commence providing training within 12 months of being registered, or during its registration ceases to provide training for a 12-month period, its registration automatically lapses, meaning that it would no longer be registered.
- prevent RTOs changing the scope of the courses they deliver where an RTO has been operating for less than 12 months.
- The Government supports this recommendation
Recommendation 21: The VET Quality Framework be amended to explicitly address student safety and wellbeing in alignment with the Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2015.
Teaching excellence
Recommendation 7: The VET Quality Framework be revised to require an RTO to assess the quality of its teaching workforce and develop teacher quality improvement actions, which must be submitted to ASQA annually as a part of the Quality Indicator Annual Summary report.
- The Government supports in principle this recommendation
Recommendation 8: The Training and Education Training Package be reviewed with the purpose of creating a career path for teaching excellence in vocational education and training.
- The Government supports in principle this recommendation
Recommendation 9: The Australian Government leads a process to raise the standards of teaching and training excellence and professionalism in the sector through creation of the role of Master Assessor. A Master Assessor would be placed at the pinnacle of the VET teacher/trainer career path with the responsibility to mentor through professional development programs and assess the quality of an RTO’s next cohort of graduating students.
Improving the collection and sharing of data
Recommendation 10: The legislative framework be amended to increase the frequency of data provision to the National Centre for Vocational Education Research to quarterly for all RTOs.
- The Government supports in principle this recommendation
Recommendation 11: The Australian Government prioritises the improvement of policies and systems that allow for transfer of real-time data for timely use by other agencies with regulatory responsibilities for identifying and responding to emerging sectoral and provider-based issues.
- The Government supports this recommendation
Recommendation 12:
- The Australian Government and the National Centre for Vocational Education Research explore ways to increase student response rates to the Student Outcomes Survey, and
- The National Centre for Vocational Education Research, ASQA, and the sector identify a module of questions that directly addresses the quality of the student journey in the Student Outcomes Survey.
- The Government supports in principle this recommendation
Recommendation 13: The legislative framework be amended to enable the National Centre for Vocational Education Research to make the RTO level data it holds publicly available and identifiable.
Protecting and informing students
Recommendation 15: The National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 be amended to require ASQA to publicly release audit reports.
- The Government supports in principle this recommendation
Recommendation 16: The legislative framework be amended to require RTOs to publish nationally consistent consumer information that is accessible and meaningful to students and meets the basic needs for decision making (for example, course entry requirements, course length, employment outcomes, and fees, including subsidies and course cancellation fees).
- The Government supports this recommendation
Recommendation 17: The legislative framework be amended to strengthen ASQA’s ability to take action under a general prohibition against misleading or deceptive conduct which reflects Australian Consumer Law requirements.
- The Government notes this recommendation
Recommendation 18: The legislative framework be amended to require RTOs to strengthen consumer protection in student enrolment agreements through the adoption of contracts that avoid unfair terms as defined in Australian Consumer Law.
- The Government supports in principle this recommendation
Recommendation 19: The legislative framework be amended to require RTOs to keep electronic records showing a minimum of student completions of units, courses and qualifications over the life of the RTO, preferably using an AVETMISS-compliant student management system.
- The Government supports this recommendation
Recommendation 20: The Australian Government investigates ways in which, in cases of administration and liquidation, priority is given to the timely provision of student records to ASQA and the protection of students’ investment in their education.
- The Government supports in principle this recommendation
Recommendation 22: The Australian Government considers strengthening tuition assurance by assuming responsibility for the operation of all tuition assurance and protection arrangements and ensuring that the scope of these arrangements protects all VET students.
- The Government notes this recommendation
Recommendation 23: The Australian Government establishes a national Tertiary Sector Ombudsman.
- The Government supports in principle this recommendation
