About: Don Perlgut

Australia’s vocational education and training (VET) policy discussion space has just become a lot more intense with the announcement by the Federal Australian Labor Party of a national inquiry. On 23 February, Deputy ALP Leader (and Shadow Education Minister) Tanya Plibersek announced a “shake up of TAFE and uni”, stating that “Labor wants...

Community Colleges Australia has forged new connections with two leading Southern California community colleges. Following meetings with the Presidents of Los Angeles City College and San Diego City College, Community Colleges Australia (CCA) CEO Dr Don Perlgut said, “CCA looks forward to expanding the reach and international connections between Australian community education providers – often called...

A new report from Community Colleges Australia (CCA) highlights how NSW community education providers contribute to the state’s regional and rural economic development. The report concludes that the not-for-profit community education sector constitutes a major economic development resource that has been under-utilised by state, Commonwealth and local governments. “CCA’s report has been produced to ensure that...

Did we need any more proof that uncapped funding of private for-profit vocational education and training (VET) providers has been a disaster for Australia? A “disastrous backfire”, according to John Ross, writing in The Australian on Thursday 1 February 2018. His article (“Vocation training open market schemes a disaster”) about the Productivity...

Garry John Traynor, Founding Principal of Sydney Community College (SCC), has received an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in the General Division for “services to adult education”. Sydney Community College was previously known as Leichhardt-Marrickville Community College. Following Garry’s appointment as Principal in 1986, it became Sydney Community College under Garry’s leadership in...

Will the Skilling Australians Fund (SAF) save Australian vocational education and training? Probably not, is the answer. That’s what we can glean from today’s Australian newspaper (John Ross, “Migration slump jeopardises funding for VET sector”), which reports that, “Government figures show that the number of primary skilled visas being issued fell by more...