Australian vocational education policy is failing, and it’s not hard to see why.
That’s the key message from Professor John Quiggan, the University of Queensland, writing in Inside Story on 22 February 2018. Here, in summary, are quotes from Professor Quggin’s article:
The crisis
“Vocational education in Australia is in crisis. Traditional on-the-job training, through...
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New NCVER report confirms Australian community education providers provide the best VET services to disadvantaged Australians
Australia’s community education sector provides the best services to disadvantaged Australians, a regional “place-based” analysis has shown.
This is one of the major findings from a new report from the National Centre for Vocational Educational Research (NCVER), Improving participation and success in VET for disadvantaged learners.
The NCVER report undertook detailed correlation analyses, which...
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CCA encourages use of philanthropic funding now more than $4 billion in Australia
Community Colleges Australia (CCA) has encouraged its members to expand their use of philanthropic funding, now worth more than $4 billion each year in Australia.
The significance of philanthropic funding was underlined last week, with the release by the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) of a report on Australia’s grant-making charities, which...
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Commonwealth Government’s VET Student Loans Program Continues to Discriminate Against Community Providers
The Australian Government’s VET Student Loans program – which replaced the much-abused and scandal-prone VET FEE-HELP loan program in January 2017 – continues to discriminate against the not-for-profit community education providers of vocational education and training (VET). Program design faults of the former VET FEE-HELP program...
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VET Policy Space Gets Hotter with National Inquiry Announced by Labor
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...
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Byron Community College instrumental in developing new Mullumbimby Innovation Hub
Byron Community College, located in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, has played an instrumental role in developing the new Mullumbimby Innovation Hub.
Following the unexpected December 2017 closure by Nortec of the CLIC Business Village – co-located on Byron Council land with Byron Community College – the College has worked rapidly,
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