Major VET Changes Announced
Over the weekend major overhauls to the Vocational Education sector were announced that aim to make the vocational sector in Australia easier to navigate, and more efficient. This will largely be done through the removal of significant duplicate units and courses, something which has plagued vocational education for some time.
There are currently 5,000 vocational education and training or VET units which have more than 70% overlap with at least one other unit. By combining many of these courses and units the simplified vocational education system would become easier to understand for students while also reducing the work required for vocational educators.
“Due to transferable skills being poorly recognized, students may need to undertake duplicate additional training that delivers similar skills to those they already have to move into a new job,”
The changes also look to refocus the vocational education industry on providing the skills needed to fill vacancies in areas with high skill shortages. Aged care is one of these higher skill shortage areas along with Training and Assessment which are two of Skills Strategies International's core industry areas.
Future funding for the 2023/24 financial year has also already been announced over the weekend. Most of this funding focuses on the 180,000 fee-free TAFE enrolments that are expected to become available by 2023. However, there is still going to be a significant amount of funding provided to the private side of the vocational education industry. This funding will be provided mostly by the federal and state governments along with some commonwealth assistance. Although this funding has only been guaranteed through the 23/24 financial year there are currently negotiations happening to guarantee this funding for the next five years.
We'd love to hear how you feel about these changes. The increased focus on vocational education is always great to see but how do you feel about the change to a TAFE-focused vocational education industry? Leave a comment below.
If you're interested in taking advantage of this new round of funding for vocational education feel free to send us an inquiry. We've got a course that can help you.
Contact us here: https://www.skillstrategies.edu.au/contact/
