The Victorian Review of Quality Assurance in Victoria’s VET System is out.
The review is to make 19 key recommendations that seem likely to focus on providing more funding to TAFEs, while implementing tougher requirements and more regulation for training providers (RTOs) delivering government funded training.
The Victorian Labor government have made their agenda very clear. It is their focus to provide additional support and funding to Victorian TAFEs, not to RTOs. The $9m blitz is a direct attack on the private sector and the time for you to take action on ensuring your RTOs compliance is now. [emaillocker id=6291]
It is up to RTOs to identify and rectify non compliance’s and areas for improvement. The best practice approach is to undertake a detailed independent internal audit, with the review of a statistically valid sample of government funded student files. Identify any issues in your business processes, address the issues and maintain a record of your approach to continuously improving your organisation.
Minister Herbert is reportedly supporting all 19 key recommendations, which will see tougher requirements for RTOs, improved quality of VET teacher qualifications. Further immediate actions based on the Review’s recommendations include:
● Stricter entry requirements for the government-funded training system
● A consumer awareness campaign with information to help students chose the right course and provider
● Tighter restrictions on the approval of subcontracting, to where it is genuine, specialised and limited
● Greater transparency of poor quality training, such as problem providers that had a contract terminated for serious compliance issues
● A revamp of online tools for students, businesses and industry to get information and provide feedback
Minister Herbert is quoted as saying:
“This audit blitz is a crucial first-step in ensuring Victoria’s training system is the best it can be by removing providers that provide poor or fraudulent outcomes which do not meet industry standards.”
“After four years of the Liberals, we’re rescuing TAFEs and rebuilding our training system so young people get the skills they need for the jobs they want.”
The Australian reports that today Federal Training Minister Simon Birmingham will announce a crackdown on aggressive recruitment practices among RTOs.
From the 1st of July, training providers will be banned from fining or charging “administrative’’ fees for students who decide to withdraw from a course of study before the census date. Training providers will also be banned from marketing courses as “free’’ or “government-funded’’.
The Australian has quoted Senator Birmingham… [emaillocker id=6291]
“We want every incentive for training companies to enrol students for the purest of reasons,’’
“Some students are being enrolled for the wrong reasons: purely to access government-provided loans without providing quality training. Nobody should be taking out a VET Fee-Help loan for any reason other than undertaking high-quality training that will enhance their employment prospects.’’
Students must be told they will have to repay their loan in instalments once they earn $54,126 a year. “It’s a loan and there is every expectation it should be paid back during the course of your working life,’’
We applaud Senator Birmingham’s stance on the matter and the changes being made. This simple yet effective change is likely to clean up some of the worst practices that we have seen across the sector with VET Fee Help over the past few years.
The team at AuditExpress are forecasting a significant increase to the regulation and scheduling of audits of both VET Fee Help RTOs and those RTOs with State based funding contracts in the 2015/2016 financial year. The time to check your compliance is now.
AuditExpress are proud sponsors of the ACPET #VICVETFORUM being held in Melbourne next Tuesday 9th June 2015. [emaillocker id=6291]
In preparation for the event be sure to get your Twitter & Instagram accounts ready. This is set to be a very interactive #VET forum that will involve a live stream for attending guests to interact and have their say throughout the day via their Twitter and Instagram accounts.
The following link is for the ACPET tweetbeam wall that will be used throughout the day for the events hashtag #VICVETFORUM.
All tweets and retweets will be populated here leading up to and on the day of the forum. This wall will be displayed live, allowing full interaction throughout the forum.
Be sure to include the #VICVETFORUM hashtag in your tweets and instagram posts about the forum and also tag: Senator Simon Birmingham – @birmo
ACPET – @ACPET_national
This is set to be an outstanding forum with the most impressive list of keynote speakers this year! We look forward to seeing you all there.
