In this speech, Mitchell Professorial Fellow Peter Noonan discusses the role of vocational education and training (VET) and calls for a sustainable investment base for VET and a more coherent funding model across the tertiary education system in Australia. Introduction The national VET system in Australia is very much at the crossroads. While workforce skills...

This report covers the results of the 2013 financial audits of 27 Victorian entities, comprising 14 technical and further education (TAFE) institutes and the 13 entities they control. It highlights that many TAFEs have yet to respond effectively to changes to the funding model and contestability arrangements, resulting in a significant decline in the financial...

The overriding objectives of the proposed standards are to be flexible and responsive to industry, less onerous, reduce costs for RTOs and less of a regulatory burden for RTOs. Furthermore the national training system is to be industry led, using appropriately skilled trainers and assessors capable of delivering high quality outcomes. As such, REIA supports...

Workforce exclusion is a complex and enduring problem in Australia, with some groups of job seekers more likely to be disadvantaged in the labour market than others. We identify a dominant unemployment narrative of ‘work first’ that surrounds unemployment interventions, and ignores the nature of disadvantage and its relationship to workforce exclusion, and reduces unemployment...

This paper synthesises what is currently published on the access and participation of disadvantaged learners in higher-level vocational education and training (VET) qualifications and higher education, and their transitions from lower-level VET qualifications to higher-level VET and higher education. Introduction: The VET system provides opportunities for individuals to undertake training for employment-related reasons, to enable...