Page 1427 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 28 March 2012
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the higher education market and impacting not only on the University of Canberra but on other education providers such as the CIT.
At the same time, new vocational education and training funding arrangements are being negotiated under the revised national agreement on skills and workforce development and a new partnership on schools reform. Funding will increasingly depend on jurisdiction and VET reform in the areas of quality, transparency, efficiency and equity.
Key reforms under this national partnership include a national entitlement to training at a minimum of the first certificate III qualification, wider access to student loans, increased availability of information about courses, support for quality teaching and assessment, support for a strong public training provider network and incentives to achieve improved completion of full qualifications to deliver the qualified workers needed by business.
Another significant driver of reform is the Australian government funding for territory education under such programs as the education investment fund and the structural adjustment fund. These programs are increasingly seeking to promote collaborations between institutions, including higher education and VET providers, to ensure pathways between educational sectors as a means of helping to achieve COAG targets.
In 2008 COAG agreed to ambitious targets for assisting Australians to increase their marketable skills base including doubling the number of diploma and advanced diploma levels attained and halving the proportion of Australians aged 20 to 64 without a qualification to the certificate III level or higher by 2020.
In addition to an agreement on skills funding with the states and territories worth $7.2 billion, the Australian government has committed a further $1.75 billion over five years to support deep and lasting reforms to Australia’s national training system. This will be discussed at the COAG meeting to be held on 13 April. To achieve these reforms the Australian government is negotiating with the states and territories for a national partnership agreement on skills reform with a view to providing a national training system that is flexible and responsive to the needs of businesses and individuals.
As UC and CIT are the only tertiary education providers created under ACT legislation, the factors I mentioned above must be fully considered by the ACT government as we consider the future of tertiary education in the ACT. In 2009 the ACT government set out the need for bold ideas to make the most of the opportunities and challenges that lay ahead in the area of tertiary education. In the face of the national reforms being driven by the Australian government and the changing needs of employers and students, we needed to examine the whole tertiary education sector in the ACT.
Therefore, in May 2010 the then Minister for Education and Training, Minister Andrew Barr, formed the ACT Tertiary Taskforce to consult with stakeholders to develop a vision for the future of tertiary education in the ACT. The Tertiary
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