Page 2279 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 12 August 2014
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students and delivered 6.3 million training hours. CIT is an important element in the government’s commitment to assist Canberrans to be part of a well-trained and highly skilled workforce. It is because of the valuable contribution CIT makes, and will continue to make, that the government is committed to ensuring it has a strong future.
The vocational education and training environment is undergoing significant change. These changes include the introduction of income-contingent loans; the introduction of entitlement to training to certificate III level; and the implementation of the unique student identifier number. The changes have provided some powerful impetus for change at the CIT. CIT, I believe, needs to be positioned to be able to adapt to this new environment, to ensure its success and to ensure that the ACT economy continues to prosper.
This is why the ACT government has committed to developing and implementing revised governance arrangements for CIT, to give it a more business orientated structure, making it more flexible, responsive and competitive.
The CIT Advisory Council commissioned a review of CIT’s governance and autonomy late last year and provided me with a report in January. Findings of the review indicated the increasing difficulty for CIT to operate under the current governance arrangements while operating in a competitive training market. The changes I announced a few weeks ago will result in a shift away from the current advisory council to a new governing board and a mix of private and public sector expertise.
To position itself for the future, CIT has developed a blueprint to meet the challenges ahead. The blueprint includes the 2014-16 strategic plan; a new organisation structure, with teaching centres consolidated into four teaching colleges and a matrix model of management made up of four divisions designed to provide leadership and support; and a campus modernisation strategy, which is being developed to focus on contemporary fit-for-purpose facilities and the latest technology.
The modernisation will include a campus in Tuggeranong to ensure that thousands of the current and future students of CIT in Tuggeranong valley have a modern vocational training facility in their local community. Mr Doszpot questioned whether the demand was there. Through the estimates we provide in very clear figures for demand, we see that the bulk of the students that currently travel to Woden campus indeed come from Tuggeranong. Perhaps Mr Doszpot should have paid a bit more attention to that. The new campus will provide a modern facility not only capable of being a hub of learning but offering full courses as well as mixed modes of delivery.
As our largest training organisation and our only public provider, it is in the interests of the people of Canberra that CIT remains a significant player in the training sector.
Other comments that Mr Doszpot went to included the issue of bullying. These have been well and truly investigated at the highest level with independent investigators. Mr Doszpot has received briefing after briefing and information on this; I find it disappointing that he still expresses lack of confidence in the ACT public service commissioner and in the executive of CIT. The report found that there was no systemic bullying there.
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