Page 3200 - Week 10 - Thursday, 25 September 2014
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MS BURCH (Brindabella—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Disability, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Racing and Gaming, Minister for Women and Minister for the Arts) (11.09): I move:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
Vocational education and training and higher education are key enablers of continued economic growth for Canberra, through impacts on productivity and competitiveness. The ACT tertiary education sector also contributes to the social wellbeing of Canberrans by providing life-long learning opportunities. For over a decade the ACT vocational education and training and higher education sectors have undergone a succession of reforms aimed at improving quality, accessibility, equity and efficiency in the delivery of tertiary education. These aims are linked to reforms at the commonwealth level designed, on the whole, to achieve national consistency. As a result of the recent move to a national regulatory system for vocational education and training and higher education, the ACT legislation requires revision to bring it up to date.
Commonwealth legislation has established the National VET Regulator, which is known as the Australian Skills Quality Authority, or ASQA. ASQA is now responsible for the registration of vocational education and training providers in the ACT and the accreditation of VET courses. In addition, Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, or TEQSA, has assumed national responsibility for the registration and accreditation of higher education providers, including universities. The commonwealth legislation establishing ASQA and TEQSA effectively overrides the ACT legislative provisions for the registration and accreditation of vocational education and training and higher education providers. It is, therefore, no longer necessary to maintain the legislative functions and powers of the ACT Accreditation and Registration Council. The bill I am presenting today will repeal the establishment of the council and its functions and powers.
I take this opportunity to thank the council for its work since its establishment in 1995. The council laid valuable groundwork for the evolution of the current ACT vocational education and training system. The council’s good work was conducted in close cooperation with the Education and Training Directorate, in its role as secretariat to the council and its subcommittees.
In addition to accreditation and registration, the current legislation also assigns additional advice functions to the council. Since 2010 the council’s additional advice functions have been gradually replaced by the Education and Training Directorate and the Chief Minister’s Treasury and Economic Development Directorate, supported by a range of new initiatives, including local and national advisory bodies.
This transformation reflects substantial changes to the tertiary education landscape at both the national and local levels. For example, the council’s regular stakeholder engagement activities—facilitated by the Education and Training Directorate—have been replaced since 2010 by the directorate’s quarterly VET stakeholder forums. These forums enable the directorate to consult directly with stakeholders about issues of quality in vocational education and training and to gather evidence on which to base its advice to the government.
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