Page 3201 - Week 10 - Thursday, 25 September 2014
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Also in 2010 the ACT government formed an ACT Tertiary Taskforce to consult on the future of tertiary education, including vocational education and training and higher education. The task force brought together education providers, industry and government. In its response to the task force report of February 2011 the ACT government established the Learning Capital Council to provide advice on tertiary education policy and planning, including workforce issues. The views of the council were well represented on both the Tertiary Taskforce and the Learning Capital Council by the council chair, John Richards.
As members are aware, in 2012 the ACT government established a ministerial portfolio for higher education. Administrative Arrangements 2014 (No 1) transferred the responsibility for the provision of advice about higher education from the directorate to the Chief Minister’s Treasury and Economic Development Directorate. Members will also recall that in 2013 the Chief Minister and Minister for Higher Education established the vice-chancellors forum to inquire into and advise on issues about higher education. The Chief Minister chairs the forum, and members include the vice-chancellors of the Australian National University and the University of Canberra, as well as senior representatives from the Australian Catholic University and the University of New South Wales Canberra.
As a result of these initiatives, today’s bill also repeals the council’s function to inquire into and advise ministers about vocational education and training and higher education issues. Further, the bill includes amendments that will assign oversight of the ACT vocational education and training system to the director-general of the Education and Training Directorate. These amendments are intended to support the implementation of further reforms to the ACT’s vocational education and training system. Further reforms include the implementation of nationally agreed Australian Apprenticeships harmonisation principles, designed to simplify and streamline the Australian Apprenticeships system.
The amendments are also intended to facilitate the Education and Training Directorate’s implementation of ongoing reforms to quality, efficiency, transparency, equity and access in the ACT’s vocational education and training sector, in line with similar reforms at the national level.
This is not the first time that the ACT vocational education and training and higher education legislation has been amended to complement reforms agreed at the national level. ACT legislation underwent major revisions in 2003 and 2007 for similar purposes to those for which I present this Training and Tertiary Education Amendment Bill today.
I would now like to turn members’ attention to the amendment in the bill that provides the director-general with the power to determine a probationary period for apprenticeships and traineeships. This provision will allow the employer or apprentice or trainee to end the training contract before the end of the probationary period, without requiring formal approval from the director-general. It also streamlines this compliance requirement, while still maintaining appropriate protection for the parties to the contract.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video