2
program. Governments regulate, and encourage growth in apprenticeships and traineeships through
a range of policy instruments: Financial incentives have been offered to
employers to increase the affordability of hiring an apprentice
Apprentice wages have increased, and financial bonuses such as an 800 toolkit
allowance offered
for milestone
achievements Unique funding access is offered through
the School-based apprenticeship program However, industry has been vocal about the
engagement level of the government-funded training system. Numerous industry stakeholders
have been highly critical of TAFE, in particular its poor response times and inflexibility to meet
employer and industry needs AiG Response to Productivity Commission Draft Report Vocational
Education Workforce, Feb 2011.
The Government Response
The Council of Australian Governments COAG has committed the nation to the opening up of the
apprenticeship training market and in 2011 Victoria was the first state to implement the national policy
of full contestability for access to government VET funding.
Prominent industry groups have pressured Australian governments to reform the VET system,
to meet their own skills development needs. Governments have responded by encouraging
industry and employers to manage their own training needs. Industry as customer of VET.
State Governments: Marketisation of the vocational education system
In 2009, the Victorian Government announced the opening of access to VET funding in
the policy Securing Jobs for your Future: Skills for Victoria
. In particular, “the most significant impact of these changes was the shift from a planning
and purchasing model with limited contestability, to a demand based funding model with significantly
increased contestability and client choice”2. Individuals as customers of VET.
1.2 Skills Victoria is the state government department responsible for VET delivery in
Victoria. http:www.skills.vic.gov.au__dataassetspdf_file
0007188449ssa-review-of-skills-vic.pdf This redefines the market, inviting private
providers to lobby employers and apprentices alike
for their training services. TAFEs experienced strong competition in the less resource-intensive
trade training domains. It is clear that the opening of the market has had two clear impacts on
Victorian VET delivery:
1. The number of students acquiring VET
qualifications has increased; and 2.
The proportion of private VET providers issuing qualifications has increased
significantly 2011 Victorian Training Market Quarterly Report
– Full Year, March 2012 ‘Contestability’ the policy has changed the
profile of VET delivery in Victoria, with the Victorian private provider market share increasing
from 12 to 34 in the period between 2008 and 2011 p8, Victorian Training Market Quarterly
Report
– Full Year, DEECD. Within Victoria University’s traditional geographic heartland of
Western Melbourne, 168 new private providers have registered their operations in the 18 months
prior to December 2011 2011 Victorian Training Market Quarterly Report
– Full Year, DEECD. In May 2012, Department of Education Early
Childhood Development DEECD delivered Refocusing Vocational Training in Victoria as part
of the State Budget 2012. The neo-liberal response to excessive VET expenditure has reduced State
government investment in vocational education and
training, removing TAFE ‘Full Service Provider’ funding and drastically reducing ‘profile’ funding
of many courses. Victorian TAFE providers are forecasting a 400m impact of the strategy with up
to 2000 staff redundancies. The Australian Council of Private Education Training ACPET forecasts
up to 900 job losses from private providers. Without government direction and in the hands of a
highly contested market, numerous providers have
withdrawn delivery to ‘boutique’ trades such as gunsmithing, watch-making and boat-building, as
the financial viability of these courses is threatened. Also, there is significant concern from Unions,
TAFEs, industry that the exposure of market forces to the provision of trade training services will
reduce the quality of training. Since the
‘contestability’ strategy has been implemented, numerous private training organisations have been
closed due to financial and quality shortfalls. Federal Government: Redirection of funding
In 2012, the Council of Australian Governments
COAG asserted its commitment to TAFE at the centre of its skills development strategy. However,
changes to the provision of government investment to training indicate a similar trend away from
central government investment towards employer client responsibility for training. Initiatives such as
Workforce Development Funding specify that:
3
“Under the Fund, organisations can identify their current and future business and workforce
development needs and apply for funding to support the training of existing workers and new workers in
areas of need. “The Fund is part of the Australian
Government’s Building Australia’s Future Workforce package and also forms part of
Australian Government Skills Connect, an initiative designed to consolidate Government skills
programs and better target training to meet
industry and employer needs.”3 1.3 DEEWR,
http:www.deewr.gov.auSkillsProgramsSkil lTrainingnwdfPagesdefault.aspx
1.4 Industry Skills Councils http:www.isc.org.au
These funds are administered or regulated through Industry Skills Councils4 and provided to
employers rather than RTOs. This effectively mirrors the Victorian government intent, to place
employers and industry at the heart of training. Inherent in that intent is that employers take
responsibility for the development of their own workforces. Employers as customers of VET.
In effect, employers and industry have been repositioned as the primary customers of vocational
education and training.
2. Industry
Numerous industry stakeholders have been highly critical of the TAFE workforce, in particular its
poor response times and inflexibility to meet employer and industry needs AiG Response to
Productivity Commission Draft Report Vocational
Education Workforce, Feb 2011. Over the last ten years Australian governments
have suggested and implemented various policies to address not only skills shortages, but the
criticisms of powerful industry stakeholders. Each attempts to increase stakeholder engagement with
training, targeting employers, industry, Registered Training Organisations RTOs and individuals.
Industry representative groups such as Australian Industry Group, AiG have successfully lobbied
successive governments for pro-industry reforms to the apprenticeship system, such as a shift away
from the time-served model towards Competency- Based
Progression in
Engineering and
Automotive and Competency-Based Completions CBCs in 13 trades, including Carpentry, Cookery,
Electrical, Plumbing, Hairdressing, etc. Another of the COAG commitments, these changes are
currently being rolled out. To reduce the time served in an apprenticeship addresses labour
shortages through a shortened pipeline, and attempts to present a more attractive model for
young people considering a career in trades. Individuals as customers in VET.
To attract more young people into trades, the Australian Government has committed 2.5 billion
to the establishment of Trades Training Centres TTCs in schools across Australia. TAFE is likely
to see
– and collaborate in – the shift of delivery of Certificate II School-Based Apprenticeship, Pre-
apprenticeship and VET in Schools programs onto these school sites.
3. Attractiveness of VET to Local Youth
The status of apprenticeships has been promoted to young people and their parents with increased
marketing to Careers Educators and through popular media. Over many years, government
Government as customer of VET implemented financial incentives as levers within the market,
boosting apprentice wages Individual as customer of VET and rewarding employers for taking on
apprentices Employers as customers of VET. Despite the clear employment opportunities
available
for those
completing a trade
apprenticeship 80.7 of those with a CIII qualification are working after training, with an
average salary of 45,500 the luxury of choice for young people to fill positions within the job market,
is increasing. Young people can afford to be more demanding of their employers
– and their training providers
– as the youth unemployment rate drops and employer competition for their service,
increases. Responding to national educational attainment
targets, the Victorian Government has invested considerable funding to address the Australia-wide
issue of apprentice attrition currently sits at roughly 50. Apprentice drop-out is costly for
employers and government alike and typically surrenders the ex-apprentice to low educational
achievement, for life. Services such as Apprentice Support Officers ASOs, Apprentice Field Officers
AFOs plus new responsibilities for Group Training Organisations GTOs and Australian
Apprenticeship Centres AACs support and monitor apprentice engagement.
Criticisms of young people toward the apprenticeship system include the low remuneration
structure currently under review from Fair Work Australia and the duration of the apprenticeship.
Both of these are criticisms echoed within the mature-aged apprenticeship market.
4. The Mature Apprentice
Australia has a rapidly ageing demographic, with a decrease in numbers of young people entering the
workforce and an increase in the lifespan and potential workspan of existing workers. There is an
increasing need to train and retrain older workers as skill sets required for evolving jobs, change.
