$316 MILLION TRAINING GUARANTEE FOR VICTORIA

Tuesday, 26 August 2008
Students and the training sector will be the big winners in today’s announcement of a $316 million Victorian Government overhaul of the sector.
Premier John Brumby said the investment would create 172,000 new training places and deliver a massive boost to TAFE infrastructure right across the state.

“We will provide a Government supported training place for every eligible Victorian who wants one,” Mr Brumby said.

“We will also make the training and education sector fairer by giving students at diploma and advanced diploma level access to a university-style loan for fees, giving them the option to defer upfront payment for training.

“In a national first, the Commonwealth has agreed to extend its FEE HELP structure to cover Victoria’s training sector.”

Mr Brumby said Securing Jobs for Your Future is the largest ever single investment in our VET system.

Key features include:
•    The establishment of a Victorian Training Guarantee. This Australian-first initiative, gives people the entitlement to access Government-subsided training at any time so long as they keep moving up the qualification scale for skills;
•    The creation of up to 172,000 additional training places;
•    We will fund the hiring of an extra 900 teachers and 500 non-teaching staff;
•    We will support greater student choice – by enabling eligible students to train at either public or community providers, including a much broader range of private providers;
•    We will create the opportunity, for the first time, for students to access finance to study in TAFEs and private RTOs;
•    We will boost the workforce and IT capacity of the TAFE and Adult Community Education sectors;
•    We will give businesses support to make the training system easier to access for their workforces; and we will redesign the system to make VET easier to navigate for students and business.

Skills and Workforce Participation Minister Jacinta Allan said the move would put students at the centre of the training sector.

“Under the new fairer fee structure, fees for basic courses such as maths, reading and writing will be reduced, while fees would be increased for diplomas and advanced diplomas,” Ms Allan said.

“Currently, someone learning how to read and write pays the same as someone studying aerospace engineering – that is not a fair fee system.

“We acknowledge there will be an increase in fees for some courses, however, these will moderate and will be off-set by the introduction of a university-style loan.”

Other parts of the upgrade to Victoria’s training sector will include:
•    $52 million to deliver Skills for Growth  - a new workforce development program to help Victorian businesses develop the skills of their workforce;
•    $20 million investment into boosting broadband capacity in TAFE;
•    $10.8 million to boost the capacity of Adult and Community Education providers right across the state;
•    $8 million to make it easier for students, the community and employers to access information on training options, employment trends and skills shortages;
•    $4 million to boost the Industry Training Advisory Boards to improve industry input to policy and decision making at the highest level; and
•    $2.5 million to train 250 industry practitioners as teachers in the training sector; along with broadening the skills of 1000 existing teachers; and
•    A fairer fee structure with access to a University-style loan scheme for some students;

Mr Brumby thanked the Commonwealth for their strong financial support for the reforms in the provision of the university-style loans in particular.

“We look forward to working with them, together with the training sector and business to ensure we meet the skills needs of the future,” he said.