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Industrial awards in Australia are currently being restructured within the context of the structural efficiency principle guidelines of the August 1989 National Wage Case. This submission seeks to assess corresponding increased demand for training in Western Australia, and examine mechanisms and structures required to support award restructuring. A central theme is that a build-up demand for training will increase pressure on the training system and on TAFE resources. The conclusion is that award restructuring must achieve a balance between expensive, unnecessary expansion of publicly funded off-the-job training, and training reform insufficient to maximise Australia’s productivity growth. Certification of prior learning and skills acquired on -the-job, course and provider accreditation and registration, upgrading and extension of current TAFE training, and current literacy and numeracy effort should be established. Funds raised through the Australian Training Guarantee should be directed back to state governments to support the process.

The Training Costs Review Committee was established in 1990 by the Conference of Commonwealth and State Labour Ministers to review likely future training costs. This was in response to the COSTAC consultancy report (indexed at TD/TNC 86.148) and the need for additional government funding for training and related issues. The report: sets out the general framework within which training is taking place and the main forces for change in these arrangements and funding; discusses the award restructuring and its implications for training, focusing on costs and regulation requirements; brings together the implications of key training developments and suggests a number of reforms to ensure training is responsive to wider and growing training demands; and presents a summary of the Committee’s findings under the headings of ‘Demand for training’, ‘Government funding of training’, ‘Fees and charges in TAFE’, ‘Literacy and numeracy’, ‘Other government programs’, ‘Negotiating a new set of training arrangements’, and ‘Training cost projections’. The report established the concept of the open training market which led to greater diversity and competition amongst vocational education and training (VET) providers.