Australia's skills reform journey: the case for VET reform and progress to-date

As a result of significant recent issues in the vocational education and training (VET) sector, some stakeholders are expressing the sentiment that Australia's current phase of VET reform has been unsuccessful and should therefore be wound back, or even abandoned. While it acknowledges the significance of these issues of late, the Australian Council for Private Education and Training (ACPET) is concerned that the aims and achievements of reform have had little recognition, and has commissioned this independent analysis from ACIL Allen Consulting to contextualise current issues, provide a sense of scale, and support the ongoing policy debate with evidence and data. Drawing on publicly available sources, this report examines primarily the experience of Victoria as the first-mover in the current phase of VET reform, and the concurrent introduction of VET FEE-HELP nationally up until the end of 2013.

This report shows that the most apparent results of skills reform have been the expanded number of training options available to students and the increase in the volume of VET enrolments. From 2009 there was a significant increase in both government funding and VET enrolments, largely the result of reforms introduced in Victoria and in South Australia. Other notable patterns that have accompanied the introduction of reforms in Victoria include an increase in participation by equity/disadvantaged groups. There has been no significant change in the distribution of enrolments across areas of study compared to the rest of the Australian VET sector. There has been a marginal decline in overall student satisfaction, specifically with private [registered training organisations] RTOs, coinciding with the large increase in enrolments at private RTOs. Prior to the introduction of reforms, private RTOs in Victoria reported higher levels of student satisfaction than TAFE institutes; this is no longer the case.

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