Chief Executive Mark Stone:

Victorian Chamber welcomes the release of recommendations from the State Government’s external Review of Quality Assurance in Victoria’s Vocational Education and Training (VET) System.

Victorian Chamber’s submission and ongoing advocacy highlighted the vital need to restore the confidence of both employers and students in the quality of Victoria’s VET system.

It is positive to see the government’s acknowledgement of this need and the swiftness of the release and planned implementation of these recommendations.

We welcome the direction of the reforms to:

• Enforce stricter requirements on providers entering and operating in the VET system.

Victorian Chamber has consistently called for a risk-based regulatory and compliance framework that subjects high-risk providers with a record of poor training behaviour to stricter regulatory oversight and reporting than that which low-risk providers are subjected to.

• Help students chose the right course and provider through a consumer awareness information campaign and access to independent employment pathway support.
• Provide greater transparency of poor quality training providers, including those that have had contracts terminated previously.
• Improve online information and feedback facilities for businesses, students and industry.

However, many of the industry’s concerns with training quality stem from the abuse of the current VET funding model.

For this reason, Victorian Chamber has called for the VET funding model to be overhauled to create a stronger alignment with employer skills needs and vocational outcomes.

We understand these recommendations will feed into the VET Funding Review currently being undertaken and look forward to the government’s response in the near future.

Victorian Chamber also looks forward to working with the government to implement these recommendations and those outlined in the VET Funding Review report when that is released.