High hopes for an improved VET quality framework remain unfulfilled. By John Mitchell The initial hopes raised by VET policy papers sometimes fade a little after a second reading. This is the case with regard to the position paper recently ...

VET in regional Victoria has been particularly hard-hit by policy changes. By Dr Peter Whitley Regional Australia is the home and workplace for approximately 29 per cent of the Australian population, with people in the bush contributing very positively to ...

Policymakers need to consider how much value TAFEs add to industry. By Dr John Mitchell The director of a TAFE institute said to me recently that the problem with policymakers in Australia is that they focus solely on the cost ...

The training for people who work in remote areas needs to focus on lifestyle issues as well as skills. When I was developing a research proposal in 2011 focusing on skill shortages, I phoned a research colleague in Melbourne, who ...

For public providers to compete with private operators they will have to adopt new teaching methods and embrace online tools In addition, the traditional champions of VET (industry organisations and local enterprises) seem to have gone remarkably quiet. I think ...

A Brotherhood of St Laurence study has found disengaged youth could be left behind by recent changes to vocational training. There is an old saying that you can judge a society by how well it looks after the most disadvantaged ...

There is significant evidence to indicate that the effort and cost in negotiating and managing articulation arrangements is not matched by the numbers of students making the transition from VET to university. With the commencement in July this year of ...

The Queensland government has backed away from plans to close 38 of its 82 TAFE campuses under reforms to the revamp the state's vocational education and training sector. But it still wants to sell 13 sites and will transfer 12 ...

To improve higher certificate completion rates it is sometimes important to offer help with some basic skills, such as language and numeracy The region our institute serves in south-west Sydney has an over-representation of people who are disadvantaged. According to ...

The federal government must withhold funding from those states that continue to destroy their vocational education and training. This was a grim year for the TAFE system in Australia. Decades of investment in public vocational education are being trashed by ...