The Victorian Budget released last week has announced major reform to the VET sector in response to unprecedented growth over the last 3 years. Training subsidies projected at $900 million have surged to $1.3 billion. This will be pulled back to $1.2 billion over the upcoming year. This growth has resulted in overtraining in certain industries which are now failing to provide state funded graduates with jobs.
Funding changes are clearly aimed at long term sustainability and growth for the industry as a whole, but will not necessarily be easily received by providers, who are currently catering to the market, rather than public employment. This means many changes to the funding paid per training hour, most of which have been dramatically decreased; in particular for hospitality, fitness, business, events and retail.
Courses receiving the highest subsidies are those that address the states skills shortage needs. All apprenticeships courses will receive an increase in funding. For more details about rates of payment, see our table here.
VET Reform is also aimed at providing accessibility, transparency and quality for students and employers. There will be a focus on making more training available for more Victorians including higher subsidies, concessions and fee waivers; targeted to people most in need (people with a low socio economic status, young, indigenous and regional students, as well as those transitioning from state care). Quality will be improved through stronger monitoring and compliance checks.
Other changes include a new $6 million Industry Transition and Specialist Training Initiative, which will work with businesses to address critical skill needs and support for programs that build language, literacy and numeracy skills as pathways into study.
There will also be a new website developed, designed to be a ‘One Stop Shop’ for training needs where prospective students and employers can find information about providers, courses and work options.
Read the statement for yourself along with fact sheets and FAQ’s here
For more information about how funding changes will affect nominal hour payments for qualifications you deliver, see our table here
Need Help?
If you need help interpreting the changes or working out how this impacts your RTO, please contact RTO Advice Services.