Special Bulletin
EARLY CHILDHOOD ELECTION PLEDGE - Expressions of Interest in new centres
The Office of Early Childhood Education and Child Care, part of DEEWR, is managing a public registration process to identify potential sites for new Early Learning and Care Centres around Australia. It is part of the Government’s plan for 260 such centres by 2014.
TDA members have been invited to consider nominating their institutes as a potential site for these new facilities.
Click here to view the letter from DEEWR for information on the proposal, and how to respond.
Review to look at the future of higher education in Australia
The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations the Hon Julia Gillard MP, and Emeritus Professor Denise Bradley AC, Chair of the Government's expert panel on the Review of Australian Higher Education yesterday released the Review of Australian Higher Education Discussion Paper.
The review was announced by Ms Gillard on 13 March 2008.
The discussion paper outlines a number of key issues on which feedback is sought, including social inclusion, resourcing, the student experience and links with industry and the vocational education sector.
It provides an opportunity for stakeholders from all sectors to comment on the role of higher education and how it can best meet the future needs of the community and economy.
Submissions close 31 July 2008. To read the discussion paper, click here.
NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON $11B EDUCATION INVESTMENT FUND
A national consultation will seek to bring clarity to the operations of the new $11B Education Investment Fund - a central part of the 'education revolution' with three infrastructure funds totaling $40B proposed in last week's Federal Budget.
Australia's TAFE institutes applauded the 2008 Commonwealth Budget with its commitment to create a new $11B Education Investment Fund - aimed to provide capital funding for investment in the VET sector.
TDA Chief Executive Martin Riordan said the Fund would create improved capability for TAFE Institutes to develop technologies, improved infrastructure and industry co-investment for increased online and enterprise training needs.
"Deputy Prime Minister Gillard should be congratulated for this major initiative on skills, and especially her pledge to proceed to a 'national vision' for TAFE to meet the productivity growth required for Australia," Martin Riordan said. "We will be pleased to now take part in the national consultation."
To see TDA's media statement, click here.
To read the TDA Special Bulletin on the Budget, see below.
Photo: (left to right) Martin Riordan, TDA CEO, Minister for Education,
Employment and Workplace Relations, the Hon. Julia Gillard MP, Wayne
Collier, TDA Deputy Chair and CEO Swan TAFE, and Deb Daly, TDA Chair.
SPECIAL BULLETIN - BUDGET 2008
$11 billion win for TAFE - TDA lobby success with Education Investment Fund
TAFE has taken centre stage in Budget 2008 with the announcement of an $11 billion Education Investment Fund, for TAFE and VET special projects. The Fund would be established from the next two financial years' Budget surpluses.
The 'Big Win' for TAFE Institutes follows intensive advocacy by TAFE Directors Australia, with its 'Australian e-TAFE' briefings to Labor Ministers, MPs and Senators -- geared to strengthen support flagged at a Directors' Retreat at the 2007 TDA National Convention in Melbourne, to widen the $6 billion Higher Education Endowment Fund to TAFE Institutes.
The Deputy Prime Minister, the Hon. Julia Gillard MP, briefed TDA and education peak stakeholders in a special pre-Budget 2008 lock-up in Canberra.
And Deputy PM Gillard paid special tribute to TAFE in answer to a question from TDA on the Fund.
Ms Gillard told Martin Riordan, TDA CEO, the $11 billion Fund would be an essential element to a new drive on skills and national productivity. She added:
"We are determined to proceed with a national vision for TAFE and VET in this country, to support the productivity growth required for the Australian economy."
Minister Gillard said national consultations would be held to work out the operations of the new Fund, and a new advisory board would succeed the HE Endowment board - appointed to lead the initiative.
Federal DEEWR officials confirmed the $11 billion Education Investment Fund would likely focus on key TAFE infrastructure, and special projects, however the current HE Endowment Fund rules may be a guide to operations for infrastructure renewal.
Ms. Gillard added that the Commonwealth would make a special effort to negotiate with states and territories, to ensure the Fund would be additional to current infrastructure support from STAs.
"This 'additionality' will be an important issue," she told the briefing.
Budget 2008 also provided for more than $500M this financial year to boost infrastructure in category A and B higher education (university) providers.
Click here for the TDA media release welcoming the Fund.
Click here to see the TDA Budget submission.
Deputy Prime Minister's media statement - Education Revolution
Click here
for the Deputy PM's media statement on Budget 2008.
Click here
for the Budget Portfolio Statements, including detailed costings.
Record skilled migration program to boost economy
The Budget included measures to add 31,000 skilled migrants to the 2008-09 Migration Program.
The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans, said the extra places allocated to the permanent skilled migration program represented a 30 per cent increase on 2007-08 when the Howard government added just 5000 places.
Click here
for the statement
TDA URGES RETHINK ON ROLE OF TAFE IN SKILLS AND INNOVATION
TAFE Directors Australia has lodged submissions to two of the Australian Government's key inquiries examining skills development and innovation.
TDA advocated that the 450,000 new training places should not be delayed or reliant on final agreement for states and industry co-investment, and detailed wider issues with the progress on skills reform in response to
'Skilling Australia for the Future', the Rudd Government's new training roadmap policy.
In its submission, TDA refutes any suggestion that part of the responsibility for Australia's skills shortage rests with 'unresponsive training providers'. It urges that the new approach to skills development be built in parallel with the next generation of VET reform, building on the successes achieved since 1992.
To read the TDA submission to 'Skilling Australia for the Future', click
here.
In its second major submission, TDA says that TAFE institutes across Australia have the capacity to play a greater role in developing innovative solutions, which can improve efficiency and accelerate technological transfer.
The Review of the National Innovation System was recently announced by the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator the Hon Kim Carr.
TDA's submission says that the capacity to tap into TAFE innovation is under-utilised and that this is largely a consequence of the 'teaching-only' basis of TAFE funding. In Australia, R&D and innovation have largely been quarantined to higher education, research institutions and agencies.
The review, being chaired by Dr Terry Cutler, was provided with a copy of the interim report prepared for the recent OECD mission, which catalogues outstanding examples of innovation by TAFE institutes across Australia.
To see the submission to the innovation review, click here.
To see the Interim Report on TAFE innovation click here.
To see the Media Release on the submissions, click here.
SPECIAL BULLETIN - 2020 SUMMIT
A Report from the Chair, Deb Daly - TAFE Directors Australia
There is a real challenge in bringing 1,000 bright and eager Australians together, often with disparate views across the ten areas of focus that were under the microscope at the historic Australia 2020 Summit.
While there was passionate disagreement in some corners over solutions to vexing challenges, there was also widespread agreement around a number of key issues.
To read the full report, click here.
REFORM URGED FOR VET IN SCHOOLS
The Future Directions in Vocational Skills for Youth National Forum has profiled policy opportunities to reform VET in schools.
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The National Forum was a special joint initiative between TAFE Directors Australia and the Australian College of Educators.
The Minister for Employment Participation, the Hon. Brendan O'Connor MP, delivered the Keynote Ministerial Address, and Rebecca Cross, from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, outlined the first round offers in May 2008, and implementation strategies for the $2.5 billion Trade Training Centres in Schools program. |
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For pre reading of speeches and presentations, click here
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER MEETS WITH TDA
TDA has been welcomed to Parliament House by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, the Hon. Julia Gillard MP.
Minister Gillard hosted Deb Daly (Chair), and Martin Riordan (CEO) and Wayne Collyer (Deputy Chair, CEO Swan TAFE) for a meeting on TAFE and new legislation.
For more information about the meeting click
here.
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Photo: (left to right) Martin Riordan, TDA CEO, Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, the Hon. Julia Gillard MP, Wayne Collier, TDA Deputy Chair and CEO Swan TAFE, and Deb Daly, TDA Chair. |
INDUSTRY ALIGNMENT BETWEEN AUSTRALIAN TAFE AND CHINESE INSTITUTES
The NSW Minister for Education and Training, the Hon. John Della
Bosca MP hosted the boards of TAFE Directors Australia and the
Australia China Business
Council, at a special Chinese New Year reception at State Parliament
in Sydney. For more information about the event click
here.
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