Page 2724 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 16 September 2014
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
pivotal role. Working with industry, we can identify the greatest areas of demand and target our efforts accordingly.
I believe this is an exciting and challenging time for training and skills development in the ACT. The current operating environment is one of progressive change. This includes changes in policy at the commonwealth and jurisdiction level and the emergence of a significant private sector. The ACT government is amending the Training and Tertiary Education Act to reflect the transformation to the tertiary education landscape that has occurred in recent years.
To continue to meet the territory’s high-performing training sector in this environment, these changes have to be responded to at the system level as well as at the provider level.
At a system level, the ACT government has recently defined the key skills and training policy directions for the territory. These align with commonwealth priorities and will focus on strengthening engagement with industries and business to match training to employment; targeting ACT government funding for training to meet skills needs and promote employment; ensuring the highest quality training; and providing better access to training through additional supports for the disadvantaged.
The skills reform funding has already enabled significant progress for these policy directions. One of our biggest challenges is raising the profile of vocational education and training and ensuring that its benefits are understood. While improved stakeholder engagement by government will go some way to addressing this challenge, the government also needs to rely on our public and private providers to support this agenda through quality training.
Our commitment to quality is strong and is exemplified by the introduction of a new quality framework to ensure our high quality organisations are able to provide training in the ACT. We also want to ensure that the ACT community, including school leavers, are making an informed choice about the education and training pathways available. This starts by ensuring that training opportunities provided in schools provide Canberrans with real pathways that are respected by industry.
We have established a strong evidence base to inform ongoing government investment in training. This has resulted in the skills capital training initiative. Skills capital will provide $21 million over three years to support training in the areas of skills needs most likely to lead to improved employment outcomes. Next year this initiative will complement the user choice funding for Australian apprenticeships and the range of programs offered to our community by CIT, to deliver an entitlement to training for all Canberrans.
Skilled capital is a flexible and sustainable funding model for training in the ACT. The key objective of the program is to deliver a productive and highly skilled workforce which contributes to the economic future of the ACT. The significant elements of skilled capital include the introduction of a limited demand-driven model and the targeting of government funding to support training in areas of highest need as identified by the ACT skills needs list. The list is informed by an evidence-based
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video