Good morning and thank you for your warm welcome. Special thanks to Rod Camm and ACPET executives for inviting me today.

Transcription

1 Minister for Education Speech by the Hon Adrian Piccoli MP Why private education providers should re-elect a Coalition Government in NSW ACPET Wednesday 18 March 2015 City Tattersalls Sydney *** Check against delivery *** Good morning and thank you for your warm welcome. Special thanks to Rod Camm and ACPET executives for inviting me today. I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we gather on today the Gadigal people of the EORA nation and pay my respects to their elders past and present. I also extend that respect to other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who are here this morning. As Education Minister, one of my key responsibilities (or KPIs, if you will) is to ensure that taxpayer funds are spent properly. As a Minister in the NSW Government, the best way to spend dollars in the training sector is by directing people into training that will most likely lead to employment. Across all the areas of education policy, whether it is early childhood education and care, schools, or vocational education and training, we have to target taxpayer funds towards those who need it most. 1

2 In early childhood, we have needs based funding. In public schools, we have needs based funding. In VET, we direct funds towards the skills that people need to get a job, and we have built in drivers to move students towards higher level qualifications. The Liberals and Nationals Government have not shied away from major structural reform, including in the VET sector. We ve done this (and on many occasions it has been difficult) while managing the exacting and differing expectations of Cabinet, backbenchers, crossbenchers, the Commonwealth, public and private providers, stakeholders, industry, students and of course the unions. Overlaying all of these reforms has been the backdrop of the NSW budget situation, and the hard work we have had to do to get the budget back into a healthy position. Four years ago, the NSW Liberals and Nationals went to the election with a clear plan to rebuild NSW. VET Reform was a key part of that plan. I m pleased to report that we have delivered on our promises. From 8 th to 1 st NSW has steadily moved from last to first on many economic indicators: Unemployment in NSW has gone from above the national average for the last decade, to the 2 nd lowest unemployment rate in the nation. 2

3 Economic activity has moved from the slowest to the strongest of all the states. Business confidence has shifted from being the lowest of the mainland states, and now it has been positive for the last 18 consecutive months. NSW had the lowest number of new dwelling starts per capita for the last five years. The number of dwellings approved in NSW in the last 12 months (to December) is 43.5% higher than the decade average. NSW retail trade has moved from the lowest annual growth of the mainland states for the last 5 years. Now, we are the strongest of all the states in through the year terms. We have consistently moved from last to first. It only happened with hard work and fiscal and policy discipline, and with the support of industry. When we came to government, we had a huge Budget shortfall and falling revenues, so every portfolio and Minister has had to make difficult decisions to bring our Budget under control and contribute to our plan to rebuild NSW. Thankfully, the NSW Government has delivered: we have kept expenses within Budget every year for the past four years. In contrast, over the previous 16 years under Labor, expenses came in above budget every year. That why we want to Keep NSW Working. We have major roads being constructed; rail projects being built; there are dozens of cranes on the 3

4 skyline. That s why we need people in training to build these projects we have committed to - we need the apprentices to work on them. The Government has committed to 1,000 apprentices being employed to help the NSW Government deliver its record $60 billion infrastructure program over the next 4 years. Vision for VET - Smart and Skilled As Minister, I have embraced evidence-based policy in every area of my portfolio, while maintaining good relationships with all key stakeholders. I have listened to what all these stakeholders have told me, as well as to VET and TAFE students and their teachers. I ve heard the views of employers, large and small, in Sydney and in rural areas, and the families of those who are undertaking VET courses. And what everyone tells me is we need a VET system that is able to deliver quality training that is focused on areas where there is job demand and on developing the highly skilled workforce to fill those jobs. And that the system needs to be able to deliver that training in the way in which students want to learn in the 21 st century, and one that balances the differing and changing needs of students, their families and their employers over time. Students want to learn differently. Our students are increasingly demanding online, flexible, work-based training. They want to fit their training with the needs of their families. They want to be able to 4

5 seamlessly transition from one job to the next. And they want quality training that will help ensure they get a job. That s why we have ensured that our valuable government dollars are being directed to those who need it the most so that they undertake entry level training to lead to a job to support their families. And that s why our Smart and Skilled reforms have needs-based funding, much like the school sector does with Gonski funding. We have loadings for Aboriginal people, for students with disability, for rural and remote based students. We also have a strong concessions and exemptions policy to help ensure that disadvantage is not a barrier to training and employment. This approach does fit in with my broader reform agenda in education, which is to embrace long term cultural change. My vision for vocational education and training is to move away from one-off programs of contestability, and to move towards sustainable and fairer contestability through Smart and Skilled. Auditor-General The NSW Auditor-General released his Performance Audit into Smart and Skilled, and I am pleased that he found that Smart and Skilled was well managed, with appropriate governance and project management systems. Of particular interest to me was that the Auditor-General observed that NSW took a careful and staged approach to the implementation of Smart and Skilled as we learned from other jurisdictions. 5

6 We have always said we were avoiding the pitfalls encountered by other states, and I do recognise that some people in this room believe we should have moved further, faster. Yes, budget neutrality is the Government s number one priority. As Minister for Education I have a responsibility to manage the Department of Education and Communities budget (which is about a quarter of the state s budget), the same way that every provider in this room has to manage their business budget. There has been contestability for vocational education and training for 20 years. Increased contestability is a challenge for TAFE as the public provider, but whilst we have rolled out the Smart and Skilled reforms, we have simultaneously engaged in significant reforms to TAFE. We will maintain NSW s very high quality standard of provision of training through our Quality Framework that is in your interests, in students interests, and in taxpayers interests. Much has been spoken about fees. The NSW Government sought independent advice from IPART on the fees for Smart and Skilled. IPART looked at the efficient price of delivering every training package and made recommendations to the Government. We then sought advice from the independent Skills Board. These priorities are why we are starting with a set budget, consistent qualification prices, a Skills List, a Quality Framework, clear student 6

7 eligibility criteria, generous exemptions and concessions, and the consistent treatment of public and private providers. We are not moving all levers at once, and we re not letting go of the levers. We need to make sure what are doing is delivering the outcomes we all want before we move to the next stage. ACPET s Role I am aware that the reforms are a significant change. Some private providers have raised concerns about these changes with ACPET, and with my office. ACPET has strongly represented those views to me, to State Training Services, and to the Premier s office. I ve met with Martin and Rod. My office and the Premier s office have met with ACPET. ACPET and their executive have continued to raise their concerns with me and with my office, and I welcome that frank and fearless advice. In response to the ACPET members that brought concerns regarding Smart and Skilled to my attention, the NSW Government has rolled over another $57 million into the Smart and Skilled bucket for This additional funding will provide training for at least 16,000 more students in Based on advice from the independent NSW Skills Board, this $57 million has been directed towards some crucial priorities, including: - increased funding for providers that had low allocations so that every Smart and Skilled provider will receive around 12 training places in a region; and 7

8 - increased funding for priority qualifications including early childhood education and care, health care, agriculture and Auslan. For example, I spoke with ACPET executives in October about the few providers that can drag down the reputations of all providers. ACPET and I know that the majority of providers do the right thing. That s why I m delighted to see that ACPET has launched a Code of Ethics and a Code of Practice. It was particularly pleasing that it included governance, compliance and an even stronger focus on quality. I thank your organisation for its leadership in promoting best practice and high quality in VET. The launch of your Codes provided a good foundation and proactive approach prior to the announcement last week by Assistant Minister Birmingham regarding VET Fee Help and unscrupulous providers. The new measures complement the approach in NSW that has set a high bar through the NSW Quality Framework. Quality is the key, and we are all in agreement the Commonwealth, the State and ACPET. Our VET Reforms have to focus on the quality of the providers and the training delivered for the benefit of the students and industry. What s Next? Your members have already advocated to me what the issues are as we move forward, including: 8

9 When will the market open up more? Will (and if so, when) the NSW Government deregulate fees? Will (and if so, when) there be more funding available for Smart and Skilled? All of these questions will be addressed when we undertake our review of Smart and Skilled, which was built into the Smart and Skilled reforms. This review is a critical stepping stone for the NSW Government to independently assess the effectiveness of our VET Reforms, and for indications of what can be improved or managed differently. The independent review will be commissioned by the Skills Board to provide advice to the Government, with governance to include an independent expert. Consultation will be held with key stakeholders, including ACPET, and peak industry bodies. As we are in this initial phase of delivering structural reforms to NSW vocational education and training, we need to see how it works. Yes, we have a much more managed approach than the other states, but we have to see if we have avoided those unintended consequences experienced in other states. This is about delivering sustainable VET reform for NSW - and that includes students, providers, governments and industry. We need to ensure we are delivering the quality training that meets the needs of business and industry. But our primary responsibility is to the students we want to them to undertake training, complete that training and secure jobs. 9

10 Alternatives to Liberals and Nationals Of course, there are alternatives to the Liberals and Nationals, but they are not so supportive of my vision for VET, or for this sector. We have Labor and the unions, who have vested financial and political interests in demonising private providers of vocational education and training. Labor forgets that contestability is not a by-product of Smart and Skilled. Labor wants to dismantle VET Reforms, including Smart and Skilled, and cap contestability to 30%. With respect to the Greens, I don t think I have to say too much about their views about private providers of training, let alone private providers of anything. That s why ACPET and the NSW Government have worked together to deliver and defend sustainable NSW VET Reforms. We both want this to work. We have a shared responsibility to provide high quality training, but we also have a shared responsibility to stamp out unscrupulous market behaviour so that the Smart and Skilled group of providers are the best of the best. I will continue to defend contestability and the NSW Government s VET Reforms at every opportunity. 10

11 The challenge is to marry the needs of students, providers, industry and the government in this one package within a responsible budgetary environment to deliver 60,000 extra student places in 2015, and with a clear focus on entry level training so that more people can gain skills to get a job. Thank you for your time. 11