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AEU Media Release
November 13, 2000
AEU Welcomes New Directions for VET
The Australian Education Union today welcomed the Senate Report into the Quality of Vocational Education and Training (VET) in Australia.
AEU Federal President, Mr Denis Fitzgerald said, "the Report, Aspiring to Excellence, provides the first extensive review of vocational education and training (VET) since the early 1980s".
The AEU supports key aspects of the report, including:
- development of a truly national vocational education and training system which provides equitable access to all Australians in order to enable them to fully participate in society, employment and further education;
- provision of greater national portability and consistency of qualifications, including consistent standards for the specification of underlying skills and knowledge;
- recognition of the need to include people with teaching or professional expertise and experience in VET decision making, planning and development;
- development of more rigorous and legally enforceable national standards through a National Code for Quality in VET;
- establishment of a national professional teaching standards and registration body;
- calls for a moratorium on User Choice pending an independent review of the impact on TAFE and stakeholders;
- restoration of Commonwealth funding for enrolment growth.
Mr Fitzgerald said that it was of some disappointment to the AEU that, while acknowledging the need for the Commonwealth to restore adequate levels of base funding, the Report has not made any specific recommendation about how to address the current federal funding deficiencies. The AEU has proposed that an additional $310 million is needed for 2001 to address current problems and enrolment growth.
In general the Report's main recommendations would help to build a high quality VET system, redress deficiencies in current funding arrangements and is therefore supported by the AEU.
Contact:
AEU Federal President, Denis Fitzgerald on mob. 0416 254 154
AEU Federal TAFE Secretary, Rex Hewett on mob. 0418 326 437
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