Federal Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, has given the go-ahead for changes to be made to vocational education by the Victorian Government.
The Victorian Government has launched a $316 million boost to training, which includes 170,000 new TAFE positions across Victoria, the employment of an extra 900 teachers and 500 support staff, and the introduction of a HECS-style loan scheme for tuition fees.
Ms Gillard said "We are committed to supporting all reforms that honour our election commitments to ensure we have a flexible and responsive training system."
Under the training overhaul, centralised and capped funding of public TAFEs will be replaced by giving eligible Victorians a Government entitlement to increase their skills. Students will have the option of cashing in their entitlements at either public RTOs like TAFEs or private providers.
The reforms include some big student fee increases for higher-level qualifications, but fee cuts for lower qualifications.
For advanced diplomas, the current maximum of $877 will rise to $1500 next year, and to as much as $2500 by 2012.
These subsidised loans are similar to the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) which is currently in place for universities. These Fee-HELP loans will need to be repaid once graduates begin earning an income of $41,595 a year.
Victoria expects the changes to generate 172,000 extra training places over four years.
Deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Ballarat, Professor Terry Lloyd, welcomed the changes, saying "We are particularly pleased about the State Government's renewed commitment to the public TAFE system and the government's intention that our TAFEs should continue to be leaders across the nation."
"It is clear that the government has paid attention to the large number of submissions it received about reforming the Victorian training system."
"We think this is a bold reform package from the State Government and one which seeks to position our TAFE system both nationally and internationally," said Prof Lloyd.
