Rewrite of VET funding urgently needed

Commenting on a new report that funding for VET across all levels of government dropped in 2013/14 by 7 per cent Greens spokesperson for tertiary, technical and further education Senator Lee Rhiannon said:

"Vocational Education Training is in trouble. State and federal governments urgently need to fix the structural causes.

"The COAG agreement on vocational education and training which allows hundreds of millions of public dollars flow to private, for-profit providers needs to be overhauled.

"State governments have criticised the contestability model, yet the Abbott government is sticking to this agreement which is failing the sector.

"Apprentices have also been shafted by the Coalition government which with the support of federal Labor took away a $5500 grant for apprentices and replaced it with a possible debt of up to $20,000.

"The Greens are calling for a federally driven re-write of the VET funding system to see TAFE prioritised and subsidies to private providers wound back as an urgently needed starting point.