Hello and welcome to VET News,
There is quite a bit of news in today’s newsletter. We have opened a new category in the newsletter for positions vacant. I am quarantining this to senior management positions so if you have a position vacant that is for a senior management position within your training organisation and have posted this to Seek or one of the other recruitment websites, we are happy to include a link in our newsletter.
2024/2025 Smart and Skilled funding application
We had the release of results for the 2024/2025 Smart and Skilled funding application late last week. We have spoken to probably about 40 clients to gauge how they went. It seems to be a very mixed bag. As far as I can determine, it looks like the majority of private providers have received a reduction of about 40%-60% in their funding allocation. Very few clients we spoke to had maintained their funding and some lost their funding contract altogether. Some of the decisions make no sense at all. One client who I would argue is one of the finest private providers in the country lost their contract entirely and it just cannot be explained. There were no performance issues on the contract, and they had a very active traineeships underway. There are a whole bunch of clients who have only been registered less than two years and many of those got contracts which is great for them but again it makes no sense when you contrast this with long standing providers who have lost their contract for no reason particularly where they are delivering traineeships in skilling areas that are in high demand such as early childhood education and age care in Western and South Western Sydney. One client had their financial cap reduced by about 85% and was only given enough funding to meet the progress and completion payments of their current learners. It is devastating for many of these businesses who are now considering options with regard to the ongoing employment of current staff. Obviously, we don’t have the picture across the entire state but it seems that the funding has been heavily weighted to TAFE.
New Article – Speaking ASQAneese – Part 1
We have released a new article on our website that follows on from our article on the ASQA Audit Process. The new article is called Speaking ASQAneese – Part 1 and is the first of a two part series. The second part of the series will be release in the coming weeks. This article focuses on understanding the questions that you can be asked in a management meeting as part of an ASQA audit. The way that ASQA has framed these questions means that the questions are worded in a way that makes them very difficult to understand, using lots of jargon and the questions are very big. Auditors read the questions off a script like a call centre operator with very little elaboration, so they really expect you to understand the question and to provide an appropriate answer. This article will give you the knowledge and strategies to do this. You can find the article at the following link on the Newbery Consulting website: Speaking ASQAneese – Part 1.
Subscription Drive – Share the Link!
Since commencing VET News in 2011, the subscriptions to this free newsletter have grown steadily with a strong cohort of loyal readers. We love getting your feedback and hearing how VET News is valuable to you. On a typical month we usually have more new subscribers and unsubscribes. Whilst it is always sad to loose a subscriber, I think of it like our subscriber base is always getting more genuine with people that are wanting to stay informed. We are putting the call out for new subscribers. If you know someone in the sector or within your organisation that may benefit from receiving VET News, we invite you to share this link Subscribe to VET News.
Lets get the word out and tell others about VET News. I will be very happy to give an update about our subscriber drive in our next edition.
Good training,
Joe Newbery
Check out our most recent article on: Speaking ASQAneese – Part 1
Check out our last article on: Guide to ASQA Audit Process
