1. Jobs and Skills Councils (JSCs)
JSCs have been established to provide industry with a stronger voice to ensure Australia’s vocational education and training (VET) sector delivers better outcomes for learners and employers. Read more about all 10 established JSCs here.

2.Fit and Proper Person Requirements
Amendments have been made to the Fit and Proper Person Requirements, which are in effect 5 Sep 2023 onward. Visit ASQA’s website for details on key changes made.

3.International Student Delivery
Following the Rapid Review into the exploitation of Australia’s visa system by Christine Nixon earlier this year, the Australian government has taken several measures in an attempt to prevent unethical practices. Read more about Nixon Review in detail here.

Details on concurrent studies can be found here.

Details on change in the minimum fund requirements for international students in order to get student visa can be found here.

Following an inquiry into Australia’s tourism and international education sector, the joint committee on Foreign affairs, defense and trade released its interim report with 29 recommendations, that can be read here.

Some of the other announcements that were made as part of these measures include:

i. Establishing a new integrity unit within the regulator, with broader powers to ensure and monitor provider compliance.

ii. Establishing a monitoring framework and developing systemic risk indicators, with a focus on student attendance and agent performance data.

iii. The ban on onshore education agent commission for student transfers between the providers.

iv. Suspending the “high-risk” CRICOS providers, from recruiting international students

v. Preventing cross-ownership of businesses by education agencies and education providers

More details on these announcements can be found across multiple sources listed below:
– Action to end rorts
– Next steps to strengthen the integrity of international education
– Stamping out dodgy VET providers

4. National skills passport
Read details on National Skills Passport here –  https://ministers.education.gov.au/chalmers/national-skills-passport

5. National Skills Agreement
Detailed information about National Skills Agreement can be found here.

6. VET Qualification Reforms
Visit Department’s website for all updates on VET Qualifications Reforms –

7. Draft Standards for RTOs
Visit Department’s website for the revised copy of Draft Standards for RTOs – https://www.dewr.gov.au/skills-reform/quality-reforms
Provide feedback on draft of revised Standards by completing the online survey here.

8. ESOS Reforms
Following the sector feedback on the ESOS review discussion paper released last year, the Department sought further stakeholders’ feedback throughout.  Few of the anticipated upcoming changes as a part of ESOS Reform may involve amendments to written agreements between students and providers, English language requirements, additional protection requirements for minor students, increase in proportion of allowable online delivery to onshore overseas students potentially up to 50% while retaining the minimum of 20 scheduled course contact hours per week and education agents. Nothing has been announced yet and consultations are still ongoing in this space.

9. ASQA’s updated application requirements for initial registration
ASQA has updated its application forms and supporting evidence requirements for new entrants to the vocational education and training market. From 27 November 2023, all applications for initial registration must be made via new form and accompanied by the required supporting evidence. Read more on ASQA’s website – https://www.asqa.gov.au/news-events/news/updated-application-requirements-initial-registration

Read more about VET sector updates in the previous posts:
– Updates May to June 2023
– Updates in VET sector Feb to April 2023
– Updates in VET Events

The post Updates in VET Sector – July to November 2023 appeared first on Education and Training Compliance Solutions.

In this video, I talk about the recent updates in the VET sector:

1. Training Package Products Development and Endorsement Process (TPD) Policy – Shared originally by another colleague here at LinkedIn, Michelle Charlton, Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) has updated the TPD Policy to reflect the role of Jobs & Skills Councils (JSCs) and the TPD process map.

2. Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA) – Submissions on the JSA discussion paper closed on 10th Feb. JSA is doing VET Qualification Similarity Analysis. The outputs of the model are available in a new searchable dashboard. More than 1300 VET training package qualifications have been analysed using natural language processing methods. These methods were applied to calculate the similarity across the units within the course, the course descriptions, and the frequency of keywords within these texts. They’ve also published a paper outlining the methodology used in the process for anyone who wants to understand the method.

In the recent JSA webinar, interim director, Professor Peter Dawkins talked about JSA’s initial priorities. The webinar highlighted how JSA will be different from the work that National Skills Commission was doing and the most important difference being JSA will be engaging with the key stakeholders.

3. Proposed Qualification Model – There were a couple of informative sessions again last week outlining the proposed qualification models. If someone needs to provide feedback on the proposed model, it can be done until 17 March through an online survey on the DEWR website.

4. International Education – According to the recent update, it has been found that there has been a slight increase in student visa approvals for Australia. Also in a recent report released by the Department of Education on international student numbers in Australia, it shows that there has been a 7% increase in numbers in the last year (i.e., from Jan 2022- Nov 2022) as compared to the same period a year before. Thanks to Krishna Pokharel for sharing this information.

StudyPerth is taking a lot of initiatives to support international students. The recent launch of the JobFinder WA Program is one of the examples. This program is designed for international students and graduates to help them connect with local employers who are willing to take international students on board.

The post Updates in VET Sector & Events appeared first on Education and Training Compliance Solutions.