BCA backs KPMG call for vocational funding reform

The BCA says it is important that vocational students should not be disadvantaged by the funding system.

The Business Council of Australia has backed a key element of the KPMG report on tertiary education reform, saying that vocational students should not be disadvantaged by the funding system.

“The report is right in pointing out that learners in the VET (vocational education and training) system shouldn’t be disadvantaged by a funding system that doesn’t put them on equal footing with those in universities,” said BCA chief executive Jennifer Westacott. “It isn’t just those with PhDs or masters degrees that can become experts in their field.”

She said that the report, released last week, was “a welcome addition to the growing list of those calling for desperately needed reform to our tertiary education sector”.

While university peak body Universities Australia has been highly critical of the report, the VET sector has welcomed it.

Rod Camm, chief executive of the Australian Council of Private Education and Training, which represents private vocational education providers, urged government to accept the recommendation that higher education and vocational education should be funded in an integrated system.

“The notion that there’s a visible separation between the sectors doesn’t make sense,” Mr Camm said. The opposition from Universities Australia was “disappointing”, he added.

TAFE Directors Australia chief executive Craig Robertson said his group, which represents TAFE colleges, was “broadly supportive”.

Mr Robertson backed the call in the KPMG report for private colleges to receive government subsidies as part of an integrated tertiary education funding system.

But he said TAFE would need to be funded adequately for meeting training needs that private providers did not address in “bespoke industries or regional areas”.