Funding offer will hurt states: Qld

QUEENSLAND has weighed into the federal-state stoush over funding for vocational training, saying both sides are right.

Rod Camm

QUEENSLAND has weighed into the federal-state stoush over funding for vocational training, saying both sides are right.

The workforce development advisory body, Skills Queensland, said the federal government was justified in claiming that it had increased overall funding for training.

But CEO Rod Camm said Western Australia and Victoria were also right to say the commonwealth was providing less money to support regular state training activities.

“There is no question that the current [agreement], over the length of the partnership, offers less money to the states,” Mr Camm said.

“That’s a problem, because the states are responsible for keeping up training effort. The concept of receiving less money is a really difficult position for a state to bear.

“Look at Queensland. We have enormous skill shortages. We need to keep investing and improving our training effort. That costs money.”

Mr Camm said that while the federal government was investing more in training, the money was being allocated to “different places”. But there had been no reduction in state training obligations.

And he said the commonwealth would make matters worse if it acted on its threat to bypass the states and pour money into an industry-driven fund allocated through skills councils.

“There’s so many players in the system now – it’s more fragmented than it’s ever been,” he said.

“We are getting industry feedback that they’re tired of people knocking on their door with the solution.”

He said the problem was particularly evident in “economic hotspots” like the port city of Gladstone, where the burgeoning coal seam gas industry has sent industry sectors like construction into hyperdrive.

“We’re trying to position training providers to be closer to industry, but commonwealth funded organisations are out there doing the same thing,” Mr Camm said.

“If employers are approached one day by TAFE and the next day by a private provider, that’s probably okay. But then we’ve got state industry councils, federal industry councils, job network providers – all there for the right reason, but there’s lots of them.

“That’s not necessarily the best way to [talk] to an employer.”

Mr Camm said the federal-state stoush was ironic, given that no-one appeared to oppose the federal government’s fundamental proposals of a training ‘entitlement’ and income-contingent loans for diploma students.

He said everyone agreed that a supply-driven vocational training system was too slow to adapt to industry needs. “Commonwealth, states, we’re all in that boat – I don’t think there’s fireworks between the commonwealth and the states.

“[But] it costs money. This kind of thing costs money. You can’t turn these strategies on and then turn them off, because the consequences are not pleasant.”