Victoria's secrets

Peek here for a sample of what was left out of the report Victoria eventually released on its training market.

THE final quarterly report on the Victorian Training Market omitted information on individual providers, which had been included in a previous version of the report, because the state government considered it suitable for stakeholders' eyes only.

Here’s a sample of what was left out.

Education and training
Vocational Training Group attracted far more enrolments than any other college – including the 18 TAFE institutes – in courses for the education and training industries, even though it was under administration at the time.

The original report suggests that VTG absorbed over 90 per cent of the entire state’s enrolments in the certificate IV in outdoor recreation, possibly thanks to a creative recruitment approach involving $1000 ‘scholarships’ for students who completed its brief, free courses.

VTG has since been deregistered over financial viability issues.

Agriculture forestry and fishing
Agriculture proved fertile ground for Geelong-based Gordon TAFE, which increased its enrolments in primary industries courses by 261 per cent last year.

Gordon secured slightly over half of the enrolments in the sector’s most popular course, the certificate III in agriculture, thanks to its “innovative community-based training initiative” which involved recognising existing skills rather than training new ones.

“This program has been very successful,” the since redacted report says, while noting that about a quarter of the state's enrolments in farm worker occupations “do not represent new trained employees”.

Retail
The top five private colleges easily outsold their public sector counterparts, cornering 27 per cent of retail enrolments between them – 33 per cent more than the combined enrolments of all 18 TAFEs.

The star performers included Flexible Advanced Creative Training Solutions, which increased its retail enrolments to 1524 last year from just three the year before – a 50,800 per cent increase. No such mark-up can be calculated for Positive Training Solutions, with 1970 enrolments – up from none.

Transport, Postal and Warehousing
Private provider Journey Management Group claimed pole position, edging out Holmesglen Institute as the top provider of transport, postal and warehousing courses. Each attracted over 3000 enrolments.

TAFEs’ market share dropped from 64 to 40 per cent, even though their enrolments grew 3 per cent. But this reflected soaring success of the few rather than steady success of the many. Gordon TAFE more than tripled its enrolments to almost 1600 and five other TAFEs grew by up to a few hundred each. Enrolments across the other 12 TAFEs fell 22 per cent.

Manufacturing
When it comes to making stuff, TAFEs still dominate training in Victoria. But not nearly as much as they used to, with enrolments sliding 13 per cent in a single year.

Private providers more than doubled their market share to 42 per cent. The top four colleges now have more manufacturing enrolments than all but three of the TAFEs.

Information, media, telecommunications and mining
Of 19 industry sectors, the only two that actually saw enrolments decline last year in Victoria’s gangbusters training market were – you guessed it – information, media and telecommunications (down 2 per cent) and mining (down 13 per cent).

What resources boom? What national broadband network?

Okay, maybe Victoria is at the wrong end of the two speed economy when it comes to pulling stuff out of the ground. But surely the NBN plans to snake its way to the southern state?

TAFE enrolments fell 5 per cent in IMT, with increases at Chisholm and RMIT unable to make up for 15 per cent declines at the leading institutes, Box Hill and Swinburne. And a brave 62 per cent increase in mining enrolments at Bendigo couldn’t compensate for a 96 per cent collapse at Holmesglen, with overall TAFE mining enrolments falling 14 per cent.

The private sector wasn’t much help in either sector, with the leading colleges attracting just 51 enrolments in IMT and 6 in mining.

Arts and recreation
Enrolments in arts and recreation might have grown another 50 per cent last year, thanks to the relentless popularity of fitness and sport courses, but TAFEs weren’t part of the party. Enrolments across the 18 institutes declined another 5 per cent last year, while those at private providers tripled.

The top four private providers outperformed all the TAFEs last year, collecting almost a third of the state’s arts and recreation enrolments among them. But two – Training Sense and Acacia Learning Solutions – don’t appear to have been reapproved for state government funding.

Even the published version of the report acknowledges art and recreation as one of last year’s fastest growing industry sectors, even though it contains “no identified skills shortage occupations” and sports and personal service workers have been formally classified as ‘of little vocational benefit’.

The “heavy lift” in fitness instructor enrolments revealed by the HES last August has continued unabated. The 4200 enrolments in 2010 more than doubled again to 9500 last year.