VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND
TRAINING — VETIS CONSULTING SERVICES
147. Hon DONNA FARAGHER to the Minister for Education and
Training:
I refer to the decision by the
Australian Skills Quality Authority on 8 March 2019 to cancel the registration
of VETiS Consulting Services as a provider of vocational education and
training.
(1) How many schools were offering a
VET qualification via VETiS Consulting Services this year?
(2) How many students are affected
by this decision?
(3) Can the
minister confirm that TAFE has taken over responsibility for the delivery of
the relevant VET qualifications previously being provided by VETiS?
(4) What
additional requirements are being placed on schools to transition to the new
provider, and what support has been given to schools by the department to
assist in this transition?
(5) Can the
minister assure the house that students who have been affected by this decision
will not be disadvantaged?
Hon SUE
ELLERY replied:
I thank the honourable member for
giving me a little notice of this so that I could provide her with an answer.
The first thing that is important to understand is that the delivery of courses
to students is still done by schoolteachers. It was done by schoolteachers
under VETiS and it will be done by schoolteachers once TAFE takes over the
auspicing. What VETiS did was certify that the course had been delivered and
the students had met the qualifications attached to that course. In respect of
the specifics asked by the honourable member —
(1) Sixty-four
public schools were offering a VET qualification via VETiS.
(2) The number of
students affected by the decision is 6 889 potential enrolments in public
schools. I will talk a bit about the difference between those and private
schools in a minute.
(3) Yes, TAFE has
taken over the responsibility of auspicing the assessment of the
qualifications. The delivery does not change; the auspicing arrangements have
changed.
(4) The
Department of Education, the School Curriculum and Standards Authority, the
Department of Training and Workforce Development and the TAFE colleges have
worked really closely, hard and fast together to provide support since we were
officially advised of the decision by the Australian Skills Quality Authority
to deregister VETiS. The Department of Education will meet the costs for those
schools that will use TAFE, which will take over the auspicing.
(5) Yes, I can
assure the house that students will not be disadvantaged.
I will just add an additional bit of
information. We will not get the information on the number of students affected
in private schools until the end of March. The information I have given the
member is about public schools.