On Friday 7th June the Commonwealth and State Ministers met in Canberra for the first meeting of the COAG Standing Council on Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment for 2013. The Ministers’ Communique notes that “Ministers agreed to take further steps including: a new framework for drafting VET regulatory standards; the implementation of transparency reforms including Total VET Activity data collection (TVA) and the Unique Student Identifier (USI) scheme; and the next stage in the move to full cost recovery for the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA). Please note this is only the framework that has been endorsed, thus far, not the whole proposed new Standards.
ASQA fees
As you have read above the proposed fee changes did get approved, and it is likely higher fees will be released in the very near future for ASQA regulated providers, with a proposed implementation from 1 July 2014.
We are yet to see what they implement around the proposed LTO Standards, the “Accountable Education Officer” requirements, and the impact on the smaller training providers.