Securing Jobs for Your Future Bulletin - Issue 2
Welcome to the second edition of the Securing Jobs for Your Future Bulletin, a regular newsletter designed to keep providers and other stakeholders informed of all skills reform implementation issues.
You can subscribe to the newsletter by going to the newsletter homepage. If you have any queries about the newsletter or specific projects, please email us at securingjobsbulletin@diird.vic.gov.au.
The stories in this issue include:
Reaching the Market
The latest phase of the Reaching the Market campaign launched at the start of May. Two new television commercials continue the ‘piece of paper’ theme and highlight to businesses the significant business returns to be gained from investing in training, including increased profitability, productivity and efficiency, and support the print and online campaign for Skills for Growth: the Workforce Development Program.
- View the latest television commercials.
This phase of the campaign also includes a four week radio campaign, aimed at the youth market, airing on Nova 100. Since Monday 11 May Nova has been running a competition called Skills to Pay the Bills on its morning show where listeners could win $5,000 to start and keep training. A second competition, called Improve Your Skill Set, is now underway, where school students can win work experience in a chosen field, a laptop to support their studies and a visit to their school by the Nova crew and a cool band.
The campaign is supported by testimonials from the Victorian Apprentice of the Year for 2008, Lucinda Brundell, and the Victorian Trainee of the Year for 2008, Matter Machar, which are airing across the four weeks.
Through this campaign, Skills Victoria aims to raise awareness among young people of the significant number of TAFE and training courses which lead to diverse careers. Interim results of the campaign are positive.
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Adult community further education capacity initiatives
Securing Jobs for Your Future – Skills for Victoria announced $10.8 million over 2009 to 2012 for initiatives to strengthen the capacity of Adult Community Education (ACE) providers. This new investment will provide eight Capacity Initiatives to assist the ACE sector to successfully position itself in the new Victorian skills system including improving the efficiency of ACE providers and responding to hard-to-reach learners.Requests for quotations and 'Expressions of Interest' in the capacity initiatives have been sought and the initiatives are poised for implementation from May/June 2009 onwards. For further information or to obtain a summary of each of the ACFE Capacity Initiatives please contact Verna Kearney, Manager, Learner Outcomes, ACFE on (03) 9208 3726.
The General Manager of Adult Community Further Education (ACFE), Sandy Forbes, will undertake nine regional briefings from Tuesday 26 May to Thursday 4 June 2009 to update ACE providers on the developments and future requirements of the reforms, including the capacity initiatives. These briefings will provide a valuable opportunity for questions and discussions and a set of implementation resources will be available at each session. For further information or to register your attendance please contact your ACFE Regional Council office or visit the ACFE website.
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COAG compact with young Australians
On 30 April 2009 the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) announced A Compact with Young Australians to increase young people’s engagement with education and training pathways and to ensure that every young person is able to access an education or training place.From 1 July 2009 all 15-19 year olds will be entitled to an education or training place for any government subsidised qualification, subject to admission requirements and course availability. From 1 January 2010, this entitlement will be available to 20-24 year olds, as long as they attain a higher qualification.
A National Youth Participation Requirement making participation in education, training or employment compulsory for all young people until 17 years of age commencing on 1 January 2010 has also been introduced. Young people will be required to participate in schooling (at school or at an approved equivalent) until they complete Year 10. Young people who have completed Year 10 will also be required to participate full-time (at least 25 hours per week) in education, training or employment, or a combination of these activities, until they reach the age of 17.
COAG agreed to bring forward the education attainment target of 90 per cent for Year 12 or equivalent from 2020 to 2015. A progress measure will be developed regarding the COAG target to ‘halve the gap’ for Indigenous students in Year 12 or equivalent attainment by 2020.
Work to support the engagement and retention of apprentices will be undertaken by a taskforce, which will provide an action plan to COAG in July 2009. For more information please visit the COAG website.
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Enhancement of the State Register
From June 2009 anyone thinking about training can go to the Victorian Registrations and Qualifications Agency’s (VRQA) home page and search the register for Vocational Education and Training (VET) providers and the accredited qualifications they offer. This is the first of the new functions being made available to the general public over the next six months.In November 2009, the general public will also be able to create their own learning profile, check out the qualifications they are interested in and plan a pathway to the job they want to reach.
In June and July, the VRQA will be briefing stakeholders groups in the VET sector about the benefits and goals of the state register project and what it will mean for them.
The apply-on-line functions for VET providers will be available from November, allowing providers to update information and administer applications and registration via the website.
The VRQA will contact VET providers later in the year with more information.
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Victorian Skills Pledge
Launching at the end of June 2009, the Victorian Skills Pledge is a new initiative designed to boost the level of engagement by businesses with the skills development of their employees. In the current economic downturn, it is still critically important for enterprises to maintain a focus on developing and retaining a skilled workforce, so that they are well positioned to take advantage of business opportunities when the economy recovers.The Victorian Skills Pledge is a voluntary commitment by enterprises to drive business improvement through appropriate upskilling for their employees. Signatories of the Pledge will be able to use the skills system to get the best outcome for their business and staff, and market their business as committed to the upskilling of staff in recruitment and retention of employees. Each enterprise will decide the training that best fits its business need and how this should be delivered.
The Victorian Skills Pledge is open to businesses of all sizes in the private, public and community sectors and registration will be available quickly and simply through an on-line sign-up facility, available on the Skills Victoria website from late June.
For more information on the Victorian Skills Pledge please contact John Stapleton, Industry Relations Manager at Skills Victoria on (03) 9637 2262.
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21st century connectivity
The $20 million TAFE 21st Century Networking project has been established to provide significantly improved connectivity to all TAFE institutes and campuses and to enable better collaboration between TAFE and industry. This common technology platform will enable greater collaboration across the sector and deliver advanced learning services to users.Procurements of Internet and broadband carriage services have begun following recent stakeholder consultations and the first TAFE institutes will be connecting to the new network as early as September 2009. TAFEs are making plans now for the types of services that they will be able to deliver in this new networked environment. The new TAFE network complements recent announcements from the Commonwealth to improve networks for the Vocational Education sector.
For more information please email Steve Bowmaker at steve.bowmaker@diird.vic.gov.au.
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Request for Funding Application (RFA) for registered training organisations
As part of the reform commitment to ensuring that government subsidised places are available from a wider range of providers, all eligible providers will have access to demand driven funding for eligible individuals.A Request for Funding Application (RFA) process will enable providers to demonstrate their compliance with eligibility requirements and potentially access demand driven funding for nationally accredited training delivery to eligible individuals from 1 July 2009.
The RFA opened on 13 May 2009 and will close on 4 June 2009. Visit the Government Funded Training Program website for detailed information regarding this process, including:
- the Request for Application for Program Funding for the 2009 Securing Jobs for Your Future - Skills for Victoria
- the DRAFT Securing Jobs for Your Future – Skills for Victoria Funding Agreement 2009
- the DRAFT Securing Jobs for Your Future – Skills for Victoria Minimum Performance Standards 2009.
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