VET News

Amendment Bill Passes Third Reading

In 2017, the Australian Government commissioned an independent review of the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 (NVETR Act) by Professor Valerie Braithwaite, professor at the Australian National University’s School of Regulation and Global Governance. In 2018, the ‘All eyes on quality: Review of the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 report’ (Braithwaite Review) and the Australian Government response were released.

Overall, the Braithwaite Review found the NVETR Act gives the National VET Regulator, the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) sufficient powers to appropriately regulate the current vocational education and training (VET) environment. However, the Braithwaite Review made recommendations to enhance student outcomes by strengthening regulation of the VET sector to improve the quality of training in Australia and ensure students are both protected and informed.

In April 2019, the Australian Government released the ‘Strengthening Skills: Expert Review of Australia’s Vocational Education and Training System’ by the Hon Steven Joyce (Joyce Review). The Joyce Review concurred with Braithwaite Review recommendations in respect of legislative amendments to the NVETR Act to strengthen registration requirements and increase transparency. Consequently, the proposed amendments respond to both reviews to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the National VET Regulator and regulation of the VET sector, without significantly increasing the regulatory burden on prospective or current NVR RTOs.

The purpose of the Bill is to amend the NVETR Act to improve its efficiency and effectiveness by strengthening the regulatory framework.  Under the Bill, amongst other things, ASQA will have increased regulatory powers and the registration requirements for NVR RTOs will be strengthened.

Amendments are scheduled to commence 1 July 2020.

For more information, you can view the:

• Review of the NVETR Act 2011 page on the DESE website
• VET Review page on the DESE website
• Bills of the current Parliament page 

Date posted Feb 13, 2020