Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Childcare and Early Childhood Learning) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Higher Education Support Amendment (No. 1) Bill 2011. This bill seeks to ensure that quality education providers are able to apply and receive approval to offer FEE-HELP and VET FEE-HELP assistance to students. The coalition supports the bill.

Australia's future economic prosperity will be largely dependent on access to a highly skilled, productive workforce. As a nation we need to deepen and broaden our skills base if we are to be well placed to compete at a global level. We need to boost participation and ensure that our workers are appropriately trained so that we do not risk having economic growth constrained by lack of qualified staff. We need to ensure that we utilise the VET sector as best we can in addressing these future needs.

Skills Australia has undertaken considerable research into future employment scenarios for Australia. The highest growth scenario based on current policy settings would see Australia needing an additional 2.4 million people in the workforce with qualifications at Certificate III and higher by 2015. Under the former coalition government income contingent loans were extended to the VET sector in 2007, enabling provision of student loans for diploma, advanced diploma, graduate certificate and graduate diploma courses. This followed on from the provision of FEE-HELP to domestic students who chose to undertake non-Commonwealth funded courses at universities and approved private providers. This was to ensure that students wishing to pursue a vocation were provided with financial assistance similar to that on offer to university students through the HECS scheme, ensuring that prospective students would be able to access VET education without having to pay upfront. This system previously made it difficult for students who had financial constraints to access VET opportunities. Income contingent loans enhance accessibility to study for many Australians who may otherwise be precluded due to financial circumstances. Often the only thing preventing young Australians from following the employment pathway of their choosing is their ability to fund their study or to support themselves while studying. The 2010 report by the Foundation for Young Australians, How young people are faring, reported that 246,000 teenagers are currently not in full-time work or education. If we can make VET courses a financial reality for these young people, we may be able to prevent another generation of disengaged and disenfranchised Australians. Particularly given the rampant skills shortages facing Australia today, it is more important than ever that young Australians are able to access vocational qualifications that lead to sustainable employment opportunities. Many VET qualifications address the skill and demand, and it is critical that students are given every opportunity to undertake these courses.

Regrettably, too few Australians have been able to access VET FEE-HELP to date. The most recent data available from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations show that in 2009 only 5,262 students had income contingent loans with only 50 institutions approved to offer it. This bill seeks to increase access to VET FEE-HELP loans by enabling more providers to become approved institutions and to ensure that students who may otherwise be unable to study a VET course are in fact able to do so. Many of these courses target areas of real skills shortages. Given the current skills crisis facing this country, it is critical that we assist young Australians, enabling them to gain skills and career opportunities. Looking forward, we will need many more people with foundation and higher level skills. Skills Australia in their discussion paper, Creating a future direction for Australian vocational education and training, identified that over the last five years enrolment growth in the VET sector has only averaged less than one per cent a year.

Under the proposed new requirements, the minister will specify by legislative instrument the criteria that must be taken into account in deciding whether a body is fit and proper before their body may be approved as either a higher education provider or a VET provider. This provides a safeguard to protect against those providers who unfortunately bring the sector into disrepute. It will hopefully go some way to boosting public confidence in a sector that has been damaged in recent years by a number of unethical providers offering substandard qualifications. By simplifying the administrative requirements for providers whilst managing the Commonwealth's ability to manage provider risk, a greater number of providers will be deemed eligible to offer loans and more students will benefit from this access to income contingent loans through FEE-HELP and VET FEE-HELP. This is about more than just ensuring that VET students are afforded the same opportunities for funding assistance as those following a tertiary pathway. The coalition is intent on reiterating that a vocational qualification holds the same importance as a tertiary parchment and that VET qualifications will increasingly be in demand. I commend the bill to the House.

See this speech in context