Securing our future economic prosperity

'Securing our future economic prosperity' is an appropriate, bold and exciting response to the challenges facing the skills needs of Victoria and a timely review of the manner in which vocational education and training operates in the State and nationally. As such, the Victorian Government should be complimented for initiating this much needed review. As a dual-sector University, Swinburne is ideally placed to contrast missions, structures and outcomes between TAFE and Higher Education systems. This context will be referenced a number of times in this paper. With this perspective in mind, simply responding to the questions raised in the Discussion Paper would miss an opportunity to take a broader approach to shaping the future of Vocational Education and Training (VET). Therefore, rather than focussing only on the questions raised by the Discussion Paper, this paper firstly summarises the challenges facing the VET system (and TAFE in particular), points out the limitations of a fully-contestable demand-driven model and then proposes a new system to address the challenge of providing Victoria with an innovative, high quality VET system for the future. The implications of what is proposed in the Discussion Paper are fundamental, and the effects of implementing some of the suggested reforms would reach well beyond Vocational Education and Training in Victoria. Therefore, careful consideration of all options is critical. In particular, the future of public education and the enviable international reputation which Victoria holds as a destination for high quality education must be nurtured and developed. Therefore, all possible solutions should be considered carefully before progressing