ACE Vic

ACEVic was recently invited by the Minister for Skills and Workforce Participation, Jacinta Allan, to respond to the Securing our economic future: discussion paper on skills reform.  Our response is below.

acevic-response1

 In addition many members of ACEVic contributed individual responses. There were a number of common themes across the member submissions. These were:

• ACE providers are confident of their ability to thrive in a more open market, but only where competition is around capacity to attract learners and achieve outcomes, not where competition means a price based “race to the bottom” as has occurred in federally funded adult education.
• Many adults presenting for ACE programs don’t fit priority learner groups but are nonetheless seriously educationally disadvantaged and in need of intensive support.  Some examples cited include learners with an undiagnosed mental illness and learners with quals achieved in other countries and in other languages.
• ACE providers are struggling to attract and retain teachers under the current funding regime.

We look forward to hearing the outcomes of the review.