Chapter 4 continued
The organisation of ace provision in the states and territories
ACT
The ACT Vocational Education and Training Act 1995 invests responsibility
for adult and community education in the ACT Vocational Education and
Training Authority. According to an officer from the Department, the decision
to incorporate ACE within the VET legislation reflects a recognition that
vocational education and training has both a `training orientation and
a community orientation'. [1]
The establishment of an ACE Advisory Council in December 1996 represents
the most significant step towards the construction of a framework to support
the ACE sector in the ACT to date. The Council advises the Minister for
Education and Training through VETA (Vocational Education and Training
Authority) on the following matters:
- the role of the ACE sector and its relationship to VET
- the structure and administration of ACE in the ACT
- training priorities in the ACE sector
- the provision of citizenship education across a range of areas (eg
health, the environment, public affairs etc), and
- funding needs of the ACE sector.
The Council is currently focussing its efforts on developing policy in
consultation with the ACE community. The Council is supported by VETA
staff.
There are approximately 100 ACE providers known to operate in the ACT.
According to the 1996 ACT Training Profile, just 13 of them `train about
10,000 students and are offering some 330,000 hours of course activity.
The total activity by all ACE providers is likely to be substantially
greater than this'. [2]
The Committee is advised that there is at present no line item for ACE
in the ACT budget. No ACE providers are as yet accessing VET funds through
the Training Profile process. In the past two years, the government has
taken deliberate steps to diversify the training market in the ACT and
anticipates that more ACE providers will gain access to VET funds. [3]
In 1996 AVETMISS was extended to include ACE providers associated with
publicly funded institutions.
Footnotes
[1] Transcript of evidence, Canberra,
24 February 1997, p 639 (Mr Gordon)
[2] Developing Adult and Community Education
in the ACT, A Discussion Paper, June 1996, p 13
[3] Transcript of evidence, Canberra,
24 February 1997, p 643 (Mr Gordon)