TAFE SA Audit

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Higher Education and Skills) (14:05): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: The Australian Skills Quality Authority undertook an audit in May 2017 looking at a selection of training activities that were completed in 2016 by TAFE. The report of that audit was presented to the chief executive of TAFE SA on 25 September 2017. ASQA is the regulatory body that monitors training standards in all states except Victoria and Western Australia. This audit was part of ASQA's three to five year monitoring program, which forms part of its responsibility to maintain high standards consistently across the country.

Officers from ASQA randomly selected courses from across TAFE SA's range of qualifications. Sixteen qualifications were audited, with two to four units per qualification, covering a variety of areas, from cookery to hairdressing and automotive refinishing. The nature of the audit was to determine how compliant with the national standards TAFE SA was in teaching these qualifications.

A level of noncompliance was identified in each of the qualifications. While they vary in their nature, I am concerned that collectively they represent a sample of poor practice within TAFE SA. TAFE SA is in the process of undertaking a detailed analysis of the content of the ASQA report to determine how to rectify the areas of noncompliance as soon as possible. In accordance with ASQA requirements, TAFE SA now has until 24 October to respond, after which ASQA will determine if it is satisfied with the response.

The students enrolled in these courses are my first priority, and I have asked TAFE SA to contact each of them and ensure that they are notified about the report, kept informed of progress and advised of any implications for them. My second priority is to maintain public confidence in South Australia's public provider. TAFE SA teaches more than 1,000 qualifications, workplace competencies and short courses to more than 700,000 students every year. Their success and credibility is critically important to our state.

Auditing of courses is an essential element of ensuring a high-quality training system, and every training provider must be prepared to improve its standards continuously. I am advised that TAFE SA has in place an internal audit program that uses a risk-based sampling method at a work group level. After reviewing the report, I met with the chair of the TAFE SA Board, and he has agreed to form a task force comprising the chief executives of both TAFE SA and the Department of State Development as well as one or more of TAFE SA's Board members with intimate knowledge and expertise in vocational training.

The task force will undertake two roles. The first is to oversee the organisation's response to the audit and to provide me as minister with weekly updates on progress. The second role is to appoint an independent reviewer to look into TAFE SA's existing self-auditing program so I can be sure that South Australians can have confidence in our public training provider. I am concerned about the level of quality issues ASQA has identified in this audit, and I am committed to working with TAFE not only to oversee a response to the audit but to ensure that TAFE is appropriately managing its internal quality assurance processes.