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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-03-17 Daily Xml
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TAFE SA

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:30): I have a supplementary question. Has TAFE been specifically made aware of its responsibilities with regard to separating its community service obligations and the provision of standard courses with which it competes with privately-owned RTOs?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (14:30): Yes, TAFE is well aware of its responsibilities. One of the things that I discussed with both DSD and TAFE is that there are many grey areas. Our community service obligation is pretty obvious at the moment in terms of Aboriginal services, but there are many elements of community service obligations that are entwined throughout the activities that TAFE, in particular, undertakes—and some of the RTOs do, as well.

They are particularly courses that really go to issues of access and equity, to assist people often in those very early first steps, so they might not be directly related to training, but without these activities those particular individuals—and obviously they are our most disadvantaged and often disenfranchised individuals—would simply never be able to take that first training step.

I have talked to both the agency and TAFE and said that I think we should be able to articulate that sort of activity in a much more transparent way because it is integrated, if you like, within the cost structures of training per se. There is some work in progress and it is something that I would like to achieve to ensure that whether you call it a community service obligation or a social justice component or whatever we might call it, I believe that we can do much better in being able to articulate that more clearly and account and report for it more transparently.

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