VET Industry News 06-May-2019

A plan for stronger Australia

The Business Council of Australia has released a plan for stronger Australia.

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The Independent Sector Offers Better Outcomes At A Lower Cost – ACPET

The independent Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector is highly efficient. Domestically, it costs the government $2,400 per student trained by independent VET providers compared to $5,500 per student trained by public TAFE colleges.

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The Education Services for Overseas Students (ESOS) Regulations 2019 change as from 1 Oct 2019

The Education Services for Overseas Students (ESOS) Regulations 2019 were re-made on 4 April 2019, to replace the ESOS Regulations 2001, and are due to take effect on 1 October 2019.

There will be some minor changes, which mean providers will need to enter some additional information on PRISMS from 1 October 2019, such as:

information about education agents for every student enrolment;
the date a student took an English language test, if the student was required to provide evidence of their level of English language proficiency for the purposes of a student visa;
the class of student visa applicant a student falls within (commonly referred to as evidence exemptions), if a student was not required to provide evidence of their level of English language proficiency for the purposes of a student visa, and
information about students who have breached a condition of a student visa in relation to their course progress, including attendance.

DET will provide support materials to assist providers, such as a factsheet and instructions on how to use new features in PRISMS, in the lead-up to the commencement of the Regulations 2019 on 1 October 2019.

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Sukh Sandhu

Executive Director

Sukh has been working in the VET and Higher Education Industry for over 25 years. In this time, he has held several roles with RTO's and Higher Education Providers (HEP) including CEO roles for International Colleges and National Compliance and Quality Assurance Manager roles for several RTO's, TAFE's and Universities. Sukh has also worked for the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) as a Business Systems Project Official. Sukh is a Canadian permanent resident and Australian citizen.

Sukh has had extensive project management experience in risk management, compliance, administration and as a training consultant. He has extensive knowledge in government compliance standards and has participated in nearly one hundred audits across Australia and provided consultancy advice regarding ASQA/VRQA, TEQSA, ACPET, DET-HESG, VQF/Higher Education, ELICOS, NEAS, ANMAC, AHPRA, CRICOS, ESOS and ISO.

Sukh is a member of several independent professional organisations and government bodies including, ACPET, VELG, ACS, AITD, MARA, MIA, ISANA, APEX, IEEE, The Internet Society (Global Member), AISIP, IAMOT, ACM, OISV, APACALL, IWA, Eta Kappa Nu, EDSIG and several others.

Sukh's qualifications include two MBAs, three masters in IT and systems, a Graduate diploma of management learning, Diploma in training design and development, Diploma in vocational education training, Diploma of work, health and safety, Diploma of Quality Auditing, Advanced diploma of management, Advanced diploma in marketing, human resources, information technology, and a number of other courses and qualifications. He has been working as a lecturer and as a trainer and assessor since 1998, Sukh has been a vocal advocate of audit reforms and system centred auditing practices rather than auditor centred auditing practices for many years.