The final part of the paper gets a bit more interesting and radical. He suggests that there are a range of issues that have emerged which affect the nature and quality of VET, including the triumph of training over a solid and more general vocational education; the marginalisation of VET\u2019s educators; the unevenness of qualifications, especially for those at the same AQF level and the limited autonomy of VET providers both large and small and when faced with regulatory and funding pressures and the constraints of very prescriptive training packages. He also suggests that alternatives to apprenticeships should be considered, although he admits they have a lot going for them.<\/p>\n

Channelling Martin Luther King, his dream would be to put education back into VET, advocate for the professionalisation of VET teaching, address the incoherence and unevenness of qualifications, introduce independent assessment, strengthen TAFEs (and some large private providers) to allow them to become vocational universities and create alternative models to supplement apprenticeships.<\/p>\n

Thus, on the whole, Tom believes that \u201cthe Productivity Commission has largely wasted an opportunity to shake up VET.\u201d<\/p>\n