The Trades Support Loans Amendment Bill was in the Reps last week – strange to relate nobody much noticed.
But higher ed people who hope the Accord will fix everything shouldn’t. – The bill is a hint that it won’t.
Whatever Mary O’Kane and her Accord colleagues are working on for the paper due at month end, what the government wants has long been on the record.
Education Minister Jason Clare announced from arriving that his focus was on expanding HE participation by students from low SES backgrounds. “It will look at everything from quality and standards to international education and research. But what I really want them to zero in on is equity,” he said in a speech to charity The Smith Family (Campus Morning Mail December 7 2022).
And at the apex of outrage over increased costs of HELP debts due to CPI indexation Mr Clare made his priorities plain.
“The cost of degrees is important, but the cost of kids in western Sydney missing out in going to university at all is a massive problem. And if I’ve got more money to invest in higher education, that’s where I want it to go, to more kids from poor backgrounds to go to uni,” he told Sydney Radio 2GB (Campus Morning Mail June 2).
And now there is the Trades Support Loans Amendment Bill.
The existing Act provides income contingent loans to apprentice and trainees in specified trade and tech occupations and the Bill extends them to nominated in-demand occupations, notably VET-courses in care provision including age, disability and for children.
“The Albanese government is working to remove the barriers Australians face in their accessing life-changing education and training and ensuring that Australians from all backgrounds and cultures are supported to achieve their full potential,” Skills and Training Minister Brendan O’Connor said in the Reps.
It’s a model that could cover HE students with living costs that come with their courses – like compulsory placements in initial teacher education and nursing degrees.
While Mr Clare is not on the recent record on the cost of placements for HE degrees, Member for Higgins Zoe Goldstein said in the Reps (June 14), “I also understand that this legislation has attracted the attention of the education minister, who is interested in seeing whether it can be applied to other areas of higher education beyond the vocational education and training sector.” Gosh, wherever could she have heard that with sufficient credibility to include it in Hansard?
If she is right, this could be an idea that appears in the O’Kane Accord (it’s first pass for the public report is due at the end of the month).
No, it would not be a budget hit of such consequence that it reduced Accord options – but it would signal what the government might want emphasise in HE – increased access and training for jobs in manufacturing and front-line health and care, that appeal to its traditional base.
