FUTURE DIRECTIONS

The TVET system needs to offer pathways and opportunities to obtain vocational qualifications of an assured quality and relevance to the national economy, in both its formal and informal sectors. To achieve that requires the active collaboration of employers, providers both public and private, and governments both national and provincial, as well as the engagement of students. With that end in view, the team suggests the following directions for the continuing development of a sustainably funded TVET system in PNG.

 Simpler and more unified arrangements for GoPNG’s role in the regulation, funding and quality assurance of the TVET system need to be put in place, as the key stake- holders already acknowledge. Without that, piecemeal reforms may founder.

 Resources for TVET appear dispersed across too many different initiatives. Unified supervision arrangements should include a capability to assess funding priorities for the TVET sector as a whole.

 The contributions of government grants and course fees to the funding of higher- level pre-employment TVET need to be clarified. At present TBC grants cover a narrower range of items than university grants, and require TBCs to raise a higher proportion of their income through fees.

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 There also needs to be a coherent policy on qualifications and fees across the VTCs, the community colleges and the smaller RTOs, all of whom cater for local demands for entry-level TVET. If all three kinds of provider are being pressed to standardise their offer around NC1 and NC2, it is inequitable and potentially costly to the taxpayer to pay subsidies to VTCs to make these courses fee-free, but not to the other providers.

 There is scope to recover a higher proportion of the cost of TVET for people in work from their employers through higher fees, if quality concerns are met.

 The existing training levy in PNG is not working well. But in other developing countries other forms of training levy have proved their worth in sharing the cost of training and increasing its quantity. PNG might review its training levy with a view to clarifying the objectives, simplifying the method of collection, and enhancing

transparency.

 The roles of GoPNG and provinces in providing scholarships for TVET might be reviewed, perhaps with a view to a locally administered scheme with a common structure. Resources for student support are limited. But it would promote

competition and choice if government scholarships were open on equal terms for specified courses across public and private providers.

 The funding of expenditures related to the quality of TVET – such as the

development of occupational standards, training packages, curriculum and teacher training – is low and dependent on whatever opportunities are found from year-to- year. It needs to be put on a more secure basis.

 The establishment of TBCs in more provinces has already begun, and offers strong potential. But it will be expensive, and GoPNG may wish to ensure that provinces seeking a TBC in their area pay a substantial share of the establishment cost.  Partnerships between provincial governments and private providers offering properly

accredited qualifications are an alternative way to supply TVET in more provinces, particularly in fields such as business and tourism and hospitality. Such partnerships should be encouraged as promoting cost-sharing and diversity.

 VTCs and private providers already supply TVET at district level, and community colleges are beginning to do so. Enhancements to provision need to be based on assessments of need and sustainability in the local context, including whether separate VTC and community college provision is effective and sustainable.

 There is potential to enhance value for money by better planning and procurement of capital works, notably by giving institutions a fuller say in planning new buildings, and adherence to proper tendering procedures.

 The information base for making TVET policy and monitoring progress is fragmented and particularly weak on data standards, and the whole field of financial statistics. Through collaboration the agencies concerned could make some improvements in data collection, dissemination and use now. Further opportunities would open up within more unified arrangements for GoPNG regulation of the TVET sector.

The report has also indentified a number of day-to-day improvements in data about TVET, and in administration, that could be implemented relatively quickly. These are listed in Table 13.1.

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Table 13.1 Proposed initiatives to improve TVET administration and data

Section of the Report

Issue Proposed initiative

3.3 and 3.5 Census data. NSO analyses age-structure from the PNG Census 2011, and labour market data. NDoE and NTC use such data to project future population in main TVET age-groups, and to clarify the structure of PNG work- force.

5.1 TBC

enrolments and

graduations

NDoE and OHE collaborate to align their collections of TBC enrolments, to improve graduation statistics, and to initiate tracer studies of the first destination of graduates.

5.3 VTC statistics NDoE publishes more up-to-date statistics for VTCs, and extend the collection to cover community colleges.

5.5 and

10.9 RTO statistics NTC focuses in the short term on preparing and posting an up-to-date register of institutions and courses. In longer term, NTC could aim for a statistics collection for RTOs on the same footing as for public providers

10.1 Overseas

Contract Officers

NDoE reviews the deployment of OCOs which appears skewed towards one college.

10.1 Capital funding NDoE ensures that capital funds allocated in the budget for a specific year and expended over several years, are safeguarded for the intended use through rigorous trust accounts.

11.2 Financial data from

institutions

NDoE makes the collection of financial information from TBCs and VTCs more systematic, and ensures the data are more extensively analysed and reported. NTC does likewise with financial data from RTOs.

11.2 Trusts GoPNG requires the Skills Development Trust Fund and the Community Education Trust to publish annual reports and audited accounts.

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