2013 Environmental Scan - Community Services & Health Industry ...

CURRENT IMPACT OF
TRAINING PACKAGES
THE CARE INDUSTRY – A TIME FOR ACTION
This section reports on the latest public
data available on the use of the Community
Services and Health Training Packages
and outlines the work being conducted by
CS&HISC on workforce development and
the review of qualifications and competency
standards. The data indicates that in 2011
(last year of available data) there was
continued growth in Community Services
Training Package enrolments and a small
decline in the number of Health Training
Package enrolments. Limited evidence is
available to report on the broader impact
of training packages.
There are industry concerns about
the quality of training stemming
from accelerating training system
throughput, increasing use of e-learning
and simulated environments. Clearly
technology will increasingly be used in
training but will need to be balanced to
ensure quality training and outcomes are
achieved. CS&HISC believes that there is:
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Support from the industry to be more
involved with training through work
placements, workplace supervision
and work based assessment
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Potential for job redesign across
community services and health, within
a broader framework that assists
workforce development initiatives.
In 2012, CS&HISC greatly expanded
its workforce development activities
and outreach to provide a localised
workforce planning and capacity building
infrastructure as a service to the
industry. Work placements and training
packages are viewed by the industry as
integral to skill development and assist in
defining scopes of practice and skill mix.
CS&HISC is undertaking a major review
of the Community Services and Health
Training Packages to ensure workplace
assessment and work placement become
integral to the training system. CS&HISC
has also currently started a project to
engage with industry to improve the
quality of training.
TRAINING PACKAGE
UPTAKE
The most recently available national data
for enrolments in publicly funded Vocational
and Educational Training (VET) is for 2011.
Publicly funded enrolments in the CS&HISC
training packages were mixed in 2011. As
illustrated in Table 4, course enrolments in
the Community Services (CHC) Training
Package continued to increase in 2011,
with 201,233 enrolments, up 16.57 per
cent from 2010, while course enrolments
in the Health (HLT) Training Package in
2011 were 66,800, a small decrease of
3.6 per cent from 2010.
There were 16,241 Indigenous enrolments
in Australia for the Community Services
and Health Training Packages in 2011.
This figure was up 21.81 per cent on
enrolments in 2010, and formed 6.05 per
cent of total enrolments.
The data allows a very preliminary
examination of the impact of entitlement
models on demand for qualifications
in health and community services. The
figures incorporate twelve months’
operation of the Victorian entitlement
model. South Australia, the next State to
transition to an entitlement model, only
commenced its new system in July 2012.
We expect the number of students in
Community Services Training Package
courses and qualifications to continue
a sharp trajectory of growth, as the new
training package becomes embedded
in the sector. The number of students
increased by 19 per cent nationwide,
while the increase in Victoria was slightly
higher (22%) (see Figure 4).
Children’s Services, Aged Care and
general community services qualifications
continue to be the largest sectors for
training activity, and much of the growth
in enrolments in the first two sectors can
be attributed to the impact of the Early
Childhood Quality Framework as well as
reforms in the aged care sector (see Table
4). The impact of the Victorian reforms
may be more evident in the Health
Training Package.
As stated earlier in 2011, the number of
students in the Health Training Package
nationally declined by 3.6 per cent,
Victoria in 2011 experienced a 9 per cent
increase in the number of students in
Health Training Package qualifications
(see Figure 4). There were large increases
in nursing enrolments, Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) primary
health care, general health services, and
complementary and alternative health
(see Table 5). This increase reflects the
particular incentives offered under the
Victorian reforms to the VET sector.
Table 4: Community Services and Health Training Package Enrolments, 2004-2011
The overall decline nationally in the
number of students studying qualifications
from the Health Training Package could
reflect substitution with higher education.
Figure 5 below shows the number of
health students enrolled in publicly funded
VET courses and the number of domestic
higher education students studying health
courses from 2007 to 2011. The number
of students studying health courses
at higher education institutions has
increased more than 6 per cent each year
and health is the fastest growing field
of study over the period. However, in the
same period the number of VET students
has plateaued since 2009.
In 2013, CS&HISC will be exploring
further the question of substitution
between VET and higher education,
including conducting analysis at the more
detailed field of study level.
One of the challenges in reporting how
training packages are currently used, is
limitations in the scope and timeliness of
data. For this EScan, it is only possible
to report enrolments up to 2011 and
completions up to 2012, which is a very
significant lag. In future EScans it will be
possible to include more timely data, as
the transparency reforms announced by
SCOTESE this year (such as moving
from annual to more frequent reporting)
are implemented.
Year 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Total
CHC02/08
Community Services 90 963 99 274 107 311 113 532 124 733 139 527 167 882 201 233 1 044 455
HLT02/07 Health 10 272 13 275 13 496 15 856 35 629 59 623 69 299 66 800 284 250
Total 101 235 112 549 120 807 129 388 160 362 199 150 237 181 268 033 1 328 705
Source: NCVER VOCSTATS 2012, Course enrolments 2004-2011, from series 2002-2011 (Revised 31/08/12).
ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN 2013 : SECTION THREE CURRENT IMPACT OF TRAINING PACKAGES
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