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Speaker 1: We know that an independent review has identified a series

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Speaker 1: of failures within Charles Darwin University's TAFE carpentry program, which

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Speaker 1: compromised the qualifications of more than one hundred and thirty

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Speaker 1: student since twenty twenty two. Now. The report found the

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Speaker 1: full scope of training an assessment required for the qualification

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Speaker 1: was not consistently delivered, pointing to behavioral, structural and operational

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Speaker 1: issues within the carpentry division. The university has accepted eight

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Speaker 1: recommendations to address the problems, while the sector regulator, Australian

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Speaker 1: Skills Quality Authority continues its own assessment of the course.

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Speaker 1: Now joining us on the line is the Acting Vice

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Speaker 1: Chancellor and President, Professor Fiona Colson. Good morning to your Fiona.

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Speaker 1: Let's try that again. For some reason, that phone line

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Speaker 1: is not clicking in. Good morning to your Fiona.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, sorry about that.

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Speaker 1: Having a quick tech issue. Now, Professor tell us this

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Speaker 1: review you found more than one hundred and thirty carpentry

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Speaker 1: students were affected. What exactly went wrong.

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Speaker 2: The review, as you've highlighted in the intro, was that

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Speaker 2: there were a number of factors, so it wasn't one

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Speaker 2: single factor, but a combination of factors that were certainly

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Speaker 2: exists across the sector, but were particularly pronounced within our

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Speaker 2: carpentry teams. So there were, as you outlined, historical structure

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Speaker 2: and operational factors, So there is is around workload and

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Speaker 2: workforce management. There were increasing regatory complexity as well as

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Speaker 2: some legacy learning and assessment resources and essentially having the

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Speaker 2: result that we had some outdated or inconsistent assessment tools

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Speaker 2: that we required redevelopment of. So there were gaps. The

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Speaker 2: gaps were identified our team and we did I identify

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Speaker 2: the rectifications. But what the review needed to answer for

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Speaker 2: us is provided that assurance of what were the factors

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Speaker 2: that led to this, what we could do to prevent

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Speaker 2: it from happening again, and what assurance do we have

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Speaker 2: that it is not a wider issue?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you spot on. I think that you know, that's

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Speaker 1: exactly what people are going to want to know, is

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Speaker 1: they're going to want to be sure that this does

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Speaker 1: not happen again, and how you sort of prevent the

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Speaker 1: university or the Tafe division of the university being in

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Speaker 1: this situation again. To talk us through some of the

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Speaker 1: recommendations that have been made and how really, you know,

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Speaker 1: the university plans to be able to give the broader

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Speaker 1: public and certainly those students that assurance.

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Speaker 2: So for all the students that we currently have, again,

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Speaker 2: all of the assessments that we deliver have been redeveloped

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Speaker 2: and we are in accordance with regularly standards on our

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Speaker 2: assessment requirements. So essentially what was great was that there

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Speaker 2: it was highlighted that there were some really great systems

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Speaker 2: and processes that did exist that we could continue to

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Speaker 2: build on, and really highlighting that we did need to

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Speaker 2: provide from additional resourcing. So one of the things that

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Speaker 2: was noted which was a good improvement was our assessment

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Speaker 2: approval panels that we've instituted over the last year. But

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Speaker 2: essentially we did have a backlog that needed to be

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Speaker 2: addressed there and making sure that all of our qualifications

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Speaker 2: had been through those channels, so additional resourcing for those.

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Speaker 2: Part of what we did have was really making sure

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Speaker 2: that we were having good performance and behavioral management, making

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Speaker 2: sure that we were supporting our teams, and so a

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Speaker 2: key part of one of the recommendations is making for

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Speaker 2: our leadership team is really supporting that culture of collaboration,

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Speaker 2: accountability and regulatory compliance consistently across all teams and really

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Speaker 2: empowering our team leaders who drive that cultural thing, but

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Speaker 2: being quite realistic about what their jobs are and that

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Speaker 2: it's everybody's business, both quality and compliance. We are investing

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Speaker 2: more in our lecture capability of training. We recognize that

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Speaker 2: it's actually very hard to get skilled trades people up

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Speaker 2: here in the Northern Therese, certainly when we know that

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Speaker 2: it's difficult to compete with a workforce, and so really

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Speaker 2: having structed training programs, bringing people on board to be

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Speaker 2: teachers who've got the skills that may need additional training

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Speaker 2: around learning and teaching, making sure that we've got the

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Speaker 2: quality staff embedded alongside those people. So really a lot

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Speaker 2: of it was around empowering our teams. And look, there

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Speaker 2: are a number of other pieces in there. Probably a

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Speaker 2: big one is maintaining that transparent engagement with our regulator,

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Speaker 2: and so we've been doing that. We have twice weekly

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Speaker 2: meetings with our Department of Education and Training at which

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Speaker 2: our regulator sits, so really being accountable, making sure that

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Speaker 2: we're addressing the issues that arose, and again making sure

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Speaker 2: that we've got restructures in place so they don't arise again.

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Speaker 1: I mean, how do you then, like obviously this review

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Speaker 1: is happening. We also know that the Australian Skills Quality

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Speaker 1: Authority are looking into the course as well. But you

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Speaker 1: know what assurances I guess can you give those current

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Speaker 1: and also past students about the quality of their qualifications.

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Speaker 2: So all of our assessments have now been revised and

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Speaker 2: they are compliant with our standards and the new expectations

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Speaker 2: for all registered training are provided. We updated that for

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Speaker 2: those students who are undergoing the gap training as well

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Speaker 2: as for all students. The other big piece that we're

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Speaker 2: doing is undertaking a series of on the spot audits,

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Speaker 2: so really looking at a number across all of our

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Speaker 2: areas who enstall that we've got quality assessments, quality delivery,

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Speaker 2: so again making sure that people feel as stored that

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Speaker 2: we're regularly looking at this as part of our quality

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Speaker 2: experiance piece. We are having an independent expert coming in

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Speaker 2: to help us out with that. But essentially, really it

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Speaker 2: has been about addressing those gaps that we identified and

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Speaker 2: essentially we've now got new resources, our teams are better

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Speaker 2: equipped and we need to really work through these gaps trainings.

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Speaker 2: The students that are out there are still qualified, so

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Speaker 2: again it is to address these gaps and then once

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Speaker 2: they've done that, we'll be able to confirm all of

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Speaker 2: their competency requirements have been met.

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Speaker 1: Fiona, you know, in moving forward, what confidence you know

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Speaker 1: can you give the broader Northern Territory community that you know, say,

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Speaker 1: their son, their daughter, their husband, you know, whoever it

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Speaker 1: may be, decides to do a trade that goes through

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Speaker 1: the university's TAFE arm, that you know that it is

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Speaker 1: going to be up to the standard that it needs

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Speaker 1: to be.

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Speaker 2: Look, the thing I would say is that we identify

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Speaker 2: the issue. We should have identified it earlier. But we

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Speaker 2: do have really strong processes in place now, and I

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Speaker 2: don't think have to say that as a consequence of this.

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Speaker 2: I think those quality insurance mechanisms are you know, far

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Speaker 2: stronger than they've ever been. And I think really the

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Speaker 2: level of scrutiny and what we're having to evidence to

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Speaker 2: our regulator really provide that confidence. We're also working very

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Speaker 2: closely with our Department of Education and Training to make

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Speaker 2: sure that they're assured of that quality. And so actually,

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Speaker 2: because of that level of scrutiny I have and so

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Speaker 2: many people looking at what we're doing. It's not just

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Speaker 2: us saying that we're doing the right thing. We've got

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Speaker 2: that external validation as well.

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Speaker 1: We'll see to you Acting Vice Chancellor and President, Professor

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Speaker 1: Fiona Calson really appreciate your time this morning. Thank you

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Speaker 1: for speaking with us, Thank you. Thanks