Trade Training Quarantines to Be Lifted

The State Government has committed to giving Tasmanian apprentices a greater choice of training providers from 2010. Premier and Minister for Education and Skills, Mr Bartlett has confirmed that the user choice policy will be amended so that all trade training quarantines are lifted on a staged basis. The user choice policy, adopted by state and Australian governments in 1998 to apply to all publicly-funded training apprentices and trainees, acknowledges that choice of registered training organisations (RTOs) may be restricted in rural and remote areas. In Tasmania, this means that in a number of traditional trades, the Tasmanian Skills Institute is the only publicly-funded RTO offering such training.