On November 15 the Preston Leader ran a front page story about the Preston Lions Football Club's plan for solving its $100,000 debt crisis. With its "gentleman's entertainment" evenings not raising enough funds, it's devised a plan to enrol as many people as possible in a VET course so they can get $1000 per student.

Somehow this government-funded vocational sports and recreation course is so cheap to run that the club pockets a $1000 "incentive" (read: profit) for every graduating student, described as a "win-win" by the club president.

This appalling story smacks of everything that's wrong with the vocational education sector in this State.

Is anyone going to tell these students that they will have to wait 15 years to get another funded Certificate IV qualification?

Minister Hall must stop the wholesale attack on the quality of vocational education and training in Victoria.

Hall will pass the buck by telling the world that he inherited the Skills Reform Policy from the previous government.

The Victorian Skills Commission will pass the buck by blaming poor advice and lack of oversight from Skills Victoria.

Skills Victoria will blame the VRQA for failing to regulate the RTO involved.

VRQA will blame the lack of resources they require to effectively oversee and regulate the massive number of RTOs in Victoria now.

It's time to stop passing the buck and to start fixing the problem — not the blame.

Minister Hall has the power to put a stop to the crisis called Skills Reform, which is providing a platform to cut TAFE funding and render hundreds of TAFE teachers' jobs redundant.

Hall must act now to save the status and credibility of Victoria's crumbling vocational education and training sector.