TAFE director appointments and induction

Selection and appointment

Processes and principles for appointing and remunerating members of Victorian government entities such as TAFE institute boards are subject to the Appointment and remuneration guidelines which outline Victoria’s standard processes for appointing people to government boards, commissions and similar offices.

When making board appointments, consideration will be given to:

• the skills and experience of the candidate in relation to the TAFE institute board skills matrix
• the gender of the candidate in the context of the Victorian government’s policy for all new appointments to boards of Victorian public entities to be 50% women
• any potential conflict of interest that a candidate may have
• the government's commitment to greater representation of women, indigenous Australians, youth, people with a disability, people with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, gender diverse and intersex people.

Board opportunities

The process for recruiting new board members needs to commence well in advance to terms expiring to ensure sufficient time to shortlist and interview candidates, and for government and departmental approvals.

TAFE board director opportunities are advertised on Get on Board which is designed to connect potential directors with Victorian public sector board opportunities.

The Office for Women advertises upcoming board and committee vacancies and other opportunities to all registrants via a general email alert. For women interested in Victorian public sector board opportunities refer to Victorian Women's Register.

A potential public entity director must be confident they have the time and commitment to serve actively and conscientiously on a board, can maintain a degree of separation from any representative group with which they are associated, and can act as an independent director of the board and have no conflict of interest or duty.

Induction

TAFE institutes are publicly-owned providers of vocational training and in some cases, higher education, established under the Victorian Education and Training Reform Act 2006. They are considered to be public entities under the Public Administration Act 2004 and Financial Management Act 1994.

Each TAFE institute is governed by an independent board. The Government exercises its role as owner via its responsibility for TAFE sector governance and the establishment of TAFE boards.

Appointments to TAFE boards are skills-based; informed by a transparent selection process to identify candidates with the skills required to govern large training organisations.

To support new TAFE board appointees the Department has developed an induction kit. If you would like a copy of the TAFE board induction kit, email governance.hes@education.vic.gov.au.

As part of TAFE board director induction the Department in conjunction with the Victorian TAFE Association has developed a program of training covering the following:

• good governance principles in TAFE
• VET and TAFE governance
• Vocational Education and Training in Victoria
• the role of the TAFE CEO as a board director
• the role of the TAFE chair
• staff on TAFE boards

This training program can be accessed from the Victorian TAFE Association.