Australia's Neas

Changes made to Australia's Neas

Changes are being made to the governance of Australia's National ELT Accreditation Scheme (Neas), in part, to satisfy the Australian Council for Private Education and Training (Acpet), which spent much of last year calling for a change to the previous system of governance to make the Neas set-up more independent.

Neas was originally set up by the Elicos Association, now known as English Australia (EA), as the nationwide accreditation system for English language training (ELT) at the government's request in 1980.

But in the last year, Acpet has claimed that an accreditation system, essentially linked to one industry body, was no longer appropriate. At a forum organised by the Department of Education, Science & Training (Dest) last year, EA suggested making changes to diminish any legal ties between the two organisations. The Neas board will now comprise an independent Chairperson, representatives of state and government departments, an EA representative and other elected members.

Sue Blundell at EA explained that the EA representative on the board would be there to represent the ELT-sector association and because of EA's role in the setting up of Neas. ''EA believes that these changes will strengthen the position of Neas as the national accreditation body, as indicated by the endorsement of the changes by the significant majority of participants at the forum,'' she said.

Despite the amendments, Acpet has voiced concerns that the changes have not gone far enough. Tim Smith of Acpet said that he would appeal for Acpet to also have a seat on the Neas board, a suggestion which is currently under discussion.

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bei@AustraliaMail.com