THE Tasmanian Skills Institute wants Education Minister Lin Thorp to begin handing back its assets and cutting it loose from Tasmania Tomorrow within three months, institute chairman James Cretan said yesterday.
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He welcomed Ms Thorp's acceptance that the Skills Institute was burdened with a range of bureaucratic inefficiencies that came with the implementation of Tasmania Tomorrow in 2008.
He said Ms Thorp agreed in principle with the institute's demand to be cut loose from Tasmania Tomorrow.
Ms Thorp said yesterday that Mr Cretan had valid arguments about the future of the Skills Institute.
On Wednesday Mr Cretan said Tasmania Tomorrow's structure created unacceptable financial risks to the institute.
He was frustrated that the institute could get agreement but not action from the government to hand back former TAFE Tasmania assets - Alanvale and Claremont campuses - and that Tasmania Tomorrow's shared corporate services were needlessly expensive at $7.5 million.
Last month the institute's chief executive, Malcolm White, outlined cost cuts to rein in budget problems.
Mr Cretan welcomed Mr White's effort and said that significant savings could be made if the institute did not have to pay $7.5 million for shared corporate services.
Mr White said institute overheads had to be kept lean and he would investigate economies of scale.
Mr Cretan said he wanted a timeline for reform.
"We want a road map for change - in three months. It will not be good enough to continue with Tasmania Tomorrow because it's not working," Mr Cretan said.
He had faith that "once the political air is clear and the minister has done her tango" with former education minister David Bartlett and the Greens, the institute would be freed to move to a more aggressive business model.
The education union's Greg Brown said the union wanted reform by first term 2011.
Previously, Ms Thorp said the Tasmania Tomorrow reform program would be announced by July.
Opposition education spokesman Michael Ferguson said that if Ms Thorp presented a palatable overhaul of Tasmania Tomorrow - Academy, Polytechnic and Skills Institute - it would have the opposition's support. He warned that the reform had to be significant and acceptable to teachers and students.
Yesterday Ms Thorp said the Tasmania Tomorrow overhaul would be significant. She refused to provide detail.
"I'm quite convinced we need significant change to our post- year-10 reform," Ms Thorp said.
"It's fair to say they range from quite significant ... quite detailed changes ... to the structure and the way the Polytechnic and Academy is administered."
Shared services would be examined carefully, she said, and structural change was inevitable surrounding teacher career paths and students' ability to undertake pre- tertiary and VET courses simultaneously.
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