ASQA went through a significant transformation of its regulatory approach during 2016, and it is fair to say that the changes are promising.

The dimensions of the VFH debacle, embarrassed the whole system, and certainly opened a debate about the ROI on the regulator's performance during its first five years of existence. So far, ASQA hasn't been the catalyst expected for the VET sector.

To be fair with the regulator's team, the structure of the VET sector has not supported ASQA to achieve its mandate.

Perhaps the first mistake was to assume the market could sort out product quality issues, but the reality has shown that the market hasn't been able to decipher a training sector where both "good" and "dodgy" providers operate under the same label of Nationally Recognised Training (NRT).

At the age of five, ASQA now knows our sector, and the current approach seems to have a strong basis on that knowledge.

I refuse to call our system a failure, that would be an untruthful diagnosis and unfair, as many RTOs provide high-quality work. The vocational education and training sector generates hundreds of thousands of good stories every year, stories about individuals developing talent and opening the doors to employment and social inclusion for many.