The Australian has named the thirty most influential educators in Australia this year. Martin Riordan, CEO of AustCham Beijing member TAFE Directors Australia, has been included on the list at number 25.
25. MARTIN RIORDAN
Not every lobby group boss takes the chance to get all scholarly, heading overseas for a month or three to check out how things are done on the other side of the planet. Martin Riordan has bagged both a Fulbright and a PM’s Postgraduate Asia Scholarship in recent years. It’s providing a big picture perspective that is standing TAFE Directors Australia — where Riordan is CEO — in good stead as it enjoys an increasing media profile, albeit thanks to the rolling disaster engulfing vocational education. Riordan has become a go-to commentator as his analyses of the ill-thought attempts to promote VET — particularly the appallingly wasteful VET Fee-Help scheme — spelling out what Australia risks losing if it continues in this vein. Profile is unfamiliar territory for TAFEs, and hopefully they’ll manage to hang on to it if and when VET finds itself on firmer footing.
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