Another sorry chapter has been written in the saga of the Canberra Institute of Technology's drawn-out leadership instability.
After weeks of silence and speculation, Dr Margot McNeill has tendered her resignation and, the board confirmed the following day, will receive a handsome payout of about $445,000.
Following her controversial departure from TAFE NSW and ongoing investigations into whether hire cars were used at the EV Centre of Excellence, parting ways with its chief executive was probably the only way for the institution to move forward.
But a $445,000 payout is sure to come as a sting to the CIT workers facing further cuts designed to reduce expenditure by 10 per cent.
The savings will come from a combination of voluntary redundancies and other budget savings.
Meanwhile, staff based at the CIT Bruce campus in particular are working in rundown facilities.
They deal with patchy Wi-Fi, dodgy toilets and poor heating and cooling while doing the important job of imparting vital skills to Canberrans.
There are even reports that staff wear blankets in the office for fear of turning on the heaters and causing the electricity to short-circuit. This is hardly befitting of a public institution at the coalface of skills training in the national capital.
CIT board chair Tom Rogers has acknowledged that there is a big task ahead to bring stability to the institution.
"We're very conscious of demonstrating to staff, students, industry, and the Canberra community that the CIT is an asset, which it is, and that we intend to use good leadership, communication, and trust to rebuild our reputation," Mr Rogers told The Canberra Times.
The CIT's independent board was created in 2015. It has meant the organisation has been put at arm's length from the Skills Minister despite it being a taxpayer-funded organisation.
Granting greater autonomy to CIT was supposed to, in the words of the minister who led the work, support "the public provider to remain strong in a more competitive environment and helps to ensure even greater accountability for public funds".
But it has been 10 years since the board structure was put in place and there have been no shortage of crises at CIT.
The intention a decade ago was the right one. Canberra deserves a publicly owned training institute of which it can be proud.
But the results demand the structure underpinning that institute need fresh and further consideration.
It's been ten years since the board structure was put in place and there have been no shortage of crises at CIT.
CIT is an important institution for our city. It is not just training our future tradespeople during a housing crisis, but it also is training our early childhood workers, aged care workers, cyber security professionals and healthcare workers.
TAFE has long been seen as a poor cousin to the university sector, but that shouldn't be the case.
Both sectors will play an important role in equipping Canberrans to navigate a fast-changing employment environment.
The Universities Accord said the TAFE sector forms an important part of our higher education landscape in a future where 80 per cent of workers will need to hold a TAFE or university qualification.
The idea that the University of Canberra should merge with CIT isn't a new one.
But considering everything CIT has been through in the past few years and its precarious financial position, all options should be put on the table.
