ACT Education Minister Joy Burch announced the change to a more independent CIT on Thursday morning.

The institute will have its own board allowing it to control its own business affairs and more independently manage the money it collects.

“The ACT Government will bring forward legislation in October to amend the CIT Act to provide for a governing board and to clarify CIT’s relationship to government and the community," Ms Burch said.

In April 2012, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) reformed the national training system to require governance changes with a National Partnership Agreement on Skills Reform to be funded over five years from 2012-2017.

The board will have representatives from the private and public sector, which Ms Burch said will allow it to have "greater flexibility" in managing its finances.

CIT chief executive Adrian Marron welcomed the move saying it would make CIT more akin to an education institute and a business than it was allowed to be in the past.

"This will help the sustainability and prosperity of CIT, I have no doubt about that, it gives us a greater degree of control," Mr Marron said, citing changes to higher education such as the extension of government supported places to TAFE and private colleges in 2015 as flagged in the federal budget, yet to pass parliament.

Ms Burch said the reforms will allow CIT to compete in an increasingly competitive higher education market.

“It is fair to say that changes under way in other jurisdictions have not been kind to the TAFE sector," Ms Burch said.

Mr Marron said the move to a board has been on the cards since 2010 when internal reviews of the institute consistently recommended governance changes.

"We had been talking about this long before the national partnership agreement was signed," Mr Marron said.

Ms Burch also opened the 2014 Canberra CareersXpo on Wednesday to give students information on careers, training and further education.