Staff and students from TAFE Western’s Dubbo campus had an opportunity to ask questions of Skills Minister John Barilaro on Monday but no light has been shed on how many jobs will be lost through reforms.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The government claims the latest restructuring will cut away a layer of administration and allow millions of dollars of funding to flow towards an investment in infrastructure and technology.
Mr Barilaro said it wasn’t good enough that between 40 and 60 cents in every dollar was going towards administration, leaving a much smaller slice of the pie for teaching.
No one is arguing that more investment in TAFE classrooms and resources would be a bad thing. In fact it would be fantastic.
However it has to be done properly and the government’s recent record with reform of the vocational education industry has been woeful.
The Smart and Skilled reforms led to large increases in TAFE fees (although Mr Barilaro referred to them as modest in his address at Dubbo on Monday), with certificate III courses increasing an average of 64 per cent, Certificate IV courses 29 per cent and Diplomas 24 per cent since 2014.
Meanwhile, student enrolments in government-funded vocational education plunged by 86,300 in NSW in 2015. There have also been job losses and courses cut.
At the same time, there has also been an increase in support for private providers.
Other problems including the troubled rollout of a $500 million computer system have had a further impact on the education provider’s reputation.
The government has defended itself, saying that it couldn’t continue to increase TAFE funding exponentially, especially when so much of it has gone to administration.
Mr Barilaro said the fee increases had allowed the government to create more fee-free places for students who need them the most.
However the drop in enrolments suggests not everybody agrees. It has led some to suggest the state will go through a skills shortage, while the Teachers Federation has led a vocal campaign against the changes.
The government claims the new reforms are necessary to ensure TAFE remains viable into the future, but it said a similar thing about Smart and Skilled. And all that served to do was drive students away from an organisation that once had a reputation for providing affordable education for everyone.