National survey reveals budget-cut impact to TAFE

TAFE National survey reveals budget-cut impact to TAFE

More than three-quarters of TAFE staff have considered leaving in the past three years, according to the results of a new national survey. The Australian Education Union’s (AEU) 2020 State of our TAFEs survey, the first detailed snapshot of the sector for a decade, has revealed the impact that billions of dollars of Commonwealth and state and territory budget cuts have had on the sector. The survey also revealed major issues with workload, resourcing and lack of staff support. AEU Federal President Correna Haythorpe said that TAFE urgently required investment from all levels of government to ensure that it can deliver high quality vocational education and be at the forefront of Australia’s post COVID-19 recovery. According to the survey: • More than two-thirds of respondents (68 per cent) were aware that their institution had stopped providing particular courses in the past three years, with a lack of funding cited as the most common reason for course closure. • Eighty-one per cent of respondents said that the budget in their department had decreased in the past three years, while nearly half (49 per cent) of those in teaching roles said class sizes had increased. • Improved IT equipment (54 per cent) and materials needed to deliver training (50 per cent) were most frequently cited as requiring significant additional investment to bring up to standard. • Current levels of TAFE capital works and equipment investment were considered inadequate and requiring of some or significant investment by the vast majority of respondents,

across the survey categories of IT equipment (88 per cent), material support for workplace delivery (to deliver training) (89 per cent), technical and administration equipment (90 per cent), classrooms (81 per cent), trade equipment (91 per cent), studio equipment (75 per cent) and library/ learning centre (61 per cent). • More than three-quarters (76 per cent) of respondents said that they had considered leaving the sector in the past three years. Of this group, 94 per cent of those were currently working in the job that they had considered leaving. • Less than a third of respondents expected to spend their entire career working in TAFE. • Workload and excessive hours, management approach to, and lack of support for, staff and arduous compliance requirements were the most commonly cited reasons for wanting to leave. • About 96 per cent of respondents said administration had increased as a proportion of total work time in the last three years, and of these 84 per cent said it had increased significantly. Ms Haythorpe said that budget cuts at all levels of government had led to the total number of TAFEs falling to 35 nationally in 2017-18, down from 57 in 2013/14. She said the subsequent campus and course closures have had a detrimental impact on students and staff, leading to increased workloads and low morale. According to the Report on Government Services, total annual government VET expenditure has fallen by $1.6 billion (21.3 per cent) from the 2012 peak of $7.65 billion. Since 2013, the Federal Coalition has: • Cut $3 billion from vocational education. • Overseen 140,000 fewer apprentices now than when it was elected. • Closed the $3.9 billion Education

Investment Fund. • Cut a further $325.8 million in funding from TAFE and vocational education budgets in 2019. Ms Haythorpe said that it was essential that funding and prominence be restored to TAFE in acknowledgement of the organisation’s unique position and ability to provide hope, opportunity and lifelong qualifications and skills for millions of Australians. “This is a wakeup call to governments across the nation,” she said. “Once the COVID-19 crisis has passed, Australia will have an urgent need for qualified workers across all industries, and TAFE is the only institution that has the infrastructure, the workforce and the trusted reputation to meet the challenges posed by COVID-19. “We need to invest in TAFE as the anchor institution of vocational education, to ensure that it is the centrepiece of the effort to rebuild Australia’s economy. “Australia’s TAFE teachers stand ready to help the nation get back on its feet, but the government needs to back them with the funding and vocational education policy support needed for the sector. “TAFE offers high quality vocational education at all levels, with nationally accredited programs, a highly qualified and experienced workforce, campuses across Australia, and it has the trust and respect of employers and the community. “A strong, fully-funded TAFE sector must be at the centre of the Commonwealth’s response to the economic challenges facing Australia post COVID-19.”

State of our TAFEs: more findings

The AEU’s State of our TAFEs survey had 1,438 responses in total, with responses coming from every TAFE institution in Australia. Two thirds (68 per cent) of respondents were teachers/lecturers and an additional 15 per cent were in management positions. The survey respondents have a high level of experience with an average of 17 years in the TAFE sector and an average of 15 years with their current employer. Many of them reported that resources have been reduced, class sizes have increased and significant investment is needed. • Other common reasons for course closures were insufficient student numbers and a lack of qualified teachers. • The most frequently defunded courses were Creative Arts,

Engineering and Languages, Literacy and Numeracy courses.

Intensity and pace of work

• About 93 per cent said that the pace or intensity of their work has increased over the last three years, with 75 per cent saying that it has increased significantly. • Only two per cent said that their workload had reduced, either significantly or slightly.

Are workloads manageable?

• Seventy-three per cent reported that their workload is unmanageable at least half the time (including 10 per cent who said it was entirely unmanageable and 35 per cent who said it was unmanageable most of the time). • Only two per cent of people said that their workload is always manageable. • Administration was seen as having the largest increase as a component of total work time and as the top factor driving workload (selected as

the number one factor by more than half of all respondents, and more than three times as popular as any other option).

Workload and working hours

Across all respondents working in TAFE, both full time and part time, working hours exceed contractual hours by an average of 26 per cent. • Full time workers reported working an average of 43 hours per week, 21 per cent above their contractual working hours – this equates to an additional day of unpaid work every week. • For part time workers, work time exceeds their contracted hours by an average of 43 per cent. • Those employed on very small fractions (0.2 – 0.4 FTE) are most likely to report working well above their contracted hours, with many reporting that they are working double the amount of time they are paid for each week. • On average, TAFE members in their first three years of working in the sector are working an average of 28 per cent more hours each week than they are contracted to work (almost an additional day and a half a week for full time workers). • Thirty per cent of TAFE teachers are working in excess of 45 hours per week on average, and some reported working in excess of 65 hours per week. • Nearly three quarters of people stated that their workload had increased over the past five years, almost half (46 per cent) stated it had increased significantly and 26 per cent stating it had increased slightly. • Twenty-one per cent indicated that their working hours had not changed and less than seven per cent stated that working hours had reduced.

In context: TAFE funding cuts

As sourced from Report on Government Services 2020:

In 2017-18 total government expenditure on vocational educational fell by $252 million to a total of $6.02 billion, a decline of four per cent from the previous year. This was the lowest spend in real terms of any year over the last decade.

This is an expenditure decline of $1.6 billion (21.3 per cent) from the 2012 peak of $7.65 billion.

Total annual hours provided by government expenditure continued to fall to 36.4 million, a decline of 6.4 per cent from last year and of 30.6 per cent from the 2012 peak.

In real terms and excluding user cost of capital, total Commonwealth, state and territory government expenditure on VET is now lower than at any point in the last decade, and has fallen by over $1.3 billion since 2013.

Total government spending on VET peaked in 2012 at $6.7 billion, real 2018 funding levels are 21.4 per cent lower than they were in 2012.

Real government recurrent expenditure per person aged 15- 64 years (excluding user cost of capital) has declined nationally by 15.2 per cent in the last decade and has also declined by 26.7 per cent from its 2012 peak.

In every jurisdiction except Tasmania per person spend has fallen from 2009 to 2018, by 23.3 per cent in ACT, 22.3 per cent in WA, 18.4 per cent in VIC, 16.4 per cent in SA, 12.4 per cent in QLD and 12.1 per cent in NSW.