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Review favours profit above TAFE’s future
TAFE Review favours profit above TAFE’s future
The Productivity Commission National Agreement for Skills and Workforce Development Review Interim Report into the future of skills and workforce development in Australia favours private providers, increasing contestability, student loans and vouchers and fundamentally fails to ensure TAFE’s future as the pre-eminent public provider of high-quality Vocational Education and Training (VET) across the nation. The Australian Education Union’s (AEU) submission to the review process has highlighted the abject failure of a decade of VET marketisation, contestability and privatisation by governments at all levels, and the catastrophic damage it has wrought on this sector: • VET funding was cut by more than 15 per cent in the decade from 2007 to 2016 and government expenditure declined by 31.5 per cent over that time. • As a result of this continual assault,
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TAFE enrolments have declined steadily in recent years, from nearly 800,000 in 2015 to 680,000 in 2017. • There are now over 4,600 active registered training providers, but only 96 of these providers have more than 100 full time students. • In 2018, states, territories and the
Commonwealth spent a combined total of $6.1 billion on vocational education, a decrease of $135 million when compared to 2017. • In 2018, the Commonwealth contribution to all vocational education fell by $326 million (10.6 per cent), while Commonwealth contributions to public VET delivery fell by more than double that total, by 23.2 per cent, in that year. • The number of government-funded vocational education students has fallen by almost 17 per cent since 2012 across all jurisdictions, but in TAFE,
student numbers have fallen by 25 per cent. Meanwhile, students enrolled in subjects not delivered as part of a nationally recognised program (private providers) increased by 4.9 per cent to 2.5 million people in 2018, compared with 2017. • Overall VET student numbers have also decreased by 1.5 per cent to 4.1 million people in 2018, compared with 2017. AEU Federal President Correna Haythorpe said the interim report’s focus on giving profit-seeking private training providers more access to public VET funding was appalling and would make it more difficult for Australian workers and apprentices to access high-quality public vocational education at a time when they are most urgently needed to help rebuild the economy. “The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the urgent need for qualified workers across all industries to be able to adapt quickly to new opportunities when they arise,” Ms Haythorpe said. “TAFE is the only institution with the infrastructure, the workforce and the trusted reputation to be able to provide high quality VET qualifications across the country today.” Ms Haythorpe said TAFE was Australia’s most trusted brand when it came to the
public provision of vocational education and training. “The community knows, understands and values TAFE for what it is and what it offers. The Morrison Government has shown time and time again that it does not,” she said. “Governments must prioritise investment in TAFE as the anchor institution of vocational education, to ensure that it is the centrepiece of rebuilding Australia’s economy. “History has shown that private providers do not provide the skilled and highly qualified workforce to meet the needs of a changing economy.” Ms Haythorpe said the Morrison Government should put TAFE at the forefront of the economic recovery process through immediate investment in infrastructure, equipment, staffing and programs. “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,” she said. “A strong, fully-funded TAFE sector must be at the centre of the Commonwealth’s response post COVID-19 so that Australia emerges in the best-possible social and economic condition.”
AEU submission into PC TAFE report
The following is a summary of main points of the AEU’s submission to the Productivity Commission National Agreement for Skills and Workforce Development Review Interim Report (NASWD). In its submission to the Productivity Commission’s review of the NASWD the AEU has challenged the commission’s core assumptions about the inherent superiority of markets and contestability. The AEU says that throughout the interim report the commission demonstrates a clear preference for private providers operating in an unencumbered market, revealing the commission’s predetermined view of how vocational education should operate in Australia. The AEU submission highlights the damage inflicted on the sector over the last decade as a result of competition and marketisation, which has flooded the market with inferior private providers, resulting in the chronic underfunding of TAFE and publicly delivered vocational education and in the TAFE sector being the lowest funded of all the education sectors in Australia. The submission roundly condemns the review’s recommended options of shifting subsidies to individual students as vouchers. Vouchers cannot deliver value for money in the long term and do not represent a prudent, efficient and sensible way to invest in vocational education. Incredibly, the commission’s interim report has proposed an increase in income contingent loans despite the VET-FEE-HELP fiasco handing billions of dollars to dodgy private registered training organisations and causing unprecedented damage to Australia’s vocational education system, costing more than $7 billion in total – more than is spent on Australia’s entire VET system annually. The AEU also strongly asserts that the review’s proposal of introducing a nationally consistent pricing mechanism fails as it takes no account of the superior courses, wrap around services and pastoral care that TAFE provides. TAFE delivers a much higher level of provision, at a significantly larger cost than the offerings of most private providers and any attempt to introduce consistent pricing without accounting for these can only result in VET delivery declining to the lowest common denominator offered by profit seeking, for profit private providers. In response to the interim report’s inherent bias towards rampant marketisation the AEU has strongly argued that the commission recommend a coordinated effort to put TAFE at the forefront of the recovery and potential future economic stimulus efforts through immediate increased federal funding support and investment in infrastructure, equipment, staffing and programs, including: • Restoration of the more than $3 billion funding cut from TAFE and training since 2013. • Implementation of targeted support for the public VET provider, guaranteeing a minimum of 70 per cent of all government VET funding to TAFE. • A significant capital investment in
TAFE infrastructure, both in terms of improvements to existing campuses and the redeployment of closed campuses in regions without sufficient provision.
A significant reinvestment in the TAFE teaching workforce, to replace the many tens of thousands who have been driven out of the sector over the last 10 years, and to alleviate current workloads.
The AEU’s full submission can be viewed at bit.ly/2DvBRPz
Professional Call for Reconciliation in Action Award nominees
Nominations for the 2020 SSTUWA Reconciliation in Action Award are now open. The award celebrates the work of our members who are making positive contributions towards reconciliation. It’s given in recognition of an SSTUWA member who is committed to ensuring that all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students have the right to receive a high quality public education, and has shown exemplary practice in education with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, while working towards the elimination of racism in public education. The Reconciliation in Action Award is open to any individual or group of financial members of the SSTUWA, who have been a member for at least 12 months. Any public school or TAFE college with a project run by SSTUWA financial members is also eligible for the award. The award is presented for: • Exemplary practice in education for
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students that focuses on promoting cultural competency; and/or • Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander peoples; and/or • Working towards the elimination of racism within public education. This may be in one of the four following ways: 1. Through a whole school/TAFE approach. 2. Improving the outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. 3. Improving the engagement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents and members of the broader community in school decision-making processes. 4. Developing and implementing an innovative product or program relevant to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education. The 2019 recipient of the inaugural Reconciliation in Action Award was Elisha Yarran-Roper from Carine Senior High School. Nominations forms for the 2020 Reconciliation in Action Award are available at sstuwa.org.au/ATSI Applications are due by Friday 16 October. The recipient for the 2020 Reconciliation in Action Award will be announced at November State Council Conference and will automatically be nominated for the national AEU Arthur Hamilton Award. Nominations for the Arthur Hamilton Award are also open to any SSTUWA member who has made a contribution to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education. For more information contact Colleen Mack at cmack@sstuwa.org.au or on 9210 6000.
This is yourchanceto celebrateAEU memberswhoaremaking an outstanding contributionto Aboriginal andTorres StraitIslandereducation. TheArthurHamilton Award commemoratestheachievementsofArthurHamilton, a Palawaman who was active in promotingcross-culturalawareness, recognitionof Indigenouspeoplesand the rightforAboriginaland TorresStraitIslanderstudentstoaccessa high qualitypubliceducation. The winnerwill receivea $1500 prize and will be flown to Melbourneto acceptthe Award atthe annual Federal Conferenceof the AEU in February2021. All nomineeswill receivea certificatefrom theAEU.
Getnominating! Download yournomination form at: aeufederal.org.au/our-work/indigenous or, requesta nomination form from SuzanneLowndes: (03)9693 1800, slowndes@aeufederal.org.au Closing datefornominationsis Friday6November2020 Find outmore Visitaeufederal.org.au/our-work/indigenous orcontactAEU Federal Secretary, Sus anHopgood: aeu@aeufederal.org.au
The2019ArthurHamilton Awardwent tothe Port Augusta Children’s Centre. TheAwardwaspresentedby Correna Haythorpe,AEU FederalPresident (left),to Mandy Dempsey, Director, Port Augusta Children’s Centre,atthe 2020AEU FederalConference.
