[Greens-Media] Secret TAFE documents confirm TAFEs will close due to savage government cuts - Pennicuik

[Amanda.Sharp at parliament.vic.gov.au]

14 September 2012

Secret TAFE documents confirm TAFEs will close due to savage government 
cuts 

Documents labelled 'cabinet-in-confidence' obtained by the ABC expose 
plans for the closures or amalgamations of TAFE campuses including 
sell-offs of public assets and further course reductions, staff losses and 
increases in course fees. 

"These documents show what we unfortunately expected due to the savagery 
of the government cutbacks to TAFE," Greens spokesperson for Education, 
Sue Pennicuik said today. 

"Our public TAFEs provide a pathway to over 365,000 Victorians every year. 
This government is destroying TAFE, leaving thousands of school leavers 
and retrainers with nowhere to go," she said. 

"The information should never have been secret in the first place," Ms 
Pennicuik said. "TAFE is publicly funded and TAFE campuses around Victoria 
have been built with taxpayer's money, so taxpayers have a right to know 
what the savage cuts the government has imposed will do to the public TAFE 
system." 

"TAFE colleges have been forced into this by government cuts that are 
totally unnecessary," Ms Pennicuik said. "There has been no blowout in 
TAFE enrolments. The blowout has been in the private trainers, due to the 
disastrous market contestability introduced by the previous Labour 
government." 

"The Skills Victoria training market quality report shows that there has 
been a 310 per cent growth in private training enrolments and only a 4 per 
cent growth in TAFE enrolments. So why is the government making these 
massive cuts to TAFE?"

"On top of all this the government has voted down my motion for a 
parliamentary inquiry into reports of widespread training rorts by private 
registered training organisations (RTOs), which is seeing students ripped 
off by RTOs that are running substandard courses," Ms Pennicuik said.


Further comment:  Sue Pennicuik   0409 055 875 / 03 9530 8399 


AEU's 2012 State of our TAFEs survey:
 
 •Over 90% of Victorian TAFE teachers believe reforms to Victoria's VET 
system have had a negative effect on the quality of teaching and learning 
at their TAFE 
 •86% of teachers said they didn't believe they had the time to support 
students to the level they require 
 •63% of teachers said they had noticed a drop in enrolments from their 
Institute this year 
 •Those teachers who had noticed a drop in enrolments believed higher fees 
(29%) and ineligibility for government support (26%) were the two main 
causes 
 •60% of teachers said they were aware of questionable practices in 
attracting students to courses at private Registered Training 
Organisations



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Parliament of Victoria                                                                                                                    . 
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