[Greens-Media] Details revealed – NSW training market will kill TAFE

[John Kaye]

Details revealed – NSW training market will kill TAFE

Media release: 15 May 2014

The details of the 'Smart and Skilled' training market announced by NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli today will devastate TAFE, push up fees and undermine opportunities for people with disability, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye.

This market, which is scheduled to begin in January 2015, strips TAFE of its recurrent funding for core courses and hands the money to students as an entitlement that can be redeemed at either a private provider or TAFE. Students will also pay a fee which is fixed by the government for each course.

Details revealed today (see: http://j.mp/SmartSkilled) include:
•             Students will contribute between 25% and 45% of the cost of their skills education, resulting in fee increases of more than $1,000 for 20% of students and more than $1,500 for 12% of students.
•             Additional loadings for people with disability will be only 15% of the cost of training the average student, even for students with multiple special needs.
•             Details of additional "Community Service Obligation" funds are yet to be revealed but are unlikely to provide TAFE with the money it needs to serve disadvantaged communities and people with disability.
•             Some courses will now attract fees of up to $8,490 (Advanced Diploma of Electrical Engineering), while Certificate IV courses will have fees of up to $4,920 (e.g. Industrial Electronics and Control, Renewable Energy).

Dr Kaye said: "Education Minister Adrian Piccoli's training market will push up fees, devastate opportunities for people with disability and push TAFE to the brink.

"This is a market that will bleed students dry and starve TAFE of the funds it needs to compete against the low quality, profit driven private providers.

"The Baird government is throwing away the opportunities that a dominant public provider of TAFE has provided for NSW for more than a century.

"Smart and Skilled is dangerously similar to the Victorian training market that has driven that state's TAFE system to collapse. The NSW public provider is being condemned to a similar, if more slowly evolving, fate.

"The Baird government has drunk the 'efficient pricing' poison. This will inevitably be a race to the bottom in quality, with student fees growing dramatically and TAFE ending up as a minority provider.

"For 20 percent of students, fees will rise by $1,000 or more. Young people from disadvantaged backgrounds have just had their chance at skilled employment taken away.

"The 15 percent disability loading goes nowhere near meeting the full costs of students with special needs.  TAFE will now struggle to continue its open door policy.

"The Baird government should not be allowed to hide behind the minor adjustments the Minister has made to the worst of IPART's recommendations. The final product is still unacceptable for anyone who cares about the future of TAFE or a society that supports the most vulnerable," Dr Kaye said.

For more information: John Kaye 0407 195 455


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John Kaye
Greens NSW MP

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Mail: Parliament House, Macquarie Street, Sydney, NSW 2000

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