WHEN Mulugeta Abebe lost his job during the collapse of budget carrier Impulse Airlines, he knew he was at a crossroads.
“I wondered, what now? I realised that if I had an education background I could change jobs, but without that I could not.”
More than a decade later, Mr Abebe (pictured) says a diploma in community development at TAFE was the first step in a journey that has led to rewarding roles — at Merri Community Health Services, as co-creator of 3CR’s Ethiopian Show, and as initiator of Negat, a magazine for Melbourne’s Ethiopian community.
“Most people doing the course were from places like Vietnam, Cambodia and Sudan, people from all different places. It’s the best way for refugees or newly arrived migrants to make a step-up when they come to the country.”
Mr Abebe, who went on to gain a bachelor degree and run the Abesha Ethiopian restaurant in Footscray, said the extra support in the early stages of Victoria University’s TAFE stream was essential.
A report by LeadWest shows VU will no longer be able to subsidise these educational support programs due to the state government’s $300 million TAFE funding cuts.
As well as the personal costs, Mr Abebe says the wider community will feel the impact. “In the long run, we will have uneducated people who can’t get a job.”
He fears the cuts will lead to more social problems as young people denied work and education turn to crime. That view is shared by Annie Nash, manager of Flat Out, a support service for women leaving prison.
She says $300 million of cuts from the TAFE system at the time of a $1 billion prison expansion is “political, cruel and defies logic”.
—Benjamin Millar
