SAVAGE state government cuts to TAFE funding have forced steep drops in enrolments, figures released last week reveal.
The Education Department’s 2013 Victorian Training Market Quarterly Report – the first enrolments analysis since the cuts took effect last July – shows 22,000 fewer students are pursuing TAFE training than a year ago. The $1.2 billion in cuts over four years has devastated the sector, according to Footscray MP Marsha Thomson.
Victoria University deputy vice-chancellor Professor Anne Jones said VU had expected a drop in TAFE enrolments for this year due to the loss of a number of courses in the wake of last year’s cuts.
“We expected and planned a 25 per cent decrease in VET delivery. Our first-quarter figures were still a bit lower than expected, but early enrolments were slow and did pick up in April.”
Professor Jones said the report showed an overall decline in the Victorian TAFE market. However, the university was confident about its future, including plans for a trades academy based at its Sunshine campus.
Ms Thomson said the figures showed fewer enrolments in courses the government claimed to be of greatest public and economic importance. “Whatever Premier [Denis] Napthine and Skills Minister Peter Hall have tried to do with TAFE, it has failed miserably,” she said.
“But the tragedy here is that these figures also show that, as we have said all along, the cuts are preventing the most vulnerable from learning a skill to get a job.”
But Mr Hall claims the report shows growth in training where skills are most needed.
He said training had increased by 14 per cent in health care and social assistance, by 19 per cent in transport, postal and warehousing and 2 per cent in manufacturing-related courses compared with the same time last year.
“The number of government-subsidised enrolments related to specialised or in-shortage occupations rose to 84,600 in the first quarter this year – up 4 per cent on this time last year.” He said the government was investing $1.2 billion a year in vocational training.
