A ROW is kicking up around New England TAFE as Greens MP John Kaye enters the fray, calling out Nationals MP Adam Marshall for allowing a “direct attack” on regional communities.
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Dr Kaye led a rally this week outside the Armidale Campus claiming enrolments at the campus have fallen by 75 per cent since the introduction of the government’s Smart and Skilled scheme.
The scheme creates a competitive market between private colleges and TAFE which the Greens say is undermining the ability of TAFE students to access affordable educational opportunities.
“This is the last gasp for TAFE,” Dr Kaye said.
“Smart and skilled has to be scrapped, TAFE can’t be flung against low quality competition and expect it to survive and provide quality education.”
“I’m shocked two National ministers have shepherded this in.”
TAFE New England management has fired back at Dr Kaye’s claims. “We reject any claim that total enrolments across the Institute are down by 75 per cent,” Relieving Institute Director Lyn Rickard said.
Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall also rejects Dr Kaye’s claims that TAFE is being “gutted”.
“The state government has spent $2 billion on TAFE this year, that’s $122 million more than before Smart and Skilled was introduced.
“It’s a fact that vocational training has been declining across Australia for some time,” Mr Marshall said.
“TAFE has a huge advantage through its campus infrastructure but a disadvantage due to its ridiculously higher operational costs.”
Mr Marshall pointed out that these operational costs are fixed making it very hard to compete with low cost private college, but agreed that it will take time for TAFE to adjust but it was necessary for them to ‘sharpen their pencil’.
Mr Marshall said that ideally, TAFE should address their high fixed costs but a scaling back slightly from 100 per cent competition is likely.
An Upper House investigation into the future of the post-school training sector is underway.
