TEACHERS, students and politicians rallied to the defence of TAFE New England on Wednesday after a consultant’s report suggested the institutions were “sub-scale”.
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The Boston Consulting Group report said the vocational education and training market was becoming increasingly competitive.
As such, TAFE NSW’s cost structure was uncompetitive, with low productivity and high costs combining with poor return on assets. The report’s publication led to a snap rally at the Armidale campus, attended by the Greens’ New England candidate Mercurius Goldstein and Senate contender Michael Osborne.
NSW Teachers Federation organiser Kathy Nicholson said the report was disgracefully inaccurate and did not assess the impact of TAFE in regional communities.
“They can find money for stadiums in Sydney but when it comes to educating young people in the bush to gain employment, there just isn’t enough money,” Ms Nicholson told protesters.
“Why can’t the NSW Government understand the absolutely critical role that TAFE plays in places such as New England, where we plug disengaged people into a future and employment.”
The report found TAFE NSW’s costs were 60 per cent higher than other vocational training providers.
NSW Skills Minister John Barilaro said the education and vocation institution was not up to standard.
“TAFE NSW has become an expensive, high-cost system where 40 to 60 cents in each dollar spent on TAFE is going towards administration and backroom costs, not on frontline teaching,” he said.
Ms Nicholson also flagged staff cuts. “New England is probably looking at around 60 full-time employees losing their jobs,” she told the rally.
