The LNP needs to be tested on vocational education and TAFE

Serious questions need to be answered by the Liberal National Party (LNP) in relation to its vocational education policy.

The LNP’s “Pathways to a Skilled Trade Future“ fails to support TAFE as the public provider of vocational education in Queensland. Nowhere in the document does the LNP indicate its understanding of the role and importance of TAFE Queensland, let alone indicate its vision for the public provider.

If their policy is anything to go by, the LNP has no understanding of the full range of industries and skills taught in our TAFE institutes.

The policy ignores the fact that TAFE educates nurses, fashion and graphic designers, childcare and child protection workers, retail assistants and front line managers, aged care workers, chefs, hairdressers, IT specialists and numerous other skilled workers essential to daily life and the broader economy. In Queensland, only 30 per cent of vocational education is in traditional hard trades.

The LNP does not acknowledge the provision of literacy and numeracy courses and the opportunities for a second chance education that TAFE provides. The LNP has focused on links between schools and universities, absent-mindedly overlooking the core role that TAFEs play for the nearly 50 per cent of vocational students who have not completed year 12.

In a sweeping statement, the LNP has promised $86 million for additional apprenticeships. It has not identified how it will fund this promise. What is it planning on closing down to find the money? TAFE colleges are already doing more with less, groaning after 15 years of declining funds under policies put in place by the Howard Coalition government. The Centre for the Economics of Education and Training (CEET) estimates that funding has dropped in real terms by over 25 per cent since 1997. [link to CEET research]

The LNP supports a demand driven system but gives us no detail on what this means or how it will be implemented. If the performance of the LNP’s Victorian cousin is anything to go by, “demand driven funding” can be interpreted as students' entitlement "vouchers". The Victorian system is currently driving TAFE colleges in that state to the wall, destroying the reputation of quality vocational educators while dodgy and unscrupulous profit-seeking providers bribe students to enrol and offer "five-day diploma" qualifications. Since 2010, these policies have resulted in a 3,000 per cent increase in personal trainers, and a scam that has seen sporting groups receiving tens of thousands of dollars of government training money which is then distributed as incentives to enrol students in courses.

Australian governments already get value for money from the TAFE system. The National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) reports that in 2008, TAFE nationally provided skills and knowledge to 74 per cent of the students in the VET system with only 52 per cent of state and federal funding – the rest of the funds came from student and industry contributions. At the same time, 17 per cent of training was being undertaken by private providers with 17 per cent of the funding. The statement “value for money” is no more than weasel words. What the LNP means is that it intends to tender government responsibility and dollars to the lowest bidder, regardless of the quality or capacity.

Measures to increase the retention of apprentices and to raise completion rates would be welcome. However the LNP’s Trade Future “non-policy” fails to outline what mechanisms would be used. Poor pay and poor matching of vocation to apprentice are common reasons cited for individuals not completing. The LNP needs to tell us how these chronic problems will be tackled if it achieves government.

The LNP needs to explain how its plans for a taskforce differ from the bodies that already exist in Queensland. Does it intend to replace Skills Queensland or is this an additional body? There have been a number of reports examining the issues in vocational education and TAFE, with a ministerial taskforce currently examining a number of factors. What additional focus and vision does the LNP have that isn’t already being explored? Why does it intend to spend scarce funds on another taskforce?

The LNP’s ill-informed pathways statement says nothing new, promises a web of profit-creaming dodgy providers and will continue to underfund an already stressed system.

David Terauds,
QTU TAFE Organiser

Background resources:

Authorised by Graham Moloney, General Secretary,
Queensland Teachers' Union,  21 Graham St,  Milton,Q.4064