Investing in TAFE
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 129 No 3, 3 May 2024, page 21.
Every Australian student has the right to quality, accessible vocational education. TAFE excels at providing practical, occupational, and academic knowledge, skills and qualifications, and our TAFE teachers and students deserve working and learning conditions comparable to those of their state school colleagues.
However, for the past decade, we have seen a push toward the privatisation of vocational education, resulting in the shifting of billions of dollars of public money to for-profit private providers, and disinvestment by governments in public vocational education, which has been at the expense of students, skills training, and a ready workforce. The immense damage inflicted on the vocational education and training (VET) sector over the past decade as a result of marketisation and the chronic underfunding of TAFE and publicly-delivered vocational education has reduced access to and the quality of VET.
We know that an investment in TAFE generates strong economic returns for the state. In 2018, KPMG found that Queensland’s investment of $707 million in TAFE returned $1.8 billion, which is an increase by a factor of 2.5 per cent. More recently, at a national level Allison Pennington and the Centre for Future Work estimated annual costs for operating TAFE to be $5.7 billion, with an annual economic benefit estimated at $92.5 billion, which is an increase by a factor of 16 per cent.
As Queensland’s trusted public provider, TAFE has a long history of forging strong partnerships with industry to create pipelines of skilled apprenticeships and job pathways, but it needs more funding and more autonomy to innovate.
The QTU therefore welcomes the recent announcement of the National Skills Agreement, which places the public TAFE system at the heart of vocational education and training and seeks to strengthen both the public provider’s network of institutions and its teaching workforce. This five-year funding arrangement will be guided by tripartite consultation and will deliver significant benefits to the nation, through the provision of quality, accessible, and responsive education and training to “boost productivity, deliver national priorities and support Australians in obtaining the skills and capabilities they need to obtain well-paid, secure jobs”.
Investing in Queensland’s skills and training sector means going beyond providing short-term basic qualifications. TAFE’s community service obligation is fulfilled, in part, by providing extra student facilities and services like libraries, sports/social/career/networking opportunities, and assistance for students with disabilities and students who are culturally and linguistically diverse.
The additional support that TAFE Queensland delivers is often the difference between students attaining a qualification or not, and the holistic nature of TAFE makes it impossible for its courses to be “efficiently priced” against the lower level or non-existent services offered by many for-profit providers.
However, the current VET funding model continues to erode the foundation of the TAFE system and has adversely impacted upon VET students and their teachers. The user-pays philosophy has seen TAFE forced to compete against private for-profit practices that have been variously described in the Australian Senate as “exploitative,” demonstrating “evidence of rampant abuse,” and delivering “massive profits at the public expense”.
TAFE’s value-add to the Queensland economy is at risk. The Queensland Government must act to break the stranglehold of the discredited funding model and restore the right of all Queenslanders to high quality public vocational education and training in their local communities or regional centres.
TAFE and Central Queensland University (CQU) offer the highest standard of vocational education and training (VET) at all levels, with nationally accredited programs delivered by a highly qualified and experienced workforce. However, the VET sector faces significant workforce challenges in recruitment and retention, and educators are having to undertake unreasonable and unsafe amounts of overtime to meet student demand.
In its 2024/25 Budget, the Queensland Government must adopt measures that will enable TAFE Queensland and CQU to attract and retain highly qualified and experienced teachers and tutors.