Our campaigning:

Addison Rd Trivia

Students and community members spoke out about how important TAFE is to themselves and their communities at the TCA Forum in Auburn.

Marriickville Forum

Around 75 community workers and members from around the inner west and southern Sydney participated in the forum... see more

The TAFE Community Alliance had a Get Together as part of the GetUp campaign on Thursday 21 March, allowing us the opportunity to talk to others about the TAFE campaign

Online petition is live!

TAFE Commission Board Online Consultation

Closing on 12 April. Do not miss this opportunity to have your say. Is teacher quality important? Want to get informed before you have your say? Soem information that may assist:

Relevant Reports & Papers

Did you know? Series of links to important information. Follow this link below to have your say.

Have Your Say

Go to the State Government’s ‘Have Your Say’ website – www.haveyoursay.nsw.gov.au around the Smart and Skilled proposed quality framework

Social Media

Tweets by @TAFEComAll

'A Course for a Lifetime' measures the success of women's courses run in TAFE. With high completion rates, embedded foundation skills and vocational pathways they meet NVEAC principles of good practice. Read rest of paper. Download the full text pdf

IPART issues paper

The IPART issues paper 'Pricing VET under Smart and Skilled' was released and TAFE Community Alliance put in a submission in consultation with you. This was submitted in May and can be found with all other submisions on the IPART website

The Art in TAFE student campaign presented a petition to NSW Parliament on Thursday with 27,000 signatures leading to a short debate. They have also managed to get considerable support including the NSW Government's own Creative Industries Taskforce making one of its 46 recommendations the reinstatement of funding to TAFE arts courses. The visual arts peak body NAVA has taken up the campaign and is actively lobbying the government to include art courses on the list of 2014 courses to be subsidised.

They report that the loss of funding has caused closure of arts courses in regional areas, and that certificate courses in this discipline are almost a thing of the past.

What the NSW Education Minister said in Parliament on 26 February 2013!

“... I make it perfectly clear to the union that we are moving ahead with the next stage of Smart and Skilled; in fact, we have just launched the consultation process and the quality framework. Changes to TAFE are urgently needed in this environment to remain competitive. TAFE also needs to change to meet the needs of our economy so as to remain relevant.

Smart and Skilled NSW

Smart and Skilled is in the NSW plan for reforms to vocational education and training to be introduced from July 2014. It is part of the Partnership Agreement between NSW and the Federal Government, which is still under consideration. Smart and Skilled will set up a competitive training market in NSW, with increased funding to private training providers instead of TAFE.

It will operate on a voucher system for students, and will undoubtedly make all qualifications much more costly. For more information, follow this link.

www.training.nsw.gov.au/vet/skills_reform

What's New Archive

Cost benefit analysis and returns from additional investment in vocational education and training

This report commissioned by TAFE Directors Australia and undertaken by Independent Economics, estimates the economy-wide benefits and costs, firstly of the committed funding increase under the National Agreement on Skills and Workforce Development (NASWD) and, secondly, of a larger expansion of VET funding. The real annual rate of return on additional investment in VET, targeted at Certificate III and above is estimated at a high 18%. This compares to returns on business investment that may be around 9%. Such high returns from VET support the case for further VET funding. See the Executive summary of the report. pdf

Greens Propose $1.2 Billion Revitalisation of TAFE

Today the Australian Greens announced a $1.2 billion rescue package to revitalise TAFE. They also call on the Government to increase federal budget spending on TAFE and to ensure TAFE is the preferred provider of vocational education and training. TCA congratulates the Greens for their continuing stand in support of public education. NSW Greens education spokesperson John Kaye is a strong TCA supporter and has spoken at almost all TCA events. Full announcement ...

Models of Vocational Training Provision: Lessons from the Victorian Experience

"The independent think tank Per Capita has released a report: "Models of Vocational Training Provision: Lessons from the Victorian Experience". The report looks at what has happened in the VET system in Victoria over the last five years, and says that TAFE was the hardest hit, with institutes forced to cut courses, raise fees, or sack staff in order to offset their losses. The paper argues "that this is a false economy, as important capabilities that reside only in the TAFE system are being lost". The same could be said for NSW. Full report ..

What is happening in Queensland?

The Queensland State Government announced this week that it will increase contestability in its VET sector to include outsourcing the courses, but retaining the classrooms. Education Minister Paul Langbroek said:

In places where people are not choosing to use the TAFE as a TAFE, then we should encourage the private provider to come in, they pay us rent, they pay us an income, to provide courses that people want to do.

He claimed that this was not privatisation.

Victoria's 2012 Audit Report

The 2012 Audit report in Victoria, just released, shows that operating results for TAFEs are still declining, with one third of TAFEs facing a serious risk as to their sustainability. The report also showed that TAFEs were more reliant on tuition fees for generating a major portion of their operating revenue. These results are due to funding cuts and the introduction of the competitive training market. Download the full text pdf

False Economies – Doing less with less

Do you know what the Federal Opposition leader Tony Abbott thinks of TAFE and VET? In his 2011 budget speech, he made his views clear with: ‘I’m all in favour of training but first things first: the best training is on-the-job’. Apart from that, he has ignored discussion of or support for TAFE. See the new research report from Chris Stone at CPD – False Economies – Doing less with less

Inquiry into the role of Technical and Further Education system and its operation

Read subsmissions to the inquiry including Tony Vinson, John Mitchell, WAVE, AVETRA, TAFE Outreach, NSW ALNC, Vinnies (Falzon), UnitingCare and more from Unions, professional bodies, industry and community groups

Contesting the contestability of tertiary education funding'

This recent article in the NTEU journal 'Advocate' might be of interest.

"Student choices about what to study and where to study should be based on their aspirations and on merit. These decisions should not be distorted by financial considerations such as ability to pay or manipulation of choices offered to students based on which courses provide the highest return to providers." pdf Page1 pdf page 2

TCA meet with TAFE NSW

Representatives from the TAFE Community Alliance participated in a consultation for 'Let's talk about TAFE', being conducted by the TAFE Commission Board for the Minister for Education on 8 April.

Questions included:

what is the role of TAFE?
how does TAFE remain relevant and competitive?
and why choose TAFE?

What did we say?

Education is not a business
Communities value TAFE as it is
TAFE provides quality courses and quality teachers
VET is more than an industry-led system, it is for community too
TAFE should value and support its staff