Enrolments at TAFE are in freefall according to leaked documents that show huge falls across the board in the 12 months to mid-July.
Overall total enrolments at TAFE across NSW are down by 11.2 per cent to 404,456 in the year to July 16 this year, the internal TAFE document leaked to the NSW Labor opposition shows.
In the Western Sydney region, which includes Campbelltown and Macquarie Fields campuses, total TAFE enrolments are down by more than 16,000 compared to last year – a massive 17.4 percent.
Local MP Greg Warren has hit out over the revelations.
“Campbelltown is set to experience massive growth and development – all of which relies on having a local workforce with the necessary skills – carpenters, plumbers, electricians, bricklayers and so on,’’ he said.
“With our TAFE enrolments in freefall, people young and old in the Macarthur region will be left unable to get the skills our local economy demands.
“Youth unemployment in our region has skyrocketed under the Liberal Government from just under 8 percent when they were first elected to 12.6 per cent today.
[social_quote duplicate=”yes” align=”default”]“The Liberals’ destruction of TAFE is only making that problem worse, as our young people can’t get the skills needed to get a job,’’ he said.[/social_quote]
Labor says the leaked figures paint a damning picture of the impact of the Liberal Government’s program of cuts to courses and staff and directly contradict the government’s claim that enrolments are on the way back up.
Under sustained questioning at a Budget Estimates Hearing on Thursday about the extent of the enrolment crisis, deputy premier and skills minister John Barilaro
admitted that the way in which enrolments are counted has changed but refused to answer any detailed question about the TAFE document.
“Minister Barilaro isn’t financially illiterate – he can tell the difference between a plus and a minus, he just doesn’t want to confront the truth that fewer people are signing up for TAFE because of his failed policies,’’ says Prue Car, Labor’s skills spokesperson.
“John Barilaro needs to explain to students and parents right across NSW why his government has deliberately hidden the extent of the enrolment crisis in our TAFE colleges.
“With skills shortages at crisis levels across many industries, now more than ever we need to invest in public vocational education to train the workforce of the future.
“This leak shows our young people are leaving TAFE colleges in droves and it’s no wonder – the Liberals and Nationals just don’t believe in TAFE,” Ms Car said.
As a once proud TAFE teacher of some 36 plus years, it’s sad to see the demise of TAFE engineered by the Liberal/Coalition Federal Governments (John Howard started the decline of TAFE nationally), aided and abetted by the past two terms of the State Liberal/Coalition Government. Sad that the State Liberal Government sold off the vast majority income producing public assets. These in turn reduced the number of employees and made those most vulnerably candidates for the Federal Governments dole ques. The Feds spent billions on funding private (for profit) VET training organisations in opposition to TAFE, many have failed to provide the promised training and wasted the taxpayer provided funding. The billions of $ wasted could have ensured TAFE survived and did what it does best, provide unbiased professional nationally recognised training as required by whatever little is left of our declining workforce.