Shadow minister for skills Prue Car slammed the state government for what she considered a ‘bleak’ view of TAFE in the 2017-18 Budget.
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She said the Budget papers revealed 63,000 fewer enrolments and 5,689 teachers and support staff sacked, as well as cuts of over $105 million in recurrent funding for day to day operations and $30.4 million in capital funding.
“This Budget was an opportunity to reverse the damage that has been done to TAFE but instead Gladys Berejiklian has just made a bad situation worse,” Ms Car said.
“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.
Assistant Minister for skills Adam Marshall disagreed vehemently and said the TAFE budget of $1.7 billion was a slight increase on last year.
He said capital funding increased by $33 million and there was 111,000 more students.
“We’re investing more money than ever on building new campuses, on refurbishing others, building skills points and connected learning centres so that students can actually study the courses they want to study in their hometowns without having to travel to other places,” Mr Marshall said.
“I really get annoyed when people want to make political shots out of TAFE because all it does is it destroys the great reputation that TAFE has as the premier vocational education provider in this country. And we should be talking up TAFE and supporting TAFE,” he said.
“When private colleges go bust and TAFE is left to survive on the smell of an oily rag, where do our young people go to get the real skills they need to get good jobs?” Ms Car said.
“This Budget confirms once and for all – the Liberals and National just don’t believe in TAFE.”