(Illustrations by Cruikshank for Oliver Twist and Fagin's school of pickpockets, circa 1837-1839.)
Rees must say 'no' to COAG's TAFE privatisation push
NSW Greens Media release: 29 October 2008
The nation's leaders are abandoning public vocational education and training without community consultation. Under a Council of Australian Governments (COAG) proposal, the Technical and Further Education (TAFE) system would be starved of funds and eventually replaced by a series of private providers, increasingly funded by fees through HECS-like loans, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye.
Commenting on a story on page 5 of today's Sydney Morning Herald ('Push to privatise apprentice training'), Dr Kaye said: "The state premiers and the prime minister are colluding in secret to push through one of Australia's biggest privatisations since Telstra.
"More than $4 billion a year currently provided by state and federal governments to Australian TAFE colleges will be taken away and put up for competitive tender.
"Under the COAG proposal, TAFE would not have any guarantied funding. It would be forced to compete with lower quality private providers for money to pay for teachers, materials, support staff and operating costs.
"On the cusp of a global recession, Australia's trade training sector is being driven towards a voucher-based, user choice and pay model, without the consent of the voters and without fully considering the long term consequences.
"The nation's leaders are jeopardising the quality of vocational education and training on which Australia's wealth and social cohesion have largely depended.
"This is about cutting costs at the expense of losing an educated workforce. It is about driving cheap, employer-specific training that will de-skill Australia and undermine the ability of workers to innovate.
"The Rudd government is looking for a low rent boost to the numbers of 'trained' workers by sacrificing quality.
"NSW Premier Nathan Rees and his Education Minister Verity Firth must lead the charge to protect TAFE from Julia Gillard's privatisation agenda.
"They must block this proposal when COAG meets on 17 November," Dr Kaye said.
For more information: John Kaye 0407 195 455
See also: "Govts planning TAFE privatisation: NSW Greens" on the ABC on 29 Oct 08, "TAFE Bulletin - Brumby's reforms will privatise our TAFEs" on Web site of Vic branch of Australian Education Union on 12 Aug 08, Australian Education Union Stop TAFE Privatisation Campaign.
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HunterWebMasters (not verified)
Tue, 2014-10-14 11:03
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NSW TAFE has been destroyed
TAFE NSW has been destroyed by the current government and the former government, making TAFE compete with private education. It will never work unless TAFE is privatised with its current business structure and constant holiday breaks TAFE cannot complete, courses need to run all year round if they are going to compete. I am former Web Design teacher at the Cessnock Campus and can say there are too many people in positions they should never be in making really bad decisions.
Editorial comment: Some corrections have been made.
In general candobetter favours more holiday times rather than fewer and shorter working hours by reducing both the legal requirement to work those hours and the economic compulsion to do so. The most common economic compulsions to work long hours are high rent and high mortgage repayments. The working conditions of TAFE college staff sound closer to what we would consider ideal. We would certainly be against the privatisation of TAFE colleges. In any case there already plenty of private training institutions.
This comment included a link to http://hunterwebmasters.com with the label "Learn Web Development free". Quite possibly there may be some site visitors who will find your services useful. We wish you well in your business, but in general candobetter is not a web-site on which to advertise commercial businesses. - Ed
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