Any incoming state government will have to face industrial action by the sector after more than 12 months of negotiating for enterprise bargaining agreements at NMIT, William Angliss, Bendigo Kangan, Gordon TAFE and Victoria University has reached an impasse.

One TAFE teacher, who wished to remain anonymous, said she would take any and all action as her colleagues struggled under the weight of ballooning workloads and budget cuts.

"I fear my job is going to increase massively as a result of the loss of my team leader... it would have a detrimental effect on my ability to teach my students effectively," she said.

The Australian Education Union has submitted a protected action ballot on behalf of the TAFEs. A council of representatives will meet in December to decide what action to take.

AEU spokesman Greg Barclay said strike action would be taken where it would cause the most disruption, potentially the start of the school year.

But a Coalition spokesman has hit back at the AEU, accusing it of staging a "dodgy smoke and mirrors campaign" to boost the Labor Party.

He said funding to deliver skills training under the Napthine Government was $600 million, up from $487 million under Labor.

Mr Barclay said the funding had failed to trickle down to where it was most needed: the classroom.

"Without the government providing the detail of the breakdown of funding, it's impossible to know what has been spent on education and training Victorians for jobs and opportunities in the future," he said.

The state government gave autonomy to individual institutions to negotiate workplace agreements directly with their staff. Previously, all TAFE teachers were covered by the same agreement across the state.

"Our members are incredibly frustrated and getting angry. It's been two years since they have had a pay increase. They don't accept the government can put their hands in the air and say 'it's not our fault'," Mr Barclay said.

"In all of the negotiations across the whole of the state, all of the institutes are saying that because of the budget cuts, because of slashing of subsidy rates, they can't operate the way they used to," he said.