SOUTH West TAFE is waiting to hear whether it will be able to expand its course offerings next year with funds from the Labor government’s $320 million TAFE rescue package.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
South West TAFE acting chief executive officer Mark Fidge said it had still to receive details about the government’s funding.
The institute was hard hit by the previous state govenment’s cuts to TAFE in 2012.
The Australian Education Union (AEU) last month said 157 staff positions at South West TAFE had been cut since reforms that further opened the training system to private providers.
AEU president Meredith Peace said the cuts had forced South West TAFE to axe 52 courses, including those in hospitality, business, recreation, retail and graphic art.
Glenormiston College, which specialised in agriculture and horse management courses, also closed this year after South West TAFE withdrew from the site.
The union said TAFE enrolments throughout the Barwon South West region had fallen by 19 per cent since the cuts.
Premier Daniel Andrews said last week the rescue fund was already flowing to TAFEs in need as thousands of Victorians prepared to make decisions about their further education.
Mr Andrews said an advance of the first $20 million of the TAFE Rescue Fund would appear in the government’s budget update this week.
“I said our TAFE Rescue Fund would start flowing straight away and it has,” Mr Andrews said.
“The future of our TAFE system is too important for this to wait.”
He said the rescue fund would “repair the damage of the previous Liberal government’s cuts and closures and get our TAFE institutes back in the black”.
Mr Andrews said the rescue package aimed to attract students back to Victorian TAFEs after numbers this year dropped by 18 per cent .
He said TAFE was one of the many paths to a career, along with university, apprenticeships and traineeships.
Victoria’s 47,000 VCE graduates and 13,000 VCAL certificate holders in 2014 should consider the skilled careers that a TAFE course could provide, he said.