Last Friday I appeared in front of the Senate Inquiry into the Free TAFE Bill 2024. You can access the recording here.
The Free TAFE Bill 2024 is a future looking piece of legislation that will embed Free TAFE as an enduring feature of the national vocational education and training system. It will provide 100,000 Free TAFE places per year from 2027.
This is an important piece of legislation for many reasons. Firstly, it is good for potential students, especially those from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Potential students will have confidence that there will be free places available at TAFE to study in areas of high labour demand. For mature aged workers, seeking to transition to new industries such as aged care or nursing fee free is a great incentive for such significant decisions, especially if the potential TAFE students already have their own family costs to consider. For young students this is a great incentive to start a program of study that might lead to work or future pathways, such as an apprenticeship or higher-level vocational education and training learning.
Secondly, for TAFEs themselves this is a piece of legislation that will provide certainty. This means TAFEs can offer permanent employment to new teachers rather than short term contracts because there is no funding certainty. As we know the VET workforce itself is in dire need of capable teachers in skills shortage industries. This legislation will be one small step to helping solve that problem through giving TAFEs the certainty they can offer long term employment which will deepen their workforce and invest in professional teachers. For the individual teacher, permanency in TAFE is a real career opportunity.
Finally for the vocational education and training sector this is an example of policy consistency. The vocational education and training sector has seen much policy change over the last twenty years. As well-known tertiary education consultant, Claire Field has stated, “Governments must commit to long term VET policies”. Free TAFE is one step to addressing this constant policy change and creating a more stable and predictable environment.
As the legislation preamble states “A well‑resourced and supported public TAFE network is at the heart of a high‑quality, responsive and accessible national VET sector. Embedding Free TAFE as an enduring feature of the VET system highlights the importance of VET in skilling the Australian workforce and the ongoing work required in elevating VET to provide opportunities for Australians to be skilled in industries of national importance. With a focus on priority cohorts, it also helps make training accessible to Australians who experience social and economic exclusion.”
During the inquiry, I was asked by a Senator ‘why should TAFE receive this commitment of funding?” The answer is clear. TAFE is the public education provider. In schools and universities, we make no apologies for public provision. In vocational education, which has 4000 providers and accompanying issues of poor reputation and low perception, we need to find policy that focuses on the public provider so that these issues are addressed.
TAFE has been part of vocational education and training for over 100 years. TAFE is integral to the economy of each State and Territory. TAFE is for-purpose and not-for-profit. TAFE is proud of its commitment to quality and its place at the heart of the vocational education and training system. Why should TAFE receive certainty of funding? Because TAFE is the public provider.
Officials from the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) have told a Senate committee that fee-free TAFE completion rates and enrolments are in line, or better than those in the wider VET system.
Dr Simon Booth, First Assistant Secretary, Policy, Performance and Inclusion at DEWR refuted assertions from critics who suggest that the completion rate from fee-free TAFE is too low.
“It’s in line with the number of completions you’d see in those courses when they’re not delivered through fee-free TAFE,” he told the Senate committee investigating fee-free TAFE.
“We’re confident we’re on track around completions. We’re confident that what were seeing in the fee-free TAFE figures is in line with what you’d see in broader VET completion figures.”
Kimberley McDonald, Assistant Secretary, Fee Free TAFE and Skills Funding at DEWR said there had been 570,000 enrolments in fee-free TAFE, which is above the targets that have been set.
“We’ve seen very strong participation from equity cohorts who have barriers to education, and particularly women, with over 60% of the program being women, and 35% of students from regional and remote areas,” Ms McDonald said.
“To date, there have been 192,000 enrolments from young Australians, there’s been 34,000 enrolments from First Nations Australians, and 140,000 enrolments from job seekers.
“So, what we’ve seen is much higher participation in fee free TAFE from those priority cohorts than we see in the VET sector, generally”.
The theme of International Women’s Day (IWD) 2025 is Accelerate Action.
At the current rate of progress, it will take until 2158, which is roughly five generations from now, to reach full gender parity, according to data from the World Economic Forum.
The Accelerate Action IWD 2025 theme emphasises the importance of taking swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality. It calls for increased momentum and urgency in addressing the systemic barriers and biases that women face, both in personal and professional spheres.
In this TAFETalks event we will discuss ways in which TAFE and industry can help to Accelerate Action – to speed up the progress of equality in Australia and worldwide. We will hear from a panel of inspiring women to learn about the challenges they have faced and how they have overcome them. We will also discuss the positive changes that they have seen occur, the factors that enable gender parity, and what still needs to be done to #AccelerateAction.
The oft-repeated claim that private RTOs perform better than TAFE has been shot down by NCVER, which has warned that such analysis is “drawing conclusions that aren’t sound”.
Appearing before the Senate Committee examining fee-free TAFE, NCVER Managing Director, John King (pictured), said that while private RTOs have better outcomes on some measures, “it doesn’t establish a causal relationship between the provider type and that performance.”
“Other differences are influencing results, especially student characteristics and course mix,” he said.
“If you wish to put it colloquially, the comparison is not apples and apples”.
Mr King emphasised that the same conclusion was drawn by a 2021 Productivity Commission report.
Committee member, Senator Carol Brown asked: “So, you, yourself, would not draw the same conclusion as ITECA suggested?”
Mr King: “No, I would not draw that conclusion.”
“NCVER published research in 2018 that looked at the factors that drive improved completion rates and we found 70% was driven by student attributes and course mix, and provider type was relatively small at 10%,” Mr King said.
“So again, the major factors we’re finding at that macro level are the students and their background, and the particular courses they are choosing”.
Kerryn Griffis is a pancreatic cancer survivor and single mother-of-five who seized the opportunity provided by fee-free TAFE.
Kerryn decided to pursue her lifelong passion for conservation, studying a Certificate III in Conservation and Ecosystem Management at TAFE Queensland.
Kerryn has always had a deep love for the bush stemming from her grandparents, who were tour operators in the Northern Territory.
Her admiration of nature continued into her adult life, with the former stay-at-home mum spending much of her time in the bush practicing macro-photography with insects, pollen and fungi.
The Commonwealth Department of Education has published a new information resource aimed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander school students with disability and their families.
Titled, Our right to learn and play, it talks about students’ rights and what schools must do to support all students to join in and learn.
It was co-designed by and for young First Nations people with disability, with the help of First Peoples Disability Network Australia and Children and Young People with Disability Australia.
AVETRA is calling for contributions to its Research Today magazine.
Research Today is an electronic magazine that shares and celebrates VET practitioner research. This may be research about VET or research and innovation with and for VET’s industry and community partners.
Contributions are due by Friday 13 March 2025.
Contact andrew.williamson@tafesa.edu.au
Powering Australia has released a new guide to the vocational pathways into the various segments of the battery value chain, from mining and manufacturing through to recycling.
Battery Powered Pathways describes the type of industries that participate in each segment, the characteristics of the workforce needed for those industries, and the possible VET pathways to achieve fulfilling careers in those industries.
The guide links to more than 60 vocational courses, microcredentials, skill sets and units of competency.
NCVER Webinar
What’s going on with student outcomes?
25 February 2025
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TAFETalks: The #POWEROFTAFE and Industry to Accelerate Action towards gender parity
5 March 2025, 2.00-3.00pm AEDT
Register here
2025 VET AI Symposium
18 March 2025
VET Development Centre Melbourne and online
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AVETRA Conference 2025
2-4 April 2025
Melbourne
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9th Research Conference of the International Network for Innovative Apprenticeship (INAP)
8-9 May 2025
University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, England
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National Apprentice Employment Network 2025 National Conference
11-13 June 2025
Sofitel, Brisbane
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WorldSkills Australia National Championships and Skills Showcase
12-14 June 2025
Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre
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Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Symposium 2025
Navigating Authentic Assessment and Learning in a Digital World
University of Sydney
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34th National Vocational Education and Training (VET) Research Conference ‘No Frills’
9-11 July 2025 (Abstract submissions due by 7 March 2025)
Gold Coast
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VET National Teaching & Learning Conference
14-15 August 2025
Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre
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National Skills Week
25-31 August 2025
Impact ATEM 2025
Association for Tertiary Education Management annual conference
7-10 October 2025
Australian National University, Canberra.
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Velg Training National VET Conference
30-31 October 2025
Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre
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TDA Convention 2026
SAVE the DATE
5-7 May 2026
Brisbane
48th WorldSkills International Competition Shanghai
22-27 September 2026
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2026 WFCP World Congress
23-28 November 2026
Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) in Nairobi, Kenya
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