Options, options, options for those exiting Year 12 – comment by CEO Jenny Dodd

This month is a big month for Year 12 students. For example, the Higher School Certificate exams in NSW began last week. TDA wishes all Year 12 students the very best as they complete their secondary schooling.

I was very pleased to be invited by Ellen Fanning of the ABC’s The Drum to do a pre-recorded interview for last Wednesday night’s episode about options for students finishing Year 12. It was great to be able to encourage those in this cohort to consider vocational education and training and TAFE specifically.

These young people are very fortunate. They enter a tight labour market with many options for what they can do after school. As we know they can take up an apprenticeship, they can come to a course in TAFE, they can go to university, or they can secure a job. While this cohort of young people had a difficult time during COVID isolation and lockdowns during the mid-years of their high schooling, they now enter early adult years with more choice than many of their predecessors.

The Drum panel was also considering the question posed recently by the Productivity Commission as to whether student loans should be extended further into vocational education and training. As Ellen Fanning stated, ‘the current student loan system might be pushing students to a university degree rather than vocational training’.

Extending the income contingent loan system is a significant public policy debate. It must be considered within the other funding arrangements that exist in VET as well as the nature of the courses and students.  As we know, states and territories substantially subsidise certificates, and employers receive subsidies to help their apprentices pay their fees. VET funding is a more complex equation than university funding.

TDA does not consider that it is the financial costs of the course that generally stops young people coming to TAFE. The financial constraints are more likely to be the cost of reducing income from work to prioritise study or taking on an apprenticeship with its low paid conditions. Additionally for young people, the constraints can also be aspirational parents who value a university degree over the rich employment outcomes from TAFE.

The position I took on The Drum was that TAFE students are presented with extensive support and help to cover fees for Certificates now. In TAFEs this includes payment plans, concessions, and fee-free TAFE. Saddling a young TAFE student who is not taking a Diploma with an income contingent loan, when they may never reach the threshold for repayment, may also have detrimental psychological impacts of carrying that loan for many years.

There is much we need to do to support our young people to choose TAFE. Extending the availability of income contingent loans would most likely have a marginal impact.