Some weeks are bigger than others – comment by CEO Jenny Dodd

Last week saw new legislation introduced to cement 100,000 fee-free TAFE places per year from 2027. Alongside that, the federal government made significant announcements regarding higher education policy, in particular related to student debt. Additionally, ASQA deregistered a national private training provider operating in the care, community and education fields because they failed to demonstrate that the 7360 national qualifications or statements of attainment they had awarded had been appropriately assessed. And then, of course, there was the American presidential election – it was a big week.

In terms of the new legislation for fee-free TAFE, if it follows the 18-month trend from 1 January 2023, then it will especially provide significant opportunities for women to enrol in skill sets and qualifications. Up until mid-2024 over 317,000 fee-free TAFE enrolments have been by women. This positive policy goes a small way to addressing some of the gender disparity in labour market opportunity. Fee-free TAFE provides significant savings on course fees, allowing women to gain skills, for low cost, that will lead to higher paying jobs. These courses are also in priority industries so there are jobs at the end of their learning.

This positive approach for women differs to the higher education election promise to cut student higher education debt by 20%, which does not target women specifically. There will no doubt be benefits to women graduates of this policy, but it will not be at the scale male graduates will experience. As reported in the Australian Financial Review last Thursday, and according to research by Alison Preston from the University of Western Australia, women “are more likely to take more expensive courses than men”.

Vocational education and training has reappeared as a good alternative. Improving the perception of the vocational education and training sector was on display last week when ASQA made its decision to cancel the registration of Luvium Pty Ltd (trading as Australian Education and Career College) following an investigation. This is an important step in ensuring the integrity of the national VET system. What is of concern though is the number of women that are likely to be impacted as the affected courses are in early childhood education and care, community services and individual support.

Therefore, TAFE is a great option for women to get onto the first rung of improving their skills and gaining qualifications through the fee-free option. TAFE is known for its commitment to quality training and assessment. TAFE also supports those who have not engaged in learning for some time, like many of the cohorts that take up the fee-free courses. Knowing that this policy will have longevity is good.