The pending election – comment by CEO Jenny Dodd

Tomorrow evening Dr Jim Chalmers, the Treasurer of Australia will deliver the final budget of this term of government. It will be interesting to see if there are new initiatives for tertiary education and related areas contained within the budget.

TDA does not publish an election statement. However, there are many areas that we want to see continue to be a focus during the next three years, many of which already have confirmed funding.

Since September 2022, when the Jobs and Skills Summit was held in Canberra, the conversation about the need for Australians to have high skills levels has expanded and embraced new participants. For example, previously universities were not using skills as explicitly in their language and focus as they are now.

There is wide acceptance now that the working population will increasingly need a post school qualification through TAFE or university. That means that effective participation in the workforce will mean individuals will need higher level skills. This will require that they participate in skills acquisition in short courses or qualifications. Increasingly it is expected that divides that have existed between those gaining knowledge and skills through vocational education and training, and those through higher education, will dissipate.

To achieve that change the government will need to enable partnered, experimental learning environments. The investment in TAFE Centres of Excellence, as per the National Skills Agreement, is one area where this can occur. All six states and the ACT now have at least one TAFE Centre of Excellence where they are leading new approaches to learning, research and partnerships. While it is still early days, these TAFE Centres of Excellence will be nationally networked, and evidence of that occurring already is happening through some of the first announced TAFE Centres of Excellence (TCoE), such as the Canberra Institute of Technology’s Electric Vehicle TCoE.

TAFE Centres of Excellence are a significant development if we are to see new places for these higher-level skills to be developed. For a list of the TAFE Centres of Excellence that have been established so far, see here.

Therefore, if TDA was to write an election statement, the continuation of investment in TAFE Centres of Excellence would be prominent. Not only are TAFE Centres of Excellence to be nationally networked, they are also very much embedded within their State or Territories’ economic priority areas. This is also one of the first times in many years that the environment for new solutions, that have multiple partners and that focus on developing higher level skills, can emerge.