TAFE students aren’t the only ones losing out as a result of hiked TAFE fees – teachers are falling victim to redundancies as student enrolments dwindle.
NMIT land management and conservation teacher Sebastian Buckingham was recently made redundant.
"Due to the State Government's Skill Reform, enrolments across the institute and in particular this department are well down," agriculture and animal science department head Phil Tripp is said to have told land management students. (Whittlesea Leader)
The Brumby Government's controversial reforms have dramatically ramped up fees, removed the rights to concessions for thousands of low-income students and introduced HECS-style loans.
Article by Anna Kelsey-Sugg 3rd September 2010
"It's a sad day for TAFE," said AEU TAFE vice president Jo Fogarty. "The AEU feared from the beginning that redundancies would be the outcome of the TAFE changes — and now it's becoming a reality."
Regional TAFEs are the hardest hit. The University of Ballarat TAFE has already commenced the redundancy process, and Holmesglen, Bendigo, Box Hill, South West and Northern TAFEs are all showing concern about how much longer they can avoid the same fate.
TAFEs are doing everything they can to hold onto staff, but the pressure is increasing.
Student enrolments are down and TAFEs are having to cancel or collapse multiple class groups into one.
Visit http://tafe4all.org.au/ to find out more about the issue and the campaign to reverse these regressive changes brought in by the Victorian ALP