The Victorian Government has provided $200 million over four years to Victorian TAFE institutes to “support innovation and structural reform”, as announced on 12 March. Higher education and skills minister Peter Hall says support will “deliver the right strategy to help Victorian TAFEs prosper within the State’s competitive vocational training market.”
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7 May 2013 | $100 million will be awarded to TAFEs for infrastructure proposals to help them better compete with the private sector. The remaining $100 million would be provided for structural and operational reform proposals that result in improved financial sustainability, which could include initiatives such as:
- An out-dated TAFE facility submitting a proposal to develop an infrastructure master plan, including the redevelopment of facilities at its major campus; or
- A metropolitan institute developing a proposal to team up with regional TAFEs to deliver niche training across several rural towns using a blend of classroom and on-line delivery.
In his budget release Hall asserted:
The Coalition Government wants TAFEs to focus on what they can do best – delivering the right courses to support much needed skills shortages. TAFEs will consider their options, redesign their business strategies, develop collaborative relationships and use their assets in the most productive way to best serve their communities into the future.
Regional TAFEs will receive “guidance from expert advisers and independent facilitators, who can offer advice on business transformation strategies.”
TAFE Structural Adjustment Fund Guidelines are to be released soon , allowing TAFE institutes to prepare and submit funding proposals by September.
Education spending will fall by $80 million (0.7%) next financial year, which the budget papers blame in part on decreased funding from the
Commonwealth. No provision is made for funding the proposed Gonski reforms. The Education Department forecasts a surplus of $175 million for 2013-14, which it says is due mainly to increased income from TAFEs’ commercial operations, including fee for service provision. The Trade Bonus payment scheme for first-year apprentices has been scrapped, saving $20 million over four years. The cut removes two $250 payments to traditional trade apprentices in their first year of training.
Opposition skills spokesman Steve Herbert said the cut was unexpected and will hurt.
Apprenticeship wages are pretty tight. They’ve had massive fee rises. Now the government’s cut one of the few incentives they have to support them, at a time when we’ve seen a 16 per cent drop in apprenticeship numbers.